Clark Picks Tennessee as Battleground Against Kerry

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040204/pl_nm/campaign_clark_dc&cid=615&ncid=2043

JACKSON, Tenn. (Reuters) - With his first political victory under his belt, retired Gen. Wesley Clark (news - web sites) on Wednesday picked Tennessee as his battleground in a bid to make himself the chief Democratic presidential alternative to John Kerry (news - web sites).


Clark campaign officials said they plan to spend at least $1 million in television advertisements in Tennessee, saying the state's primary on Tuesday is pivotal to establishing a stronghold in the South and demonstrating an ability to evict President Bush (news - web sites) from the White House this fall.


Standing atop a lunch counter at a restaurant in Memphis, just blocks from where civil rights leader Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, Clark intensified his drive for a Tennessee victory, bypassing contests on Saturday in Michigan and Washington state.


"We are on the move," Clark yelled to supporters who crowded into the Arcade Restaurant to cheer the former NATO (news - web sites) commander following his narrow victory on Tuesday in Oklahoma's Democratic primary.

more

[Feanorcurufinwe]

1. Except Edwards has picked the same battleground

and they will split the vote of those who don't like Kerry.

[Jack_Dawson]

2. Go away Edwards!!!

Damn southerner. Why can't Edwards be another "northeastern liberal" and leave all the grits to Clark? Jeez help a brother out, JE.

[blm]

14. heheh...not gonna happen.

Remember...Clark's camp leaked word that he was going to announce just to take away the impact of Edwards scheduled announcement speech the day before.

Edwards lost a TON of media that day thanks to the Clark camp. I doubt he's feeling much benevolence.

Politics.

[Trajan]

3. What are the latest polls saying in Tennessee ? ...

[mohc]

7. Last two polls

Mason Dixon 1/28-29
Kerry 31%
Clark 22%
Undecided 18%
Edwards 13%

SUSA 1/31 - 2/2
Kerry 31%
Clark 26%
Edwards 20%

Numbers look to be converging. Kerry got a big bounce while Dean plummeted after IA and NH. Clark has had the most prescence here and has held fairly steady. With Kerry likely to pick up some boost from his wins yesterday and probable wins this weekend, it should keep him in the hunt. But both Clark and Edwards are surging, and spending lots of time here. I could see this one being a 3 way tie.

[jmaier]

8. SurveyUSA

said

Kerry 31%
Clark 26%
Edwards 20%
Dean 15%

conducted 1/31 - 2/2/04 MOE +- 3.9

http://www.surveyusa.com/currentelectionpolls.html

It's looking a bit like Oklahoma.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

10. Kerry leads Dems in Tennessee poll

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is slightly ahead in Tennessee's Feb. 10 Democratic presidential primary race and would be about even with President Bush if the November general election were held today, according to a new statewide poll. Of 313 likely Democratic primary voters polled, 31 percent said they would vote for Kerry. Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark was second with 22 percent and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards third with 13 percent. The telephone poll was conducted Wednesday and Thursday for The Tennessean and the Chattanooga Times Free Press by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington D.C. The margin of error is plus or minus 5.7 percentage points.

Asked whom they would vote for if the primary were held today, 7 percent said former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, 6 percent Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman and 3 percent civil rights activist Al Sharpton. Eighteen percent said they were undecided.

In a separate poll of 400 registered Tennessee voters who said they vote in state elections - Democrats and Republicans - Kerry was about even with Republican President Bush if the general election were held today. Forty-seven percent chose Bush, and 43 percent Kerry. Ten percent said they were undecided.

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/election/article/0,1406,KNS_630_2622245,00.html

[SangamonTaylor]

4. whoever loses TN should drop

be it Clark or Edwards.

[For PaisAn]

5. no

I don't agree

[NNN0LHI]

11. What about the rest of the field? Should they drop out if they lose too?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

6. Tennessee is Kerry country!

Kerry has longtime supporters here
No one knows for sure when or if presidential candidate John Kerry will visit Memphis, but a solid core of local supporters with roots in his past hopes he'll maintain the momentum of his Tuesday night victory in New Hampshire.

<snip>

Other Memphis Kerry supporters include a distant cousin, a co-founder with Kerry of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in 1969, and a fellow Yale University classmate. Kerry Fulmer, a Memphis social worker whose mother is a first cousin of the candidate, is the campaign's communications coordinator in Memphis and has been working steadily on his behalf since July.

<snip>

Kelly, a real estate management businessman who owns the Pat O'Brien's restaurant on Beale Street, said he has long considered himself a Republican but that he now supports his old friend Kerry. "I don't want to leave the legacy of huge national debts to my grandchildren and child,'' he said of his change of heart.

Kelly, recently disabled through his long-ago exposure to Agent Orange, was active in anti-war politics in New York when Kerry participated in the same cause in Boston in 1969. They teamed up to form Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and Kelly later helped in Kerry's first, unsuccessful run for Congress in Massachusetts in 1972.

