Why The General Lost The Battle

By David Paul Kuhn,
CBSNews.com Chief Political Writer

"All we really had was hope, a lifetime of experience in leadership, and a vision for America," he said.

But that was not enough.

In a year when Democratic voters are falling in line behind a leader, Clark was not the general they wanted. He was too much of a soldier for this campaign. Instead, Democrats coalesced around the "junior officer," as Clark once pejoratively called Sen. John Kerry.

Exit polling shows Democratic voters are rallying around Kerry for one reason: they think he has the best chance of beating President George W. Bush. The Massachusetts senator has the heroic military background (three purple hearts in Vietnam), as well as three decades of experience in public service.

"Clark was a very one-dimensional candidate," said Professor Elaine Kamarck, a public policy lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "All you really knew about him was that he knew something about the military. Then there was the domestic policy agenda, where he said good things, but there was nothing in his background to let you believe that he could actually do them.

"Kerry people had much more of a two-dimensional candidate," Kamarck continued. "They had the military story, which was so compelling, plus he had been a politician."

Clark's inability to capitalize on the momentum he created when he entered the race in September (he topped polling from the outset) stemmed largely from this inexperience.

The central issue early in the race was the war in Iraq, and while former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean rallied Democrats around his opposition, Clark fumbled.

In his first day campaigning, Clark told reporters that he would have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing military action in Iraq, contradicting his earlier anti-war stance. He later corrected himself and although the gaffe haunted him, the general continued speaking out against the war.

"I'll do everything I can to make sure George W. Bush does not get away with playing politics with national security," Clark said Wednesday at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock, Ark.

The newest Democrat in the field, Clark had to fend off criticism that he was an elephant in donkey's clothing. The man who once voted for Richard Nixon, the elder George Bush and Ronald Reagan, defended himself against party skeptics by citing his votes for the Arkansan who did become president, Bill Clinton.

In stump speech after stump speech, Clark called the Democratic Party his party, and more often, the party of the people. Speaking to supporters Wednesday, Clark was the good party soldier once again.

"Today I end my campaign for the presidency, but our party's campaign to change America is just beginning," the 59-year-old Clark said, as he hammered away at President Bush. "I've got one bit of advice for our party's nominee: Give 'em hell and never retreat."

The splash that Clark created when he entered the race began to fizzle when Kerry won the Iowa caucus on Jan. 19.

"There was a huge paradigm shift that occurred after Iowa but it was more about John Kerry's electability," Kamarck said.

Suddenly, the candidate who looked out of the race, Kerry, was back in it and there was no need for an anti-Dean. The mainstream party faithful who fretted over Dean becoming the nominee, concerned he could not beat President Bush in the general election, had found their man.

"There was a tsunami effect from Kerry winning the Iowa caucus, which was a surprise to everyone," said Clark campaign spokesman Chris Lehane. "To spend the time you needed to do well in Iowa you would have had to be in Iowa full time, which would have then limited your ability in the race to pick up the money you needed to be competitive in New Hampshire and other states."

With candidates like Dean and Kerry campaigning for more than a year before Clark even entered the race, "the mountain got too steep to climb," said Clark communications director Matt Bennett, following the general's 11th hour decision to leave the race Tuesday night.

Even with his inexperience, the Clark campaign stood behind their candidate because of his background on the one issue where Democrats have been historically weakest: defense.

Topping his class at West Point, Clark was a Rhodes Scholar who later earned a Silver Star in Vietnam after gunfire ripped into his leg, hip, shoulder and hand. He became a four-star general and topped his 34-year military career by leading the mission in Kosovo as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander.

"Generals in truly earth-shattering conflicts, you bet they can become presidents," said Kamarck. "Ulysses S. Grant won the Civil War; that's a big deal. General Eisenhower saved the world from Nazis; that's a big deal. Those were generals that were in the middle of conflicts that were epochal. Bosnia was not exactly the invasion of Normandy."