No official announcement yet, but it certainly looks like former General Wesley Clark is seriously considering running for the 2008 Democratic nomination:
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Wesley Clark said Tuesday he wants to avoid waiting too late to make a decision on whether to run for president _ a mistake he made in his failed 2004 bid. “I think it was clear that I got in too late last time,” the retired general and former NATO commander told The Associated Press in an interview.
Clark announced his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in September 2003, just four months before the first votes were cast. He dropped out of the race the following February, with his only victory in 14 caucuses and primaries coming in Oklahoma.
Clark is considering running again, but he said the late start was one of the mistakes he learned from in his last attempt.
“(There was) an inability to create a staff in a timely fashion,” Clark said. “I didn’t have a campaign manager until the end of November. I had no money. I had no strategy when I started. It was my only faith-based initiative…. It’s one of several mistakes that if I were to run that I would hope I wouldn’t repeat.”
Clark said one factor that has changed is the number of candidates who have announced their intentions or have formed exploratory campaigns for president this early.
“There’s no doubt it’s moved earlier,” Clark said. “Some people have never stopped running…. It’s just a factor that has to be considered.”
Clark is certainly right about that but, as James Joyner notes, it looks like the Democratic field is coming down to Hillary Clinton vs. a bunch of guys who have run, and lost, before. To that mix I’d add the complete unknowns like Evan Bayh and Tom Vilsack. So far, nobody seems to be as well positioned as Hillary to get the nomination.
