Centerfield

Clark's Difficulty II

The Decembrist analysis of Clark's difficulties echoes my own

I'd been hoping and expecting that Clark would click with New Hampshire's independents. What I didn't understand was that before he could do that, he would have to establish his credentials as a Democrat and even his right to run in the primary, in a way that McCain never had to establish his credentials as a Republican. Spooked by Dean -- unduly, it turns out -- he had to oversimplify his position on the war, and every minute he spent shoring up his not-very-believable left-of-center cred was a minute spent not reaching out to New Hampshire independents. I sort of wonder what would have happened if Clark had answered questions about party affiliation by saying something like, "political parties have never been that important to me. I've got my beliefs and values, and that's what I'm going to talk about. I've met plenty of Republicans who share my values, but they're not represented in this administration. On the most fundamental issues, such as a fair tax system, I agree with most Democrats, but I want to lead a country that's less partisan, where we work together to solve problems," etc. How many Democrats would be upset by that? Who's loyalty today is really to a party? And it would certainly help reach independents.

Clark's top campaign people are veteran Democrats, and I believe they led them on this fruitless chase to be Dean-lite. A general seemingly that far to the left did not compute, and made the "brand image" seem incoherent. That's why he ran into trouble with an inconsistent message.

It started on Day 1 of the campaign, when Clark said that he might have voted for a resolution authorizing force (putting him in the same boat with Kerry) then quickly backed off, no doubt when his advisors told him such a position would be fatal to his campaign. Guess what? Kerry's position wasn't fatal, and neither would Clark's have been if he had admitted that like Kerry, he would have given the Commander-In-Chief the benefit of the doubt at the time, but now had lost all confidence in him.

Posted by rickheller at January 30, 2004 12:25 AM