"Piling On. ...while Wesley Clark takes the high road.

[Clark4VotingRights]

Mods: Title is too long for subject line:

"Democrat losers-to-be feed the right wing media's "circular firing squad" image of the party while Wesley Clark takes the high road"
(Title)

http://www.americanpolitics.com/20040104punditpap.html

"...Sure, Democrats are sniping -- but that is in part because Democrats actually do have diverse views and their rank and file are justifiably angry at the lying, crony-coddling squatters in the West Wing. Anger does resonate.
...
Clark seems to get better with each appearance on pundit TV. He managed to turn Tim's Rove-esque talking points 180 degrees around without being too nasty to Tim -- in fact, Tim shifted the subject anytime Clark sounded in control. Clark also made it clear that he is not going to bash the other candidates, particularly Dean -- which serves to make Lieberman, Gephardt and Kerry sound angry and desperate. Good move, Wesley.

And Tim, who had already had one previous encounter with Clark, was on far better behavior than usual. Oddly, he didn't try to ambush Clark with specific quotes from his past -- one of his favorite tactics. We think one reason is that Clark would have kicked Russert's "Assman," as the joke among political junkies and press professionals goes. For those of you who missed it, about a month ago, Clark appeared on the FOX News Channel. One of their daytime anchors, David Asman, tried to twist some statements Clark made -- and Clark relentlessly jumped down Asman's throat, rightly and angrily chastising the Murdoch-Ailes whore for trying to twist his words. The video clip of Clark opening up his ten-megaton volley against Asman made the rounds of the Internet that very day -- e-mailed to many (including APJ) with the subject "Wesley Clark kicks FAUX News in the Assman."

Either that, or Tim genuinely respects Clark. But given his track record with Democratic candidates, our gut is that Tim is scared that Clark would tear out his spleen through his left nostril if Tim tried any of his usual tricks."

Hee hee.
Tear out his spleen through his left nostril...

[giantrobot_2000]

1. ...

I read this, too. I have to hand it to Clark and Edwards (and Dean for not sniping at either of them) for running clean campaigns.

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. But Dean has sniped at Clark

Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean yesterday blasted new 2004 candidate Wesley Clark as "a Republican until 25 days ago" who has become the "desperation" candidate for establishment Democrats. "What you see in the Wes Clark candidacy is somewhat of a desperation by inside-the-Beltway politicians," Dean told the CBS program "Face the Nation."

"You've got a lot of establishment politicians now surrounding a general who was a Republican until 25 days ago, voted for Ronald Reagan, voted for Dick Nixon, supported the war last October."

Just a little reminder. :)

Dean has attacked every candidate, but was the one to go whining to the DLC when he felt picked on. :eyes: He made his bed, now he can lie in it.

[TexasSissy]

8. Yep, Dean has done his share of "attacking," if you want to call it that.

He started the negative environment early on when he called the Democratic Congress people cockroaches. It didn't exactly start things out on a respectful tone.

[Justice]

2. Clark Takes The High Road With Democrats

because that is the kind of person he is.

He is in this race to replace Bush - that is his singular mission. He does not have a scorched earth approach to winning the nomination - but has a scorched earth approach to winning the general election.

Clark has had too many television appearances, and made too many off the cuff remarks to fake this or to mask another view. This is not his campaign talking - this is Wes Clark talking - a high road sort of person.

[TexasSissy]

3. I saw a documentary on Abe Lincoln this week.

That is how Abe won the Repub nomination, when someone else was favored: He didn't make enemies; he stayed above negativity.

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. Russert and Tweety, both,

handled Clark totally different than before. He commands respect and that's what he's getting. Both of those men interviewed Wes before and both of them had taken the attack approach with him and it didn't work. He steered them. He turned both interviews in the direction HE wanted them to go....on the high road. He's become a master of the media. He's highly intelligent, photogenic and eloquent....how could he not master TV and the talking head pundits? He's much smarter than any one of them and I think they know it. :)

[knight_of_the_star]

6. Wes is the ONLY one

Who can fight the media and WIN. All the other candidates have been nailed by the punditry before, not Wes. He took Asman and booted his ass out the door with spiked steelies. The rest of the pundits have been VERY respectful of him since. That by itself will win the election for him just because the pundits seem more afraid of Wes than they are of Bush. That and by not attacking anyone, save Bush, it does let him take the high road with no competition to it which will make it easy for other candidate supporters to back him. Dean, on the other hand, seems intent on pissing everyone else off.

[windansea]

7. 3 words

rope a dope