Like another Pee Wee Clinton . . . 
Posted on 09/22/2003 8:14:19 PM PDT by Utah Girl
Democrats begging for star power to take on President Bush are ready to embrace late entrants, from unknown Wesley Clark to villified Hillary Clinton, worried the current pack can't win.
Just four months from key first tests in New Hampshire and Iowa, activists, even those now committed to candidates this week showed a wandering eye as fresh Clinton rumors swirled and Clark joined the fray.
``The most important thing, more than anything else, is finding someone who can beat Bush,'' said Fran Gehling, a 56-year-old unemployed New Hampshire teacher.
Though wearing a Dean sticker, Gehling joined others who said their votes are up for grabs.
That's just the kind of talk that could drag the former first lady into the race, analysts and Hillary backers said.
``I don't think (the current lineup of Democrats) have a chance. Not even the slightest. Not a single chance,'' said Esme Taylor, organizer of a Sausalito, Calif.-based Draft Hillary movement on the Internet.
Clark, a retired four-star Army general from Arkansas, seized the campaign buzz from front-runner Howard Dean midweek by becoming the 10th Democrat running for the party's nomination.
Dean, the man most threatened by Clark's entrance since both rallied support based on opposition to the Iraqi war, immediately began drawing out differences between the two on experience.
``I've actually run a government for 12 years, I know how to balance budgets, I've delivered health insurance,'' Dean told reporters. ``It's tough stuff but I know how to do it.''
While Clark's arrival was long expected, few campaigns know what to think of a possible Clinton campaign. When former President Clinton hinted his wife might rethink past opposition to running this week, the field shuddered.
``The Democrats all have respectable numbers without her but, if she gets in, she clears the field - absolutely wipes it out,'' said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Connecticut.
Hillary Clinton aides insisted again last week she would not run, and removed e-mails suggesting she join the fray from a campaign Web site.
Conventional wisdom had Clinton waiting until 2008, when Bush will definitely be gone and, if finishing a second term, Vice President Dick Cheney has vowed not to run.
But analysts said Clinton could be eyeing 2008 a bit more warily with Bush's popularity fading - terrified a Democrat could win in 2004, making a 2008 campaign impossible.
Democrats said the wandering romance will continue until a solid candidate emerges.
``As they say, Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line,'' said Pat Webb, host of a Dean yard party in Londonderry this week. ``But I, like a lot of people, hate George Bush so much, I know we just have to have the right person to beat him.''
Like another Pee Wee Clinton . . .
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