Former NATO commander Wesley Clark has decided to join the 2004 White House race, making the retired four-star general the 10th Democratic presidential candidate, sources close to him said today.
Clark, a former top Pentagon war planner who headed the 1999 NATO bombing campaign in Kosovo but is a newcomer to the battlefield of presidential politics, was to announce his decision in Little Rock, Arkansas tomorrow, the sources said.
His entry, widely anticipated by many Democrats, throws another wild card into an already unpredictable campaign that has focused on the struggling US economy and President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq.
Clark, 58, who had agonized over his decision for months, has been meeting with potential donors and supporters and recently began interviewing prospective campaign managers.
Ron Oliver, the Arkansas Democratic Party chairman, told journalists Clark met with about 75 to 100 local activists and national party figures in Little Rock today.
Oliver cited Clark as telling the group, "I think thiscrowd is going to like the announcement tomorrow."
"I think you are going to see a new direction in thepresidential campaign," Clark was quoted as saying.Oliver said a decision on the time and place for the Clarkannouncement would be decided shortly.
"It's a go," said one political source.Among those invited to the meeting with Clark wereofficials of President Bill Clinton's administration, includingMark Fabiani, a former White House spokesman.
Several members of the team that helped take Clinton fromgovernor of Arkansas to president in 1992 were in Little Rockand had been talking with Clark.