General Clark to withdraw from campaign

General Wes Clark will hold a news conference this afternoon to announce he is withdrawing from the Democratic Presidential Nomination Campaign.

A good man fought the good fight - God speed Wes!

BBB

String of Defeats Leads Clark to Drop Bid
2 hours, 47 minutes ago

By MIKE GLOVER, Associated Press Writer

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Wesley Clark (news - web sites), the retired general who could not command enough support among Democrats in his bid to be president, will withdraw from the nomination race Wednesday after losing badly in both Virginia and Tennessee.

Clark planned to drop out of the race with an afternoon speech in his hometown of Little Rock, Ark., his adviser Matt Bennett said. He chose to end his campaign after conceding two states he had hoped to win as an Arkansas-bred Southerner. He finished behind John Kerry (news - web sites) and John Edwards (news - web sites) in both.

"The decision was made on a number of factors, not just the order of finish," Bennett said Wednesday. "He saw the numbers and thought about it a bit."

After 14 contests for delegates, Clark had won only the Oklahoma primary. He had collected just 102 delegates from the nearly 1,000 delegates divided among candidates so far.

"The mountain got too steep to climb," Bennett said.

Other aides said Clark would use his speech Wednesday to nudge the Democrats toward a more aggressive stance in challenging President Bush (news - web sites) on issues of national security, faith, patriotism and values for the party.

Clark wrestled with the decision to end his campaign as election returns rolled in Tuesday night, with advisers urging him to quit and family pushing him to continue. Before deciding to quit, he thanked several hundred cheering backers at a downtown hotel.

"We'll leave Tennessee even more full of hope and commitment than when we began this journey five months ago," he said. "We may have lost this battle today, but I tell you what, we're not to lose the battle for America's future."

Aides said Clark would remain active in the campaign by stumping for Democrats in the South and other swing states and serving as an adviser on national security issues.

Clark, 59, became a candidate in September, late for a neophyte campaigner, but he quickly rose to the top of polls of Democrats and others considering an alternative to Bush. He decided to skip the Iowa caucuses to focus his efforts on New Hampshire, a move that some friends and family now call a mistake.

In appealing to voters, Clark relied almost entirely on his 34 years in military service, which included serving as supreme allied commander of NATO (news - web sites). He promoted his wartime record, from being wounded in Vietnam in 1970 to running the bombing campaign in the war in Kosovo in 1999, as the kind of experience needed with American soldiers in Iraq (news - web sites) and concerns about security at home.

Supporters touted other qualities ?- his Southern roots and his status as a Washington outsider ?- that they contended made Clark the candidate most likely to defeat Bush. Plus, he provided another forceful voice in condemning the war in Iraq, which he frequently called unnecessary, reckless and wrong.

Clark had enormous fund-raising success for a latecomer, raising nearly $15 million in 2003. He started January with at least $10 million left and the prospect of raising millions more.

Yet his inexperience as a candidate caused him problems. On the first full day of his campaign, Clark said he probably would have voted for the Bush-backed Iraq resolution but then, a day later, insisted he never would have voted "for this war." His supporters were left confused while his detractors grew elated. Questions about his stand on the war in Iraq never ceased.
-------------------------------
Associated Press Writer Douglass K. Daniel contributed to this report.