The 2004 presidential campaign of Wesley Clark, a retired U.S. Army general who served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACE) from 1997 to 2000, officially began on September 17, 2003. A movement to draft Clark for the Democratic nomination began in April 2003, and was led by activists who felt Clark's military service and criticism of the War in Iraq made him a strong candidate. Prior to announcing his campaign, Clark was not known to have publicly identified with either party.
Clark's candidacy was met with strong early support among Democrats, with polling taken in fall 2003 showing Clark as a leading candidate for the nomination. However, after losing several crucial early primary states, Clark ended up dropping out of the race on February 11, 2004. On February 13, 2004, Clark endorsed John Kerry at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin.
Background Wesley Clark stated that he began to truly define his politics only after his military retirement in 2000 around the 2000 presidential election that would give George W. Bush the presidency. Clark had a conversation with Condoleezza Rice, where she told him that the war in Kosovo would have never taken place under a Bush administration, as they adhered more to realpolitik.
Clark found such an administration unsettling, as he had been selected for the SACEUR position because he believed more in the interventionist policies of the Clinton administration. He said he would see it as a sign that things were "starting to go wrong" with American foreign policy if Bush was elected."The Last Word: Wesley Clark from Newsweek. July 14, 2003.
Preparations Clark met with a group of wealthy New York Democrats including Alan Patricof to tell them he was considering running for the presidency in the 2004 election. Patricof, a supporter of Al Gore in 2000, met with all the Democratic candidates and ultimately supported Clark in 2004. Clark has said that he voted for Al Gore in 2000, but has voted for Republicans such as Ronald Reagan, held equal esteem for Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman, and had been a registered independent voter throughout his military career. Ultimately as Clark himself put it, however, he decided he was a Democrat because "I was pro-affirmative action, I was pro-choice, I was pro-education... I'm pro-health care... I realized I was either going to be the loneliest Republican in America or I was going to be a happy Democrat.""In His Own Words". The Washington Post, October 19, 2003. Clark said he liked the Democratic party, which he saw as standing for "internationalism", "ordinary men and women", and "fair play"."To Find Party, General Marched to His Own Drummer," The New York Times, October 5, 2003.Felix, pp. 190–191.
A "Draft Clark" campaign began to grow with the launch of DraftWesleyClark.com on April 10, 2003.Archived Clark bio from his 2004 campaign site and Clark for President. Clark For President — P.O. Box 2959, Little Rock, AR 72203. This version is from the Internet Archive on December 5, 2003. DraftWesleyClark signed up tens of thousands of volunteers, made 150 media appearances discussing Clark, and raised $1.5 million in pledges for his campaign. DraftClark2004.com, another website in support of drafting Clark, was the first organization to register as a political action committee in June 2003 to persuade Clark to run. They had earlier presented him with 1000 emails in May 2003 from throughout the country asking Clark to run. One of DraftClark2004's founders, Brent Blackaby, said of the draft effort: "Just fifty-two years ago citizens from all over the country were successful in their efforts to draft General Eisenhower. We intend to do the same in 2004 by drafting General Clark. If he runs, he wins.""Draft Clark 2004 for President Committee Files with FEC," US Newswire, June 18, 2003.Felix, pp. 191–193.
Clark spent time during these early stages of the draft movement deciding whether to run, a decision he said was based heavily on deciding whether to expose his family to a presidential campaign. His wife, Gert, said she was "initially ... not delighted about it", but later changed her mind after hearing their son Wesley Clark Jr. say that "things have to change, and we're willing to do it. And I want my son to grow up in a different world."Gertrude Clark interview on C-SPAN's "American Journal," January 25, 2004. Clark went on Meet the Press in June 2003 and said he was "seriously consider[ing]" running for president. Clark believes Bill Clinton encouraged him to run when he attended a party hosted by the Clintons, and Clinton toasted his wife Hillary and Clark as the two "stars" of the Democratic Party. Clark's repeated connections with Bill Clinton led pundits to speculate that Clark was being maneuvered by the Clintons to change the Democratic field and clear a path for Hillary to enter the race. This theory lasted only a few months, and Antonia Felix speculated in her biography of Clark that it came from the largely unexplained connection between Clark and Bill Clinton that led to speculation.Felix, pp. 195–196.
