ABC's Field Notes (Deborah Apton on Clark)

[DoveTurnedHawk]

Lots of people know about MSNBC's "embedded" campaign reporters, but ABC also has a crew of them. I find ABC's Deborah Apton (assigned to the Clark campaign) a lot more interesting and informative than the NBC reporter, personally.

DTH

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It seems like a positive break for the Clark campaign may take some time, but in the interim, The General's staff remains hopeful that by arguing union endorsements and money don't win the nomination or equal votes, they can convince their supporters that while Dean has the passion at the moment, "passion can't get you over the finish line."

Senior staffers told ABC News that Dean plays to the hearts of only partisan Democrats and, in the end, Dean's essentially "negative" and "a disaster waiting to happen." While Dean has the popularity in the North, Clark plays well in the South — the Clark campaign's peace of mind comes in thinking that if Dean wins New Hampshire and even Iowa, Clark could come in first in the February 3 states, making this a two-man, Dean/Clark, race to the finish.

On a charter flight from Atlanta to Columbia, South Carolina on Friday, General Clark told a small group of reporters that he didn't know how the endorsements by SEIU and AFSCME for Dean would affect his campaign, saying that "the real impact is on other people, not me." Two Clark staffers said on background that while the campaign never thought Clark had a chance of winning the SEIU endorsement, they can say that their decision to pull out of Iowa lost them the AFSCME nod.

At the end of the day, it comes down to plenty of money. Something Howard Dean has, and Wes Clark wants. With almost daily fundraising events, the Clark staffers seem assured they will raise over $6 million at the end of the fourth quarter. A campaign source said the campaign could "live in New York and never do fundraisers" — a sign that the Clark campaign is feeling a'o.k. about their fundraising situation. And one Clark staffer told ABC News a decision about whether or not Clark will take matching funds could come as early as this week...

The campaign is also often quick to note that they have not spent money on advertising yet — although, presumably, the money is being teed up as we write. Last week in New Hampshire Joe Slade White was on the road with a photographer and staffers getting together the first ad for the Clark campaign. White was also in Little Rock this weekend — ABC News has been told to watch New Hampshire as the first market.

The Clark campaign will announce on a conference call today their newest Internet endeavor, The Clark Community Network, that will assign personal 'forclark.com' blogs to every registered user

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/fieldclark_feature.html

DTH

[chimpymustgo]

1. Clark rising. Getting better every day.

His campaign has a nice feel right now. Dawn...

[Mz Pip]

2. He's also starting to

get a tiny bit of press. Kind of interesting that he's in a dead heat with Dean in spite of basically either being ignored or ridiculed by the media.

I heard nothing about him leading in SC until I read it here. Pretty soon, they'll have to take notice. He's not going away.

MzPip
:dem: