The Bush Administration takes a body-blow from Gen. Wesley Clark in this policy piece. Clark may have ran a crappy campaign after being drafted and looked lost at sea as a candidate, but he's proving himself to be one of the sharpest voices in the criticism of the Bush failures.

Of course, I'm partial to any article that discusses George Kennan's seminal works. There's been no more important article written in American history. Wish I had a link to it ... someone help me with that if you know of one.

While I worked for a time for the Clark campaign here in Indiana, I'm not sure how to summarize Clark as we head into the election. He's not a good VP selection (small electoral impact, lack of experience), but he might be setting himself up as the Democratic version of Colin Powell. The comps there are pretty close - military background, attempted draft as a candidate, great education, loyal followers.

A more apt political comparison might be to set Clark as the slightly off-key compliment to John McCain. Just as McCain's GOP credentials have been questioned, most recently (and poorly) by Speaker Hastert, Clark was assailed as "too Republican" for the Dems. If we put Clark and McCain as Centrists, inward on the scale from their parties, things look better for Kerry.

I'm finally starting to understand the Kerry campaign strategy. He's better off right now seeing how far down the Bush-Cheney ticket digs itself and not saying much of anything. Save the money for when it can get the most impact. Keep pressure on the GOP by demanding more debates, something Bush will avoid like the proverbial plague.

For those more conspiratorial amongst us, I'm starting to worry that there's only one thing that can help Bush at this point: a crisis. Remember, New Yorkers were none to fond of Giulani before he came off like a champ in the post-9/11 phase. Even Bush looked pretty good in those days. Karl Rove won't forget those poll numbers.