What can you do with a general when he stops being a general?

Word on the street is that retired General Wesley Clark is dropping out of the race for the Democratic Nomination today after getting spanked by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry in the Virginia and Tennessee primaries yesterday. Too bad mystery writers don't focus on this type of whodunit: Who killed Clark's candidacy?

Clark was actively recruited by the Democrats when it seemed like Howard Dean would cruise to the nomination. This, of course, was well before a single primary vote was cast, back in the heady days of Democrats shouting mightily against the war in Iraq and well before people began to wonder what exactly a "caucus" is. The Dems thought that Clark had an air of "Electablity" and would offer the kind Mil Cred that could challenge the costume wearing flyboy in the White House. Dean certainly does not have mil cred. What the Democrats didn't count on was that Clark is a terrible campaigner who sounds like a grown-up Alvin the Chipmunk with a Southern twang, and never seemed to have a political belief. Plus, his name is Wesley.

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