CULLING CONTINUES: CLARK CONSIDERING CONCESSION

Newsday: Clark backer says campaign could be over for general

Evoking the image of Gen. George Custer’s famed last stand, one of Wesley Clark’s chief backers in New York said Tuesday it appeared the former general’s race for the Democratic presidential nomination might be over.

“I think the general is about to meet Sitting Bull,” said state Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, a Manhattan Democrat.

Paterson was referring to the 1876 battle in which Custer and more than 200 soldiers of the 7th Cavalry were wiped out by a force of Indians led by Sitting Bull at the Little Bighorn River in Montana.

“No one likes more a colorful battle reference than a senior soldier like Wes Clark, but in this case the storyteller was a little confused,” said Clark spokeswoman Kym Spell. “The history of this war is far from written.”

Hat tip to Stephen Green, who observes,

If Wes Clark is a disaster on the same scale as Little Big Horn, then I’m a loudmouth guy who likes martinis and talking politics.

Indeed. It would be somewhat ironic if Clark’s last stand came against John Kerry, seeing as how Kerry was a mere lieutenant and Clark a general.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.