My friend John came down from Houston to check out the Wes Clark rally this afternoon at Wooldridge Park in Austin. The sun was relentless which, I think, dampened the energy of the rally a bit but it was a beautiful afternoon nonetheless.
The first thing I noticed was the contrast between this event and the Dean rally I attended earlier this summer. The Draft Clark movement is unmistakably grassroots. The usual suspects from the state Democratic party weren’t visible. The 3 or 4 tables were manned by Draft Clark volunteers, only a handful of whom had Clark t-shirts or buttons to distinguish them from the rest of the crowd. This was not Howard Dean’s well-oiled machine. It gave me some cause for concern that things did not seem to be more connected to a national campaign but it was also refreshing to see people passionate enough about a candidate that they were pulling things together on their own.
Someone was forward-thinking enough to print a few hundred Draft Clark signs that gave the press plenty of photo ops and provided the grateful attendees a little bit of shade. A few singer-songwriter acts performed before two speakers – a former Texas Supreme Court Judge and State Representative – took the stand. Neither gave especially rousing speeches but the latter ran down a list of Clark supporters that included the majority of Texas’ Latino State Reps, especially those from the border region. I can’t help but think this means Clark is doing his homework on Hispanic voters and creating some worthwhile alliances.
Clark’s speech was good. He’s not the fiery rhetorician that Dean is but he strikes a sincere common-man chord (aside from a cheesy display of removing his jacket) that could prove valuable against GW. I noted a seeming lack of humor before - I was wrong. His speech seemed almost impromptu and he cracked jokes in response to remarks in the audience. He made some direct jabs at the Bush administration that got everyone excited but failed to really follow up with a balanced amount of content on his own policies. He also reached out to independents and Republicans as a recent Democratic Party convertee which could play very well in Texas.
Overall, I liked the guy but his organizing machine and sound bits need work if he’s going to pull ahead as a serious contender.
Posted by sarah at September 29, 2003 5:10 PM | TrackBack