NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
In Kerry veepstakes, Clark is the wild cardWASHINGTON -- Three months after folding the tent on his presidential campaign, retired General Wesley K. Clark popped up again last week, delivering the Democratic radio address and declaring, "The truth is, President Bush made mistake after mistake as commander in chief."
The next day Clark was chatting on NBC's "Meet the Press," in what appeared to be an extended audition for the vice-presidential nomination. Clark is hardly alone among former Democratic presidential aspirants and officeholders trying to hop on Kerry's motorcycle, and all the interest serves to raise the fundamental question of what Kerry is looking for in a running mate. No politician from Massachusetts, let alone one who was so enamored of the Kennedys that he dated Jackie's sister, would forget the legend of 1960 -- how John F. Kennedy eked out a win by offering the second spot on the ticket to Lyndon B. Johnson, who delivered the big electoral prize of Texas. Michael S. Dukakis tried to revive the Boston-Austin axis by choosing a lanky Texan of his own, Lloyd Bentsen. He lost Texas by a healthy margin. These days, the chances of the Democrats taking Texas are about the same as General Santa Anna's, but Kerry can still choose from a plate of favorite sons from swing states, including Bob Graham of Florida, Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, and, at least by his own assessment, John Edwards of North Carolina. Clark's supporters point out that his native state, Arkansas, is very much in play, even if Clark has never won an election there. But his stronger argument would be that the Boston-Austin style of ticket-balancing is outmoded when 30-second television spots matter far more than home-state cronyism. The lesson of recent elections is that a presidential nominee should choose a running mate who accentuates the qualities he most wants to emphasize in himself. Bill Clinton's selection of Al Gore puzzled veterans of past veepstakes: Gore was about the same age, from the same corner of the country, and he and his wife seemed compatible enough with the Clintons to be college students on a double date. That turned out to be just the point, as the Clintons and Gores headed off on a bus tour that successfully contrasted their youthful energy with the elder, more detached George and Barbara Bush. By 2000, Gore needed to remind voters that he and Clinton were not, after all, twins, that Gore lived by traditional values. He chose as his running mate Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, whose home state, the reliably Democratic Connecticut, factored little in the choice. But Lieberman's reputation as one of the great moralists in American politics promised to put some distance between the new Democratic ticket and the old one. Continued... |
