Clark touts veteran, outsider status
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Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark gestures during a pancake breakfast in Oklahoma.
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OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (AP) -- Calling for a higher standard of leadership, Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark stressed his status as an Army veteran and a political newcomer while appealing for support Thursday.
"I know that what's going on in America is too important to be left with politicians from Washington," Clark said, a veiled reference not only to President Bush but to Democratic front- runner John Kerry, a 20-year veteran of the Senate.
Clark flipped pancakes and greeted supporters at a VFW hall in Oklahoma City, part of a three-city trip that ends at an evening debate in South Carolina. Forty pledged delegates are at stake in Oklahoma, one of seven states with delegate contests Tuesday.
Campaign officials said Clark will focus in the coming days on winning contests in six of the seven, deferring a decision on a campaign strategy for Missouri.
Donning a white apron brightly decorated with four gold stars, a nod to his status as a retired four-star general, Clark helped prepare breakfast for about 200 supporters, most of them veterans who cheered his vow to bring an outsider's perspective to the White House.
Delivering his stump speech in a voice gone noticeably hoarse, Clark stopped and shook his head. "When you run for office, I've learned that the first thing to go is your voice," he said. "The
second thing is your handshake. I don't want to know what the third thing is."
Clark, who grew up in Arkansas, cast himself as a neighbor and a proud resident of the nation's heartland -- a contrast to Kerry and rival Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor.
In an appearance Wednesday night in Phoenix,Arizona, Clark told a rally, "When you have a country that is split apart, you need someone from the heartland who can pull it together."
Copyright 2004 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