<snip>

Shelby County Democratic vice chairman David Cocke met Kerry at the Yale Political Union in the mid-'60s, where Cocke was a year behind the activist future senator. Cocke said he sees Kerry from time to time, but doesn't pretend to be a close friend. He's helping in the campaign because he says his old friend has a solid stand on issues of real concern that works just as well in Memphis as it does in Chicago or on Wall Street.

http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/local_news/article/0,1426,MCA_437_2612352,00.html


Kerry campaign opens Knox office
Knoxville-area teacher Jim Karney recalled his favorite John Kerry moment from more than 30 years ago like it occurred last week. The two Vietnam War veterans were in Washington in the spring of 1971 to stage what Karney described as a "teach-in" leading up to Kerry's antiwar address before Congress. The vets had lost a court battle to continue camping on government grounds around the capital when Kerry emerged from the crowd and gave a stirring speech that galvanized the weary protesters.

"I'll be damned if I can't sleep on the ground I fought for," Karney recalled Kerry saying.

Fresh off Kerry's win in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night, Karney joined about 50 other Kerry supporters Wednesday at the West Knoxville office of a local lawyer that will be used as Kerry's campaign headquarters.

<snip>

The Tennessee state director for the Kerry campaign, Stephen Lindsey, said that dozens of volunteers will be sweeping across Knoxville and the state using direct mailers, phone calls, yard signs and old-fashioned word-of-mouth politicking to promote the Massachusetts senator.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/politics/article/0,1406,KNS_356_2612752,00.html

[brainwashed_youth]

9. That's a good pick

I think Clark has made a smart move by picking Tennessee. Edwards, too. Being Southerners, Clark and Edwards both have great chances of winning the south.

[NashVegas]

12. Bredesen

TN's governor has a 72% approval rating. Not bad, for a transplanted Yankee.

I imagine he's being heavily courted, but IIRC he won't be endorsing.

[mmonk]

13. I'm a little confused

All I heard today on the radio while traveling in my work from media and dem operatives is that there are only two candidates. Yet this thread has mention of three. Am I missing something? And I could have sworn only one has dropped out since Tuesday.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

15. Why?

I don't understand what your confusion is. Are you really confused? What about? Maybe you should actually mention the candidate that you say isn't being mentioned. (hmmm... self-fulfilling prophecy?) Are you referring to Kucinich? Sharpton?

Considering that we are talking about a Reuters article about Clark, we know he is not being ignored by the media.

[mmonk]

16. I'll clear it up for you

radio and most of the tv pundits. Does that help?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

17. I'm sorry,

no offense, but your comment is just too cryptic for me to make out.


"radio and most of the tv pundits. Does that help?"


No, I'm sorry, it doesn't. What point are you trying to make?

[mmonk]

18. They kept speaking today as if

its a two man race for the democratic nomination. Which ones? I can't remember in that they were responding to interviews and I was busy while driving and checking cell phone call (radio) and home on TV while walking through doing other things. The point of your inquisition?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

19. Well, it sounds like the djs on the radio station you are listening to

are idiots. But it's a little hard to tell since you said


"They kept speaking today as if its a two man race for the democratic nomination." -- but you can't remember which two men? It doesn't sound like you were listening very closely. Maybe if you missed the names of those two candidates, you also missed some other things as well.

[mmonk]

20. They weren't DJ's

they were news and politics related. I was in and out of my car so sorry I couldn't be more specific. Since that is primarily the theme of most reports and analysis I heard today irrespective of who was saying it, and it was MY experience today, I thought I would comment and get a dig out of those press people and interviewed pundits as well. I guess that was a mistake? You seem to take such issue with it. Don't shoot the messenger.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

21. I don't mean to shoot the messenger

and I apologize if you are getting that feeling. It's just that without using any names I found your post vague and since you still haven't used any names, things haven't improved -- I still don't know what you are talking about, but I don't think pursuing it any further is going to help.

Peace.

[mmonk]

22. If I knew I would

but didn't see the need since I was expressing a general theme I encountered. Mostly, I stay tuned to NPR on the car radio, but switch around every once in awhile. I guess I need only repeat or comment when I have verbatim quotes and the names. Maybe I should skip out and keep my thoughts to myself concerning the election to myself. Take care.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

23. Speak out whenever you want.

However, if I don't understand what you meant, I might ask for clarification.

[mmonk]

24. aye

inquire away.:hi:

[tnlefty]

25. For anyone interested, Clark's schedule for tomorrow

Feb. 5th

Lebannon City Hall 7:30 a.m. CST
200 Castle Heights Ave.

Manchester Dem. County Administrative Plaza 10:30 CST

Chattanooga Choo Choo Roosevelt Room 2:00 ET