POLIITICS: Coalition Man

Let’s review the Wesley Clark file for a second: Clark has no domestic policy experience, has only recently worked in the private sector, and has never held elective office. So, his credentials are strictly national security/foreign policy. Is he a more decisive leader than Bush? Hardly; his waffles on Gulf War II are already the stuff of legend. Would he have run the war itself better? Clark himself, in an April 10 London Times column, praised the Bush Administration’s war-fighting strategy.
What does that leave? Well, the very core of Clark’s message is his idea that we have neglected our alliances and need to work with a broader coalition. He’s Coalition Man.
Which is why this latest story is so damning: Clark’s campaign manager has quit, upset that Clark’s DC-based political consultants have given insufficient respect to the grass-roots internet-based “Draft Clark” movement. Now, this story has a few angles, like the idea (noted here and here) that the Democrats generally are too beholden to inside-the-Beltway consultants, and the observation that Clark has forgotten that you can’t conquer America by occupying Washington. But here’s the key one: if Clark is selling himself to us as Coalition Man, what does it say about his qualifications that he can’t even hold together a coalition of his own supporters for an entire month?