The campaigning has been going on in one form or another since January of this year; it’s not unusual then that retired general Wesley Clark’s entrance into the fray has been described by the media as “late”. Of course, since this is shaping up to the longest presidential race in history, such hyperbole is easily discounted – Clark is hardly an eleventh-hour participant.

Frankly, an early start on the campaign trail is sign that one is not in a position of strength. The hope is that in a long enough run up to an election there will be more opportunities to become well known: name recognition is the first hurdle for any candidate. They also want to have ample time to raise money.

Clark, by waiting as long as he did to announce his candidacy, is indicating that he’s in a stronger position than the original nine Democrats. But it’s not too strong; we’ve still got four months until the first primary in South Carolina. If Clark were a shoe-in, he could have easily waited until November to announce his run, and taken the thing with minimal campaigning.

The ten Democratic candidates are now jostling for scarce resources: publicity and contributions. As it happens, both are attracted to the candidate who appears to have the best chance of winning – which before September 17th was Howard Dean. Seen as the front runner, Dean had been getting a lot of press, and contributions were poring into his website. However, there’s no doubt he’s in trouble, as he watches Clark saunter in and steal his sunshine. Most worryingly for the Dean camp is the fact that many Democratic voters (the only ones who count until the primaries are over) are now expressing their support for the retired general; which is probably why he was the first Democrat to attack the new candidate.

But if Dean’s supporters are worried, the President’s are starting to get hysterical. The Bush administration itself has not said much, but the vanguard of the right wing’s attack squadron, conservative newspaper columnists, have jumped face first into the fray. A number of shots have been fired across Clark’s bow, but none seems to have struck.

Perhaps the most embarrassing attack comes from the pen of William Safire, a man as obsessed with the Clintons as Freud was with sex and cocaine. Or perhaps a better analogy would be that he’s as obsessed with the Clintons as 80’s era Republicans were obsessed with Communism. Junior senator from New York or not, Hillary Clinton is about as relevant as Gorbachev (at least for the time being). It would be enough to scare the living heebie-jeebies out of the Republican’s core constituency, simply to say that Bill and Hillary are advising Clark (which doesn’t seem to be the case); however, Safire went the extra mile for his man by weaving an elaborate scenario to put Hillary in the White House. While it’s not something that even the French would describe as “plausible,” it is what they might refer to as “hysterical” (in both senses of the word).

Considering the fact that the other two pieces of anti-Clark press relate to willful misreadings of the man’s statements (and both involving phone calls, interestingly enough; couldn’t they find anything sexual?), right-wing pundits are starting to build up to a shrill whine.

Certainly, Clark has a lot of contradictions to pick at (the fact that he’s a Democratic General – an antiquiated concept if ever there was one – should be a clue). But at this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to how those attacks will play with the American public. As far as the interested parties are concerned, well – Dean might be worried, but Republicans are starting to panic. And that means it’s going to be getting real ugly, very soon.

-B. C. Silvia