Clark enters race for presidential nomination

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Wesley Clark launched his first bid for elective office Wednesday, setting his sights on the presidency with a war-tested military record he said makes him the ideal Democrat to ensure the nation's security in a post-Sept. 11 world.

The retired Army general became the 10th candidate in a wide-open race, entering with an 11-minute address filled with military references, criticism of President Bush and pleas to Democratic, independent and even Republican voters alienated by the political process.

"Get ready!" he told more than 400 supporters summoned to his native Arkansas through the Internet on 24-hour notice. "We're moving out!"

But it was unclear where he was going. Clark left the flag-draped stage without detailing his domestic policies or offering concrete solutions to troubles overseas; he promised major economic and foreign policy speeches soon.

Clark has cast himself as a centrist, Southern Democrat who favors abortion rights and affirmative action while opposing the war in Iraq. In an interview with The Associated Press shortly before the address, Clark called the conflict "purely an elective war" and criticized Bush for waging it without better justification.

In echoes of wartime President Harry S. Truman, someone shouted to Clark, "Give 'em hell, General," as Clark was shaking hands with the crowd. He pumped his fist, smiled and replied, "We're going to give them the truth, and they'll think it's hell," which was Truman's oft-repeated response during the 1948 campaign.

His speech was a bit more tempered.

"For the first time since the Cold War, many Americans no longer feel safe in their homes and work places," Clark told the crowd outside a boys and girls club. "These are historic times and we are going to run a campaign that is worthy of historic times."

Clark hopes to match the accomplishment of another war-tested, political neophyte -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was elected to the presidency in 1952 as the nation feared a Soviet threat.

His advisers, some of whom met Clark when they gathered Tuesday to plot the late-starting bid, promised an unconventional campaign. They will attempt to capitalize on the Internet and Clark's affinity for television, including the use of satellite, to build momentum nationwide -- not just in the traditional early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

If logistics fall into place, Clark's first post-announcement stop will be Florida, aides said. He wants to portray himself as a credible candidate in the South and one willing to stretch his campaign beyond the battleground states to the site of the 2000 presidential recount.

"I want to reach out to those in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and everywhere across America," Clark said.

Aides were considering whether Clark should attend next week's economic debate in New York involving the Democratic candidates; Clark had a paid speech that same day. The candidate plans to participate in the Oct. 9 debate in Phoenix.

Clark's late entry offers Democrats a four-star answer to Bush's potential advantage on national security. His resume is made to order -- Rhodes scholar, first in his 1966 class at West Point, White House fellow and head of the U.S. Southern Command and NATO commander during the 1999 campaign in Kosovo.

But the retired general has never held political office -- not even a student council election to his credit -- and he has never been pressed to produce a domestic agenda.

Just four months before the first votes are cast, he has no formal organization in key states, little money and a patchwork staff culled from the political organizations of former President Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore.

The sharply partisan rhetoric that marked past Clinton-Gore campaigns crept into Clark's address.

"Why has America lost 2.7 million jobs? Why has America lost the prosperity of a $5 trillion surplus and turned it into a deficit that deepens every day? Why has our country lost our sense of security and feels the shadow of fear? Why has America lost the respect of so many people around the world?"

With each question raised by Clark, the crowd shouted, "Why?"

"That's the questions we're going to be asking and one more: Why -- why are so many here in America hesitant to speak out and ask questions?" Clark said.

That section of the speech borrowed themes from Clark's rivals. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean accuses Democratic leaders of being afraid to ask tough questions of Bush while nearly every contender faults Bush for losing jobs at home and respect abroad.

Dean welcomed Clark to the race, calling him a strong candidate, while a spokesman for Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said, "having another candidate with bona fide national security experience like John Kerry further highlights that the presidency is no place for on-the-job training."

Carol Moseley Braun quipped: "The more the merrier."