Was the latest Dean tour designed to knock out Clark?

[unfrigginreal]

It seems to me that Trippi may have just tombstoned the only legitimate challenger to Dean's campaign. Let's face it, it's a HUGE deal that Dean has already gone national, and really makes it more difficult for any one to come in late.

I'm not offering an opinion on whether that is good or bad, but from a strategy position, did Dean just make it harder for Clark to announce?

[madrchsod]

1. for pure

political reason i could see dean picking clark for vp and clark accepting. win -win for both. dean could focus on the economy and jobs ,clark could attack bush on the war and foreign policy.

[Doomsayer13]

2. Dean wants clark as a runningmate

Clark, from Arkansas (the south) and with a military background, things Dean needs to beat Bush. There's no doubt that his sleepless summer tour is intentioned to strengthen his position while other politicans vacation, but I wouldn't hold it against Dean strategists if they also saw this opprotunity to show strength to a potential runningmate Clark. I don't think Clark really has enough of a political platform to run for President, but he can use his military background and his ability to communicate as a balancing force to a Dean ticket.

[LeftCoast]

3. No. It was designed to knock out Bush.

eom

[dfong63]

4. i doubt it

Dean isn't the one who told Clark to stall until labor day. that was purely Clark's peculiar strategic decision. maybe, just maybe, the delay was to let Clark gauge the strength of the existing field, to see if any of them looked capable of beating Bush. if that was Clark's reason, i think he had to have been impressed by Dean's showing: Dean is doing as well as any dem candidate could hope to do. even the slanted poll by the draftclark folks showed Dean with 3x the support of Clark.

if Clark does enter now --- and i think he will --- it'll be clear that he's not doing it to rescue the dems (who are doing great with Dean), but for his own ambition.

anyway, getting back to the question, if Dean's tremendous showing made it harder for Clark to enter, then imho the blame falls on Clark's own shoulders, not the Dean campaign.

[Kahuna]

5. Stating in Austin that he thinks Clark would make a good VP, seems..

he certainly is attempting to torpedo Clark. Unless Dean knows for a fact that Clark isn't running, I find that a dispicable tactic. One for which I will never forgive him.

[DannyRed]

6. Kahuna,

It was Dean's response to a direct question asked by Wolf Blitzer.

It was, apparently, an honest one...

Apparently Dean and Clark have been in frequent communication.

Dean also said some extremely flattering things about Clark, and stated that he would be extremely tought to run against.

Aside from all that, do you DISAGREE with the idea that Clark might be an excellent VP choice for ANY of the top candidates?

I know you want Clark to run for and win the top slot.

More power to him! The more the merrier.

Relax, watch it unfold, may the best candidate win...and the rest support that winner.

[w4rma]

7. That is ridiculous. A Clark candidacy hurts everyone else, BUT Dean

Dean supporters have mostly already decided on their candidate. Clark will pull supporters away from all the other candidates, at much higher rates, and make it easier for Dean to win the nomination, IMHO. Also, Clark doesn't have the name recognition that other candidates have, yet. Unless he gets that name recognition, Dean could beat Clark on name recognition alone.

…
Under the Clinton scenario, Kerry would fall into the second tier of Democratic hopefuls, favored by just 16 percent of voters. All the other Democratic candidates would be relegated to the single digits.

Dean’s support among independent- and reform-minded voters seems intact with or without Clinton in the race while Kerry would find his base of support among traditional Democratic voters threatened, according to Herald pollster R. Kelly Myers.

"If Hillary Clinton suddenly expressed some interest in the race, the biggest potential loser is Kerry," Myers told the Herald. "She doesn’t eat into Dean’s lead at all ... As of today, Dean is the only one who could hold his own (against Clinton)."
…
http://www4.fosters.com/News2003/July2003/July_28/News/reg_pol_0728a.asp

A new Prez Preferece poll
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=190456

Clark V Dean
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=196331