Philocrites

Scenes from the end of the road.

by Philocrites

From Ryan Lizza's report on Wesley Clark's all-but-final campaign sprint:

Reminiscing about the last five months, Clark sounds almost bemused by the absurdities of life on the campaign trail. As we talk, one of the embedded journalists from the television networks who follows Clark everywhere records our interview. Clark says he has finally figured out that the embeds only film him now just in case he dies. "They call it the death watch," he says. "She's taking those pictures to see if I'm going to have a heart attack while I'm talking to you. It's nothing that I'm saying that's particularly interesting. She's heard it all a dozen times. She just wants to see if I go, ohhhh, ahhhh." Clark holds his hands to his chest, stiffens his body, feigns a heart attack, and lets out a sound that recalls Howard Dean on election night . . .

I ask him what the low point of the campaign was but he insists, "I can't think of any." But a few minutes later I witness it. Up in the front of the bus Clark is standing near the bathroom door. He turns to the embed, smiling. "Did you want to turn off that camera so I can go in here?" he asks. She answers, "Can I come?" Clark's staff breaks up laughing. Someone teases the embed that she is known to like the handsome John Edwards more than Clark anyway. Clark just stands in front of the bathroom shaking his head and smiling. "She asked me to go into the bathroom with her. And I'm only her second choice! ... It's the lowest moment of the campaign."

("The end is near," Ryan Lizza, Campaign Journal, New Republic 2.10.04)

Copyright © 2004 by Philocrites | Posted 10 February 2004 at 5:48 PM

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