I understand it is a move by the Clintons to blunt Dean......but why would they back such a flawed candidate?
Clark hasn't been in the race 24 hours and he has flip-flopped on his voting for the war.
The Clintons are running a scam here....but what is it.
In chaos there is opportunity! When you aren’t sure what you plan to do, it’s best to keep everyone off balance. Backing the new guy slows the front runners down and means that it will be even easier for HRC if she decides she can beat Bush. If you have one guy way out front his supporters would be real pissed at a last minute run, so she must keep anyone from getting too far ahead. BTW this requires that she not give a damn if another dim wins in 2004.
It doesn't matter what the average Democratic voter thinks; the only point of Clark's candidacy is to steal Howard Dean's voters. And as we have seen over the last few months, they're not the brightest bulbs in the bin. They support Dean for only two reasons: 1) He plays right into their overwhelming Bush hatred. The people for whom the ONLY issue is "Get Bush" are the ones supporting Dean. No other issues matter until after they get their revenge on Bush. 2) Dean's against the Iraq war.
Weaselly Clark can play the Bush hate game just as well, and is also anti-Iraq war. However, he can play those games while having the "gravitas" of being ex-military himself. So he's got an excellent chance of grabbing anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of Dean's support, simply because a lot of them will think (incorrectly, but that doesn't matter) "Well, this guy's everything Howie is, plus he'll play to those moderates that think Howie's a complete socialist nutcase!" In addition, Clark will attract supporters that are themselves Bush-haters and anti-Iraq war, but who were staying on the sidelines entirely because they found Dean to be a repulsive loose cannon.
Dean knows this, too. Remember how a week or so ago rumors were going around that Clark was about to accept Dean's offer to be his VP running mate? That was complete BS leaked by the Dean campaign to the media, in hopes that it would play well enough to sway Clark into staying out of the race entirely.
Clark can flip-flop all he wants. The RATS that are going to support him are going to support him no matter what, because they're RATS and they care only about obtaining power and getting revenge on GWB.
And all the Clintons want is for Clark to siphon enough support away from Dean to ensure some totally unelectable doormat gets the nomination, like Kerry or Gephardt. Thus 2008 will be left wide open for Hillary.