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CNN Live At Daybreak

Candidate Clark

Aired September 22, 2003 - 06:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, he's hot, for now, that is. Wesley Clark has landed on the cover of "Newsweek" this week. As you know, he's now running for president. Inside "Newsweek", there's a poll that gives the retired Army general and former CNN military analyst a boost over the other Democratic contenders. And in case you're wondering, Clark's resume includes first in his class at West Point, Rhodes Scholar, former NATO supreme allied commander. Also, General Wesley Clark was severely wounded in Vietnam and he led the successful operation in Kosovo. Plus he knows something about how things operate around Washington. According to a friend, Clark is presidential material.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: He's a very good friend. I've known Wes from the very beginning. He was actually the military liaison that I had at the U.N. with the joint chiefs and he was terrific during the Dayton negotiations and then a great partner during Kosovo. So I think very highly of him and I'm glad he's entered the race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That from a fellow Democrat. Now the specifics on the "Newsweek" poll. It shows Clark with a two point lead over last week's front runners Howard Dean and Senator Joe Lieberman. He's four points ahead of Senator John Kerry and he has a six point lead over Congressman Dick Gephardt. Also, head to head against President Bush, the poll shows 47 percent for Bush to Clark's 43 percent. But those who are undecided could go either way, of course.

So, more on the Clark campaign now and party politics this morning.

Our favorite political commentator, Mark Plotkin of WTOP Radio, joins us live from Washington.

And you made it.

MARK PLOTKIN, WTOP RADIO: Good morning, Carol.

I'm your only commentator. What do you mean your favorite? But I'm glad to be here.

COSTELLO: Yes, I understand you don't have power because of Hurricane Isabel.

PLOTKIN: That's right.

COSTELLO: So we do appreciate it.

PLOTKIN: But anything for CNN and WTOP.

COSTELLO: Oh, we love that.

PLOTKIN: OK.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about Wesley Clark. He's jumped out to lead in the polls. How does that happen?

PLOTKIN: Well, yes, that's kind of remarkable. I just, I should know all these things, but I just read your poll, the "Newsweek" poll, and it seems to me that it's sort of the buzz. He still has to collected delegates to win a nomination. I guess there's some fascination with him. He does have a golden resume. He seems to be too good to be true. But on Thursday, Carol, there'll be a debate and we'll see if he matches up to his hype.

COSTELLO: Yes. Oh, man, that was cold. He did have some early missteps, though, didn't he?

PLOTKIN: Yes, he really did. I thought there was a credibility problem when he said at first that he would have voted for the war if he was a House member or Senate, and later he reversed his position and said no, he probably wouldn't. He also, his campaign organization definitely lacks sort of discipline. He doesn't have a campaign manager. This is a guy who's selling himself as Mr. Organization Man and the first week was not a good week.

But who am I to say? Look at the polls.

COSTELLO: Hey, you never know. Well, because of that disorganization, there are all kinds of rumors flying around that Hillary Clinton will enter the 2004 presidential race and maybe pick him as her running mate.

PLOTKIN: Well, first of all, Hillary Clinton has to run. I mean she has said that she's flatly not running, but people have been known to change their mind. I mean both Hillary Clinton and Wesley Clark really got -- Wesley Clark got in and Hillary Clinton is kind of waiting in the sidelines, even though she's making pronouncements that she's not interested, hoping that neither -- none of the other nine candidates really catch fire and that there's a split convention.

And I want to show off my historic knowledge to tell you that it wasn't until 1952 that -- that's how long ago it's been since we've gone more than one ballot. John Kennedy won in '60. They had to go all the way to Wyoming alphabetically.

But they're hoping that there's a deadlocked convention and the convention will turn to somebody who's really out of the political conventional mainstream. And that would be Hillary Clinton and Wes Clark. But Bill Clinton seems to be pushing Wesley Clark in. A lot of people think you're absolutely right, that maybe he's the stalking horse for Hillary.

COSTELLO: Well, you never know. It's a strange world of politics, especially on the Democratic side these days.

Mark...

PLOTKIN: Yes, but I want to remind people that the primaries start with D.C. on January 13, then Iowa, then New Hampshire, then South Carolina. And you can't win unless you get delegates. And Dean has quite a significant group of people who are actually coming out to support him. And so polls don't mean anything. What means something is how they vote in primaries and caucuses.

COSTELLO: That's very true. But money means something, as well, and Wesley Clark seems to have raised a lot of money already, on the first day of his announcement.

PLOTKIN: Well, he has pledges to have money.

COSTELLO: Pledges.

PLOTKIN: And pledges are not the same thing as checks. A lot of stuff has been done with the Internet.

COSTELLO: Yes.

PLOTKIN: I mean we'll just see how he does and...

COSTELLO: Yes, we will. We've got to wrap it up here.

PLOTKIN: And he can't do it until the elections. Right.

COSTELLO: We've got to wrap it up here.

Mark Plotkin, many thanks.

