Howard Dean seems to gathering most of the column inches being devoted to Democratic Presidential candidates, but Wesley Clark hasn't exactly faded into the background. It's still early, and as Bill Clinton can attest to, there is still time for plenty of hard work to pay off down the road.
The general is holding his fire.
He's happy to strafe George Bush, but not, for the moment, Howard Dean.
While Kerry, Gephardt and Lieberman are lobbying grenades in Dean's direction every couple of hours, Wes Clark has muzzled himself on that score.
In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Clark unloaded on Bush over 9/11 and Iraq--"a failure of leadership at the highest levels of the administration," and so on. But when a reporter asked about Dean's statement that the capture of Saddam hasn't made America safer, Clark simply said: "I think the United States is safer," and never got around to mentioning Dean.
After Clark, campaigning in New Hampshire, got off the call, his communications director, Matt Bennett, was asked about Dean. "We're not going to get into talking about Howard Dean and his troubles of late," Bennett said.
Translation: Let the other Dems get down in the trenches with Dean, we're staying on the high road and keeping our focus on Bush and the general election.
I applaud this strategy, because there is nothing to be gained by tearing down a fellow Democrat. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman look just plain small and mean-spirited when launching their attacks on Howard Dean. Perhaps if they actually had anything to offer as an alternative, it might be a different story. If nothing else, Kerry and Lieberman's attack certainly violate the Democratic Correlate of Ronald Reagan's Eleventh Commandment: "Never speak ill of another Republican."
The thing that Wesley Clark seems to get is that this is about unseating George W. Bush, NOT about tearing down fellow Democrats. By sticking to this strategy, Clark demonstrates that not only does he have his priorities straight, he understands what the prize really is. Judging by Kerry and Lieberman's attacks on Howard Dean, the same cannot be said for them.
Of course, this could all change once primary season begins and the pressure gets ratcheted up a few notches. Dean may be leading the pack now, but there is still plenty of time left. Much can happen, and much can yet go wrong. In the final analysis, I still believe that Wesley Clark is the most electable Democrat. Whether he'll get that opportunity is another question. Stay tuned, y'all....
