No More Wesley Clark to Kick Around

It looks as if Wesley Clark is waving the white flag -- sort of -- in an attempt to avoid more discussion of his remarks on "Face the Nation" a week ago suggesting that John McCain's military experience didn't at all qualify him to be president. When the former general and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate was criticized for those remarks, he dug in and defended them. Then members of his own party begged him to get off center stage. "On a scale of 1 to 10, Clark's words were a 10 in terms of unhelpfulness," a prominent Democratic consultant told Politico.com.

So Mr. Clark is suddenly unavailable to the media. An aide says he is "moving on" and taking a break from campaign appearances as a part-time surrogate for Barack Obama. He will now "devote his time to the business affairs which pay the bills." That sounds like the functional equivalent of announcing he is leaving the campaign trail "to spend more time with his family." It may be true, but it's also a convenient way to avoid discussion of the real reason for his sudden exit from the stage.

As for Mr. Clark's position on the Obama short list of potential vice presidential candidates, I'm told his rank is now somewhere below that of Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, a renegade Republican, but still above that of the Rev. Al Sharpton. In other words, Mr. Clark shouldn't wait by the phone.

-- John Fund

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