Josh Marshall on how Dean's campaign is setting up Clark

[diplomats]

Is the Dean camp trying to set up Wes Clark? (Yep, I'm talkin' about you, Joe!) This piece in today's Post says Dean and Clark "discussed the vice presidency at a weekend meeting in California." Read down into the article and there doesn't seem to be that much there there. But the story got picked up on CNN too. And now the story of the day is not those very active discussions Clark is having about his own presidential run, but the potential 'Dean/Clark alliance'. And if Clark decides to get into the race after all, doesn't that mean that he wobbled, that as recently as this week he was thinking of taking the number two slot from Dean, or endorsing Dean? I think that's what some people would like us to think. The Post calls those people "sources familiar with the discussions." But I think we can imagine who those folks might be.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com

[peabody71]

1. I like the idea but unlikely to be a real issue for the media.

My thoughts are that if Clark says no the best thing in the world would be for the Dean camp to immediately rumor that Clark is being
considered for VP. That fills the gap for Dean foreign policy experiecnce. I can't immagine that ticket losing to anybody.
The motivator and the general.

[AP]

3. Why in the world would Clark say yes to the guy who strategized

to undercut the possibility of a successful.presidential run? He just went on TV to counter rumors which might have been fabricated by the Team Dean to hurt him. You think he has good feelings about Dean right now?

If you want to pick candidates whom Clark might accept the VP offer, you should be looking at the ones who didn't just force him to go on TV and deny rumors.

However, I suspect that Clark, like Powell, is in this either to run for President or to sell a million books.

[Woodstock]

4. You make it sound like this is something personal

It's not, it's POLITICS.

[AP]

5. It's also money. Now Clark is going to have to raise some

extra money to spend on getting the point accross that he wasn't thinking about being Dean's No.2.

The other candidates are willing to engage Clark on the issues, perhaps. So that's cool. One is trying to fuck up your message with a lie which is going to cost money to put back on the rails. I'd be mad if a candidate made me expend political capital to counter something that wasn't even true.

[TLM]

23. You're making up consequences to made up crap about Dean

WTF, because the post says that Dean and Clark talked about the VP slot... and some CNN talking head tried to spin it into Clark wobbling... that means Dean maliciously set Clark up and now Clark has to raise money to get back on message after the evil Dean derailed his whole campaign?

Jesus f-ing christ... what are you smoking and where can I get some?

[bearfartinthewoods]

33. who leaked the story??

think about it. who benefits from the discussion about a VP slot getting to the press? not Clark, that's for sure. if you can't see that, you're the smokin.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

15. I Agree, But

Isn't Dean's appeal at least partially based on the notion that he's NOT "just another politician?"

:shrug:

DTH, Who Still Likes Dean, But Would Have a Little Bit of a Problem With Him IF This Rumor Turns Out To Be True

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RetroLounge]

25. Are we playing with mommy's computer today?

Are we playing with mommy's computer today?

24 posts, so far, every one nasty and anti-Dean.

Not a single complete sentence or any substance in any of his posts.

Not to mention his 5th grade spelling level.

[KoKo]

6. ROFL! AP.......... I don't exactly accept Josh Marshall's analysis, though

I know he's a Clark man......so him saying Trippi is behind this.....I don't know. The rumors are all over the internet.....Did Dean ask him or didn't Dean ask him. It's hard to know what the real source is....even to trust the "inside the beltway guys like Marshall's view about "sources."

Much as I like Marshall....he was for going into Iraq.....so I now read him with a slightly different view than I did before.

Your assessment of Clarks ambitions is funny.....could be.......could be....

[diplomats]

11. Why would Clark decide to run for VP

when he a has a legitimate shot at getting the nomination himself? Maybe Dean offered it to him (as a way to remove a potent challenger and strengthen the ticket) but I imagine Clark would've politely declined.

[LoZoccolo]

17. Because it's not a perfect shot at the nomination...

1. It's real late and he doesn't have as big of an organization or as much funding as the other candidates yet (I believe all he has now is pledges).
2. Never held an office before.
3. Never campaigned for an office before - and it's possible the best campaign managers have been taken - important in the Karl Rove era.

