based on this lineup I'd be shocked if Clark doesn't end up running. After Reid and Dean, running for President is the one thing the other 9 speakers have in common.

That makes a nice round 10. Sharpton's still pondering apparently and Gore could always jump in if he changes his mind. Can you imagine a dozen? Oy.

I met a guy in the elevator at work last week who was wearing a Clark button. I think it would be helpful to have a presidential candidate with some military credentials. The elevator guy spoke glowingly about Clark.

See you there Lowell!

I have already contributed and begged and emailed and begged again for General Clark to run for President...

If any of you who can attend on Friday get lucky meet the speakers time, please beg General Clark to run.

No other candidate is as perfect for the job at hand (which is going to be a horrible on this term coming up) as General Clark is for this office at this time.

Nothing would thrill me more than being able to campaign for him as much as I can the rest of this year and next.

AGAIN, and ask him AGAIN if he will run for President.

Seriously guys, can I get paid for this. Because he ran last time after I pleaded? =)

And maybe our own "Doctor of Love" will nudge Clark into it early this time.  (What's that going to cost us if he does, Dave?)

Considering holding my breath until I - or Virginia and the U. S. - turn BLUE, I remain...

Hopeful Steve

Will finally end the speculation and tell us all what most of us realize anyways - that all of his support in 2004 was from the Clintonistas and he doesnt have a pray in hell of doing anything this time.  Its best to sit back and hope to be Sec. of State

DRAFT AL GORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sign the petition!!!!!!!!!!!!!

www.draftgore.com

Whose to say who can win the nomination at this point in time?  Al Gore is doing what he needs to be doing RE global warming.

I am still annoyed at his failure to win the presidency in 2000, chads in FLA notwithstanding.  Had he been more open to allowing Bill Clinton to speak out on his behalf, he would have done better--his distancing himself from Bill in an act of moral superiority hurt him.  And not having him in the White House has been disastrous for the US.

I can see no reason to give him a second chance.

Not sure how well Wes Clark would do--but I was drawn to him in 2004 and would like to see him run this time around.

As such I think that he is a has

wrote recently about people like you. You completely turn off other Democrats when you act like this. It's condescending and obnoxious.

Read and learn.....

http://www.dailykos....

win the nomination is ridiculous.  I mean, if Candidate X really can't win the nomination, then why would a supporter of Candidate Y have to waste his/her time making that argument?  Instead, why not just tout the merits of Candidate Y?  Candidate X is going to lose anyway, after all.

Having said all that, I definitely DO believe that general election "electability" is a serious issue that should be raised during the Democratic primaries.  For instance, many of us believed in early 2006 that Jim Webb was by far the most electable candidate against George Allen, and we made that argument repeatedly (along with touting Webb's other excellent qualifications).  Among the current crop of Democratic Presidential contenders, I honestly don't see many who are "unelectable" in 2008, especially if we're still bogged down in the Middle East in the fall of 2008.  Dennis Kucinich?  Uh, no, he's almost certainly not electable.  But the rest of the field (Biden, Clark, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Obama, etc.)?  I see no reason why ANY of these people are "unelectable" in 2008.  If they aren't electable, the reasoning escapes me.

So, how about telling us why your candidate would make the best nominee, and the best President?  In sum, I agree with Kos:

Be strident. Be passionate. Fight for your guy (or gal). That's politics. But once you resort to whining, the only people you are helping are those running against your candidate.

As the Rush-worshipping right-wingers say, "ditto!"

Run Wes!

is for the first time correct, and Iraq will be left to the next president, there is no better reason to have the General as our next President.

Friday morning at 10:30 is the prefect structural placement for General Clark. I've come to believe he has a secret friend at DNC and it is Howard Dean. All the Deaniacs who came to my door in the New Hampshire primary loved Wesley Clark and wanted him for VP. Now they want him for POTUS. With the "Confederate flags on pickup trucks" blurb Dean revealed his strategy - it is the 50-state strategy; it is extremely successful; and General Clark is the only one in this bunch who can win in 50 states in '08. The New England mind may be cold and gnarly, but it is also rational and objective, and that is the cold, gnarly, rational, objecive truth. That's also the positive Dean influence on the DNC and the new Democratic Party (I opposed him kicking and screaming, but I was completely wrong.)

Or a teleprompter?  Doesn't sound like the speeches will be long due to the compressed time they have, so it might be a moot point.  Clark can and does speak without notes in many instances and doesn't use a teleprompter.

According to those in attendance at the Douglas County Dem. Committee meeting last weekend, when speaking arrangements were being made, Gen. Clark's assistant told the committee that he wouldn't be using the teleprompter, so please remove it during his speech.  For this reason, it was decided he'd speak first, ahead of Richardson.  Following Clark's wrap up, Richardson approached the podium and the teleprompter slowly was moved back into place, while he waited.  The crowd laughed at the sight and Richardson was heard saying to his staff, make sure he never follows Wes Clark again.

Clark will definitely deliver a substantive message and I'll wager he'll have the audience in the palm of his hands. 

The wider country might have gotten a taste of this fierce new Demoratic attitude from Jim Webb on Tuesday night, but recently, Clark has been every bit as fierce. Here in New Hampshire I heard him in a Legion Hall in October when he came to support Carol Shea-Porter. It was a fierce and fantastic speech, the likes of which we had not heard since JFK visited us more than 40 years ago.

Like, YouTube, perhaps?  How about an audio recording or transcript? I'd love to hear it, especially if it's as good as you say! :)

I am pretty sure it is not. There was only one video camera present from north New England regional showing. But Clark has been giving barnstorming speeches all in October and November almost constantly. He is boots on the ground for the Democratic Party. There is a recent speech to a church basement crown in Montgomerny, AL, on You Tube and it is interesting in its theme (Worker's Union) but it is not characteristic of what he's been doing lately. Kat or Gordon over at WesPAC can maybe get you some good video.

Biden may well be the sleeper candiate in this race.

Last year he offered a political plan to resolve the mess in Iraq (the only plan offered by anyone to resolve this mess from a political stand point)in which Iraq would be broken into three separate countries - one Shia, one Sunni and one Kurd. 

If Bush's surge fails, and I really think it will, Biden's plan may be the only plan that can work politically - and if it does, he could gain traction with a lot of Dems in the upcoming primaries and caucuses.  It should be interesting to watch his candidacy over the coming months.

Thanks, Flippper; how would you compare/contrast Biden's chances to those of Clark?

Steve

Peter Galbraith, former ambassador to Croatia also thoughtfully agrees that Iraq needs division. RE Biden: Didn't I already not vote for him 25 years ago? I just saw John and Elizabeth Edwards up here at Dartmouth College this afternoon. I am sympathetic to him as I reared my kids in Tobaccoville, NC, and like him as everyone thereabouts is quite genuine. I've had lunch with him, I've dragged my kids to hear him and I've heard him speak a bunch of times now. I just can't see what it is that makes him think that he ought to be President. Wes Clark is only hope.

Galbraith article on division at http://www.timesonli...

as demonstrated by his recent comments about Obama which were meant to be complimentary, but ended up sounding like Obama is unusual because he's a really smart and well-turned out African American ... ouch.

Biden's been great on the whole Iraq thing and I appreciate his leadership on the Foreign Relations Committee and the way he's woven some of Webb's best points into his little summings up at the end of sessions, but something tells me his baggage is going to impede him.