Clark: Howard Dean can't win

But no matter what signs there are for encouragement, it will be the Clark campaign's challenge for the next two months just to remain viable, with the chance of contending with Dean down the stretch.

"I think everybody other than Dean has a strategy to be the last man standing with him," said Democratic consultant Howard Wolfson. "I think Clark's strategy, skipping Iowa, trying to finish second in New Hampshire and then use that to propel him to actual victories in states where he might be stronger, on Feb. 3 -- makes the most sense for him given his late start and difficulty organizing."

Grand tactics and strategy aside, the weeks leading up to the Jan. 27 New Hampshire primary will require Clark to appeal to voters with an intense schedule of retail campaigning and to continue cultivating his lucrative relationships with the heavyweight Democratic donors in Hollywood and New York who have made him the second-most formidable fundraiser in the field.

Most recently, a Dec. 11 event at the Grand Hyatt in midtown Manhattan netted the campaign the Bush-like total of $1 million. Addressing his audience, he demonstrated his ramped-up stump speech, rousing the wealthy, distinctly non-military crowd to a series of standing ovations with a combination of Dean-style anti-administration rhetoric and unapologetic patriotism.

"They are trying to take our patriotism away from us," he said, pointing to an illuminated stars-and-stripes behind him that looked to be at least three Clarks in height. "They are trying to say that this flag belongs to Tom DeLay and John Ashcroft and George W. Bush, and it's not true. And on my watch, as long as I'm in this race, they will never get this flag, because I've saluted, I've fought for it, I served under it."

Along with his increasingly heated rhetorical style, Clark has shown the ability to connect with crowds in more intimate settings. This was the case over the course of a three-day campaign swing through New Hampshire, particularly when Clark strayed from the text of his domestic policy pronouncements -- his experienced policy staff writes them, he reads them -- to talk with some emotion about his personal experiences.

As a human expression of the hardships of war, Clark frequently tells the story these days about a recent meeting he had with the kindergarten-aged son of a soldier wounded in Iraq. "He didn't know who I was," said Clark at an event in a school library in New Castle, N.H. "He just knew I had something to do with the military, and had some connection to his father. And he grabbed my hand, and he just wouldn't let go of it."

For all his stylistic adjustments, though, there remain signs that his candidacy is still green and, at times, awkward. When he was introduced a week ago at the Florida Democratic convention, for example, he took several minutes to wend his way up to the ballroom stage, accompanied by a bagpiper playing "Scotland the Brave." When he finally got there, his first words into the microphone were, "Delighted to be here. How does this work?" Eventually, the state party chairman had to step in and tell Clark's supporters, somewhat pointedly, to move away from the stage "so we can get a clean television shot of your candidate."

When Clark spoke, he hit all his main points -- an injustice was done in Florida in 2000; the war in Iraq was wrong; President Bush is "incredibly lacking" in judgment -- but he also digressed, and then digressed from his digressions, speaking for a total of 45 minutes.

And then there are the little things. Later that week, at a morning meet-and-greet event at a law firm in Portsmouth, N.H., that regularly has candidates in to address its employees, Clark lost at least one vote when he failed to thank one of his hosts for the invitation and for breakfast. "Everyone else we had in here at least said 'thank you,'" she said to a couple of reporters lingering over the leftover bagels and Danish. "I don't care who you are. That's just rude."

He still has trouble with punch lines, as he did when attempting to deliver a zinger about Al Gore at the Durham debate. "Just to quote another former Democratic leader, I think elections are about the people, not about the powerful," Clark said, only to be greeted with an uncomfortable silence in the auditorium and groans in the press room next door.

But the way Clark sees it, the campaign is now ready for battle, and the early campaign hiccups are behind him. "I think that stuff is pretty much in the past now," he said in the interview.

And in an expression of his newcomer's optimism -- or perhaps of a military man's fighting spirit -- he still envisions his own name at the top of the ticket and a big victory for the Democrats next year. "I think we're really getting a lot of traction at retail political level," he said. "The money's coming in at a really good clip, and we feel very confident about the result ... We're converting people everywhere we go."

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