--Good grief, this is getting ridiculous. This superficial analysis (imho, and no offense to KOS!) is mainly b/c the punditocracy is spinning it that way. (And boy, have they been right in their conventional wisdom so far! (ha!)) All things considered, the New Hampshire primary was a good, entry level/inaugural showing for the General. But, simply put, the fourth estate has collectively decided that it does not like General Clark as a candidate. He's not a professional politician. Thus, his answers, while factually correct, intelligent, sincere, and plainspoken, are not in the right polished "language" of spin for the pompous political press. He doesn't play their game(s), so they dismiss him as not being ready for prime time, etc. They miss or ignore the possibility of these attributes being fresh and appealing to voters. Obviously, it worked with ~26,000 New Hampshire primary voters.
Well, let's look at the undisputable facts of what he has accomplished this past evening:
-After being a registered Democrat for only a few months (the same, short amount of time for his entire campaign), Wesley Clark finished 3rd in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. It was also his 1st ever race for elective office (as well as his 1st primary). Sure, he made some gaffes (who doesn't, or wouldn't under those circumstances?). But again, he is still new to all of this. Plus, his opponents have been organizing, fundraising, and running for President for over a year.
-Who topped him? a Senator from Mass. and a former Governor of Vermont... in other words, 2 northeastern candidates from states adjacent to New Hampshire. Who trailed him? the other Southerner in the race (a charismatic Senator with momentum); a veteran politician and well-known Senator from New England who is a former Vice Presidential candidate; 2 other current or former national office holders; and Al Sharpton.
In other words, Wesley Clark, a Southerner and political neophyte, managed 13% and 3rd place in the New Hampshire primary. And that followed 2 weeks of unmerciful, unyielding, and unfair piling on by the national "mainstream press." The obvious and outrageous examples of this are too numerous to list here.
General Clark has prevailed under adverse circumstances before, to put it lightly... I expect him to fight hard and smart in the weeks to come. He has some money, and noteworthy support. He has national organization in all of the different regions. If nothing else, geography will help him. At minimum, he already leads in 2 states for next week: Oklahoma and North Dakota. With Arkansas right under Missouri, and a whole lot of Gephardt campaign people now with him, that should bode well for him in Missouri as well.
Given all of this, why don't we wait at least 1 more week before completely writing him off?! Sheesh!
JJW