10 miles square: all the General's Men Wesley Clark's disappointed army in Washington

Washington Monthly, March, 2004 by Christina Larson

Like other Clark supporters--legislative aides who tried to finagle time off to work for the campaign, consultants and college students who traveled to the early primary states, and lawyers who admit to posting fewer billable hours since Clark announced--Housman's involvement had been poignant. "When you first start building things, you go through fits and starts. Most campaigns do this over many months. For us, it was compressed and happened under a massive spotlight." Housman raised his eyebrows in a knowing sort of way. "All the highs and lows were quicker and came faster together."

The two big-screen TVs that had been flashing muted images of Wolf Blitzer, James Carville, Paul Begala, and Jeff Greenfield suddenly posted the first returns from New Hampshire, then showing Clark coming in fourth behind Edwards. A few people groaned.

Some speculated that the die had been cast when Clark's team opted out of Iowa, where voters who didn't want Dean rallied to either a war hero or a Southerner--nevermind that Clark was both, he wasn't on the ballot in the Hawkeye state. As Park told me earlier, "I think it was a mistake to drop out of Iowa. But that's a bit like playing Monday morning quarterback now."

As the night wore on, a couple of folks hurried home to waiting spouses. "My poor husband, I never see him," said Stephanie Leger Short, a pretty, lawyer with her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, as she gathered her coat and gloves. Short, a co-organizer of the night's C Company event, had first seen Clark at a New Democrat Network event even before he entered the fray, and it was political love at first sight. "When he talked, I thought, he needs to run, this man should run for president," she explained in her Louisiana drawl. "But John Kerry," she said of the night's front-runner, "Kerry can never win in Louisiana. You know how Southern Democrats are."

Several of the younger supporters pulled up chain to the tables nearest the TVs and ordered another round. A little later, the tally of Clark's votes climbed just above Edwards's, putting the general in third place, though still well behind Kerry and Dean. That uptick drew the evening's biggest round of cheering. A few of the more optimistic folks were soon talking about their next potential campaign road-trip.

"Are you guys in for South Carolina?" one twenty-something brunette asked a group of a half-dozen fellow travelers crowded around a table.

"South Carolina?" one lawyer, who had been knocking on doors in New Hampshire two weeks earlier, considered. "This weekend?"

"Oh, come on, you're in," she pleaded, slightly flirtatiously.

"Maybe. Well, sure"

"You're so in"

The campaign--and the candidate's promise--was too good to let go of just yet.

Christina Larson is the managing editor of The Washington Monthly.