Clark Boomlet Over?

The announcement by Wes Clark and Joe Lieberman that they will stop competing in the Iowa caucuses signals, I think, that the mini-boomlet for General Clark is about over. What this highlights is the difficulty of converting generally positive press buzz into actual convention delegates. My guess is that Clark will fade pretty rapidly from the scene–unlike Lieberman, who has been fading slowly from the scene and will continue to do so.
This morning, Dick Morris has a column in which he agrees that Clark is going nowhere:
“Even with massive financial support, one cannot simply begin to run for president in the California and New York primaries in early March. Dean’s financial and political momentum will be too forceful and massive for Clark to pull it off. The hill is too steep, the slope too sharp, and the king of the hill (Dean after the early victories) is too deeply entrenched for Clark’s strategy to succeed.
“Indeed, Clark’s failure to grasp the political reality of the Internet recalls Hubert Humphrey’s failure to adjust to the primary process when it was first established in most states in 1972.”
I’m not sure I agree that Dean is so far in front, but in any case, if anyone catches him it won’t be Clark.

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