That having been said, I think he'd make a really great VP.

[KoKo]

19. Cnn reporting one of Gore's Campaign Managers and Clinton's Advisors are

on Board. Sorry couldn't write down names..it may be on CNN website. The person in charge of Clinton's Liberary in Arkansas is the second one......the first one is a name we would know....sorry......about not having name or link....

[Brian Sweat]

32. Running for the nomination does not preclude Clark

from becoming someone's runningmate if he does not win. In fact, running for the nomination would help, because it would increase Clark's name recognition.

[TLM]

22. WHat are you talking about?

Everything I've seen indicated Dean and Clark are pals.

What rumors did CLark have to go on TV to refute? That he is on the short list for Dean's VP picks?

Face it, the fact Clark has waited so long to say if he is running or not is going to cause the media to start to wonder why.

Why are you trying to blame that on Dean?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

28. 'Nough said.

"which might have been fabricated."


And didn't Powell end up as SOS? :shrug:

[dsc]

2. of course no evidence

just like all Dean bashers. No lack of evidence has ever stopped a Dean basher.

[diplomats]

8. You think Clark's people leaked this stuff to the Post?

Right. BTW, I'm not a Dean basher. He wants to win the nomination, and Clark is a threat. I'm not saying he did anything horrible. Campaigns plant stories all the time. Dean's campaign is no different.

[Julien Sorel]

10. Dean the martyr. Dean the waterwalker. Dean the perfect man.

Perhaps the true messiah has been discovered.

[sangh0]

12. Who benefits besides Dean?

It is a FACT that Dean has been speaking favorably about the possibility of Clark as his VP. It is also a FACT that no other candidate has been talking about who their VP might be. It is also a FACT that this rumor hurts Clark, so it seems improbable that it was Clark spreading this story. I don't see how any other Dem benefits.

So who, besides Dean, benefits from this story?

[Woodstock]

7. Dean sounds honorable

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57770-2003Sep10.html

"Most of our conversations have been around my getting advice on defense, and sometime he asks me about domestic issues," Dean said in an interview yesterday. "This is a guy I like a lot. I think he's certainly going to be on everybody's list if he's not the presidential nominee himself." Dean declined to discuss their private conversations.

[diplomats]

9. This is not about being honorable

it's about trying to get an edge over your competition for the nomination.

[AP]

13. The important thing is the truth

If Clark was considering a VP nod, than Dean is perfectly welcome to tell the world that Clark's alternative choice was to bolster Dean's nomination. If it's true, perhaps people should know about it.

If it's not true and was meant to get potential Clark supporters to think that Dean is someone Clark likes, that's pretty nefarious.

(And if you wonder who even would care about something like this, consider how Kucinich supporters have warmed to Edwards since Kucinich said that he liked Edwards personally. Voters care a great deal about who supports and likes whom.)

[Cha]

14. Dean is saying it here in black and White ...but people want to

read more into it because...?

[AP]

16. Because that's what we do here. We take the sparse facts

and try to decipher the message trying to be sent, whether it's by Bush, or Dean or any politician.

[Andromeda]

30. they want to blow it up

like they usually do because anything that makes Dean look bad rings their chimes.

[XEON]

18. Dean will be a great VP.

Clark will have to save the Coward dean sorry ass.

[Cha]

26. DEan is not a "coward" ....he has more damn guts than you

could Even imagine.

[RetroLounge]

29. Just hit alert on this guy.

He's been disrupting on every one of his posts, all in Clark threads, and all anti-Dean.

He's a 13 yr old on his Mommy's computer...

[Andromeda]

31. Please consult your dictionary...

because that should be "coward, Dean's (possessive) sorry ass.

Isn't that better?

[killbotfactory]

20. I don't see how this would possibly hurt Clark if he decides to run.

So Dean and Clark might have had possible discussions on their political futures on the same ticket. Oooh!

[TLM]

24. It won;t, but they need soemthing to attack Dean with...

and absent facts, bullshit will do just fine.

[Cha]

27. That's right ...you hit nail on the head with that one.

Bullshit!