PLOTKIN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 22, 2003 - 06:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, he's hot, for now, that is. Wesley Clark has landed on the cover of "Newsweek" this week. As you know, he's now running for president. Inside "Newsweek", there's a poll that gives the retired Army general and former CNN military analyst a boost over the other Democratic contenders. And in case you're wondering, Clark's resume includes first in his class at West Point, Rhodes Scholar, former NATO supreme allied commander. Also, General Wesley Clark was severely wounded in Vietnam and he led the successful operation in Kosovo. Plus he knows something about how things operate around Washington. According to a friend, Clark is presidential material.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: He's a very good friend. I've known Wes from the very beginning. He was actually the military liaison that I had at the U.N. with the joint chiefs and he was terrific during the Dayton negotiations and then a great partner during Kosovo. So I think very highly of him and I'm glad he's entered the race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That from a fellow Democrat. Now the specifics on the "Newsweek" poll. It shows Clark with a two point lead over last week's front runners Howard Dean and Senator Joe Lieberman. He's four points ahead of Senator John Kerry and he has a six point lead over Congressman Dick Gephardt. Also, head to head against President Bush, the poll shows 47 percent for Bush to Clark's 43 percent. But those who are undecided could go either way, of course.

So, more on the Clark campaign now and party politics this morning.

Our favorite political commentator, Mark Plotkin of WTOP Radio, joins us live from Washington.

And you made it.

MARK PLOTKIN, WTOP RADIO: Good morning, Carol.

I'm your only commentator. What do you mean your favorite? But I'm glad to be here.

COSTELLO: Yes, I understand you don't have power because of Hurricane Isabel.

PLOTKIN: That's right.

COSTELLO: So we do appreciate it.

PLOTKIN: But anything for CNN and WTOP.

COSTELLO: Oh, we love that.

PLOTKIN: OK.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about Wesley Clark. He's jumped out to lead in the polls. How does that happen?

PLOTKIN: Well, yes, that's kind of remarkable. I just, I should know all these things, but I just read your poll, the "Newsweek" poll, and it seems to me that it's sort of the buzz. He still has to collected delegates to win a nomination. I guess there's some fascination with him. He does have a golden resume. He seems to be too good to be true. But on Thursday, Carol, there'll be a debate and we'll see if he matches up to his hype.

COSTELLO: Yes. Oh, man, that was cold. He did have some early missteps, though, didn't he?

PLOTKIN: Yes, he really did. I thought there was a credibility problem when he said at first that he would have voted for the war if he was a House member or Senate, and later he reversed his position and said no, he probably wouldn't. He also, his campaign organization definitely lacks sort of discipline. He doesn't have a campaign manager. This is a guy who's selling himself as Mr. Organization Man and the first week was not a good week.

But who am I to say? Look at the polls.

COSTELLO: Hey, you never know. Well, because of that disorganization, there are all kinds of rumors flying around that Hillary Clinton will enter the 2004 presidential race and maybe pick him as her running mate.

PLOTKIN: Well, first of all, Hillary Clinton has to run. I mean she has said that she's flatly not running, but people have been known to change their mind. I mean both Hillary Clinton and Wesley Clark really got -- Wesley Clark got in and Hillary Clinton is kind of waiting in the sidelines, even though she's making pronouncements that she's not interested, hoping that neither -- none of the other nine candidates really catch fire and that there's a split convention.

And I want to show off my historic knowledge to tell you that it wasn't until 1952 that -- that's how long ago it's been since we've gone more than one ballot. John Kennedy won in '60. They had to go all the way to Wyoming alphabetically.

But they're hoping that there's a deadlocked convention and the convention will turn to somebody who's really out of the political conventional mainstream. And that would be Hillary Clinton and Wes Clark. But Bill Clinton seems to be pushing Wesley Clark in. A lot of people think you're absolutely right, that maybe he's the stalking horse for Hillary.

COSTELLO: Well, you never know. It's a strange world of politics, especially on the Democratic side these days.

Mark...

PLOTKIN: Yes, but I want to remind people that the primaries start with D.C. on January 13, then Iowa, then New Hampshire, then South Carolina. And you can't win unless you get delegates. And Dean has quite a significant group of people who are actually coming out to support him. And so polls don't mean anything. What means something is how they vote in primaries and caucuses.

COSTELLO: That's very true. But money means something, as well, and Wesley Clark seems to have raised a lot of money already, on the first day of his announcement.

PLOTKIN: Well, he has pledges to have money.

COSTELLO: Pledges.

PLOTKIN: And pledges are not the same thing as checks. A lot of stuff has been done with the Internet.

COSTELLO: Yes.

PLOTKIN: I mean we'll just see how he does and...

COSTELLO: Yes, we will. We've got to wrap it up here.

PLOTKIN: And he can't do it until the elections. Right.

COSTELLO: We've got to wrap it up here.

Mark Plotkin, many thanks.

PLOTKIN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com