Clark Retires Again
Hardly surprising: AP: Wesley Clark Drops Out of Race
Wesley Clark, the novice politician with four-star military credentials, abandoned his presidential bid Tuesday after two third-places finishes in the South, the Associated Press has learned.
The retired Army general will return to Little Rock, Ark., on Wednesday to announce his departure from the race, said a senior adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Unfortunately, he was mainly a spoiler. Although, as I noted earlier, Edwards would have lost tonight even had he gotten all of Clark’s votes in both primaries.
To reiterate: This race is over.
Actually that is technically not true. In Tennesse, Clark and Edwards conbined for 49% versus 41% for Kerry. That is not saying that some of Clark’s support would not have gone to Kerry, but I think Edwards would have had a real shot of beating Kerry in TN if Clark was not around.
Oops–didn’t check the final numbers. It was true of the exit poll numbers. But, of course, had Dean–who had even less business in the race than Clark–dropped out then Kerry would have presumably gotten most of his support, too.
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