Free Republic

You can say this about Richard Gephardt: He sticks to his ideas, even when they make absolutely no sense. Gephardt's unerring consistency was on full display at the presidential debate Thursday night when a woman named Joy Clayton, the owner of a small business called Bobby C's Lounge and Grille, rose to ask the candidates what they would do to help ease the burden that government places on her business. "I found that there were so many taxes associated with going into business," Clayton said. "There were taxes upon taxes. There's a privilege tax that you're levied just for the...

Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark may have violated federal election laws by discussing his presidential campaign during recent paid appearances, according to campaign finance experts. Clark, a newcomer to presidential politics, touted his candidacy during paid appearances at DePauw University in Indiana and other campuses after he entered the presidential race on Sept. 17.

<p>An army of political reporters is marshaling its most well-oiled military cliches to describe Wesley Clark's march toward victory in the Democratic primary.</p> <p>From the moment the retired four-star Army general announced his candidacy last month, it's been cliches aweigh.</p>

<p>Former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton may have created a force behind Wesley Clark that they will not be able to stop, political advisers from both parties told The Washington Times.</p> <p>"The Clark thing has already spun out of control," said Republican campaign consultant Bob Heckman.</p>

It's been several days since Hurricane Wesley blew into Washington, washing away the conventional wisdom, inflicting serious damage to several major Democratic campaigns, and leaving floods of media speculation about his ties to the Clintons in low-lying areas of Capitol Hill. Two weeks ago, the storyline of the Democratic primary has transformed from a chaotic free-for-all with a Vermont governor sparring with a gaggle of veteran Washington senators. Now, the race is a titanic struggle between the liberal base of the party and the retired military man backed by Clintonite centrists at the top of the party. The fact that...

As General Wesley Clark plunges into the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, he would be wise to recall the warning of a shrewd Roman historian. Tacitus wrote of a gifted but disastrous political leader: "capax imperii nisi imperasset." This crabbed Latin judgment is famously hard to translate but its rough meaning goes: "He would have made a very fine emperor if, poor fellow, he had not actually become emperor." All too many presidential candidates fit this mordant description. They peak on the day of their announcement and decline precipitously thereafter. Governor George Romney was once considered a shoo-in for...

A new poll released today reverses the results of yesterday's CNN-USA Today poll which showed Wesley Clark in a virtual tie with President George Bush. Today's results show that the same 49 percent who supported the retired Army general yesterday now say they would "never" vote for him. The voter flip-flop shocked Mr. Clark, who attracted attention last week by saying he would have supported the Iraq war, and that he never would have supported the Iraq war.

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who announced his presidential candidacy this week, leads all Democratic contenders who are currently in the race with 14 percent of the vote among registered Democrats and Democratic leaners, according to the latest Newsweek Poll. He's followed by former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, who both get 12 percent of the vote. Clark's impressive debut is undercut, however, by the sizable percentage of all those polled (45%) who say they've never heard of him before now, the poll shows. President Bush's job approval rating continued to drop in the Newsweek Poll, to...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Wesley Clark, the retired general with a four-star military resume but no political experience, decided Tuesday to become the 10th Democratic presidential candidate, officials close to him said. Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for Clark, did not reveal the decision, but sources close to the former Army general said he told his fledgling campaign team that he's in the race. The announcement will be made at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday in Little Rock, sources said.