Announcement Clark announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential primary elections from Little Rock on September 17, 2003, months after the other candidates. He acknowledged the influence of the Draft Clark movement, saying they "took an inconceivable idea and made it conceivable".Clark's Announcement speech in Little Rock by Wesley K. Clark hosted on Clark04 on September 17, 2003. Retrieved February 4, 2007. Clark's early campaign staff took on many figures prominent in the 1992 and 1996 Clinton-Gore campaigns, including Mickey Kantor. He also hired one of the founders of DraftWesleyClark.com, John Hlinko, to be his director of Internet strategy. The campaign raised $3.5 million in the first two weeks."Wesley Clark Raises More than $3.5M in Fortnight," Forbes, October 6, 2003.Felix, pp. 196–197. The internet campaign would also establish the Clark Community Network of blogs,The Clark Community Network from WesPAC — Securing America . Retrieved January 29, 2007. which is still used today and made heavy use of Meetup.com, where DraftWesleyClark.com had established the second-largest community of Meetups at the time.Case Studies: Draft Wesley Clark by Grassroots Enterprises. Retrieved January 29, 2007.
Campaign platform Clark, coming from a non-political background, had no position papers to define his agenda for the public. Once in the campaign, however, several volunteers established a network of connections with the media, and Clark began to explain his stances on a variety of issues.
Clark told The Washington Post in October that he was pro-choice and pro-affirmative action. He called for a repeal of recent Bush tax cuts for people earning more than $200,000 and suggested providing healthcare for the uninsured by altering the current system rather than transferring to a completely new universal health care system. He backed environmental causes such as promising to reverse "scaled down rules" the Bush administration had applied to the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and dealing with global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Clark also proposed a global effort to strengthen American relations with other nations, reviewing the PATRIOT Act, and investing $100 billion in homeland security. Finally, he put out a budget plan that claimed to save $2.35 trillion over ten years through a repeal of the Bush tax cuts, sharing the cost of the Iraq War with other nations, and cutting government waste.Felix, pp. 197–199.
Clark had testified before the House Committee on Armed Services on September 26, 2002Clark's 2002 testimony (warning, large file, may be slow to load), from the House Armed Services Committee on September 26, 2002. Retrieved January 29, 2007 that while he supported the Iraq Resolution he believed the country should try other options before the more immediate war President Bush had been calling for at the time, and this testimony was later used during his presidential campaign to portray Clark as pro-war although FactCheck called this a "classic case of ripping quotes out of their full context in order to create a false picture."RNC's Gillespie Gets It Wrong on Clark and Iraq from FactCheck.org on January 22, 2004. Retrieved January 29, 2007.
Clark testified before this committee again in 2005,Clark's 2005 testimony from WesPAC — Securing America on April 6, 2005. Retrieved January 29, 2007. a hearing Dana Milbank of The Washington Post characterized as having a "different tune" as some of Clark's 2002 testimony that had been portrayed by some committee members as "fuzzy stuff" and "dumb clichés" had proven itself true in the ensuing two and a half years.Same Committee, Same Combatants, Different Tune by Dana Milbank for The Washington Post on April 7, 2005. Retrieved January 29, 2007.
Campaign developments
Clark's loyalty to the Democratic Party was questioned by some as soon as he entered the race. Senator Joe Lieberman called Clark's party choice a matter of "political convenience, not conviction". Republican governor Bill Owens of Colorado and University of Denver president Marc Holtzman have claimed Clark once said "I would have been a Republican if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls." Clark later claimed he was simply joking, but both Owens and Holtzman said the remark was delivered "very directly" and "wasn't a joke". Katharine Q. Seelye wrote that many believed Clark had only chosen to be a Democrat in 2004 because it was "the only party that did not have a nominee". On May 11, 2001, Clark also delivered a speech to the Pulaski County Republican Party in Arkansas saying he was "very glad we've got the great team in office, men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Paul O'Neill – people I know very well – our president George W. Bush".Was Wesley Clark a Republican? from FactCheck.org on January 14, 2004. Retrieved February 2, 2007. U.S. News & World Report ran a story two weeks later claiming Clark might be considered some form of political run as a Republican.The Chameleon Candidate by Doug Ireland for the LA Weekly on September 25, 2003. Retrieved February 2, 2007.