Clark, Edwards stressing Tennessee

[wyldwolf]

With the Tennessee presidential primary getting closer, Senator John Edwards and retired general Wesley Clark are the candidates stressing Tennessee the most.

Clark has 18 paid staff members in the state and has visited three times since entering the race. He has his fourth and fifth T-V commercials in rotation now and a second round of radio ads on the air.

Edwards hasn't aired any ads but has been to Tennessee seven times over the past year and currently has 14 staffers in the state, with plans to add four more.

The other campaigns have had little presence in Tennessee for the February 10th primary.

Clark attended a year of high school in Lebanon, Tennessee. Edwards worked a few years in Nashville.

http://www.wbir.com/News/news.asp?ID=16639

[kcr]

1. Clark's ads aren't helping

They suck, and there isn't much buzz down here about him. Edwarss, Dean and, since Iowa, Kerry are the ones being talked about.

Doesn't matter for the general, though. No national dem can take Tennessee.

[Justice]

3. I've Heard Good Things About

Clark's ads down south, so without more info - find it hard to accept this characterization.

[kcr]

5. I live in TN

And have seen them. They are standard, bland, unmemoriable, and don't really do much to introduce the candidate to voters. Nothing to send home about, and nothing to make anyone pay attention to him.

[Justice]

6. Can you describe them?

Rather than describe them by the conclusions you have drawn from them, can you actually describe the ads themselves?

[mohc]

7. The latest one

Just Clark speaking, the basic gist being.

"I've fought a war before, and I know that you never send troops into battle without making sure its the last resort. When I'm President, I will get us out of this mess, and I will not get us into another one. I'm Wes Clark and I approved this message."

As I said in a previous post, the ad he was running pre-Iowa was much better. It had a different speaker, with stills of Clark in a little montage. Went over his life and vision for our country.

[OKNancy]

10. All ads can be viewed here

http://clark04.com/ads/

[mohc]

11. "Leader" is playing now

They were running "Responsibility" at first, and I think it is a much better ad.

[arewethereyet]

13. if its the same as the Virginia ones, they suck a lot

but they LOOK expensive.

[Jack_Dawson]

2. GO CLARK -

Win over those good ol' boy states. You can do it.

[mohc]

4. Based on my ever-so-accurate sign count....

It had appeared to be that Clark had the state to himself. His ads are quite awful as of late, the ones he was airing about 3 weeks ago were much better, but noone was paying attentioned then. All of a sudden Dean signs popped up everywhere, mostly around the voting locations. I was going to early vote myself, but I think I am going to wait until after the 3rd to see how the race shapes up. Edwards will begin advertising tomorrow, but it looks unlikely that anyone else will make a big play until after MI and WA, leaving very little time to campaign here.

[cid]

8. I live in rural TN, not far from Ft. Campbell, just over the Ky/TN line

two years ago it was actually dangerous to say anything negative about Bush, however, its a whole new ballgame out here now. The only two of the candidates ive heard good things about from previous Bush lovers is Dean and Clark. That will probably change, but there are a lot of unemployed people out here, a lot of people who know ppl in Iraq, etc..and they blame Bush for it all. i do not know how the mood is in the more populated areas, but I can tell you that if was based on my area, a Dem would win TN in a landslide.

[mlawson]

9. Based on the Iraq quagmire, I assume?

Being so close to Ft Campbell, and all. I used to live in East TN, and it was owned by the fundies. Also, a large chunk of the TN population is there, as well. For Edwards (or any Dem) to win TN in November, they must find some way to tap into at least a portion of East TN's baptist vote block, and I don't see how they do that.

So far as the primary goes, Edwards might be able to win that. Gen election, I dunno. Kerry or Dean, no way.

[Bombtrack]

12. Clark has to get Kris Kristofferson to campaign for him

maybe throw a mini-concert/fundraiser in Nashville