Well, it's been a painful couple days for Wes Clark. Against the war, for the war, against the war. Not a great start. Here's the lead to Saturday's WP story (similar in AP and NYT and everywhere else):

Retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark reversed course yesterday on the issue of Iraq, saying that he would "never have voted" for the congressional resolution authorizing President Bush to go to war, just a day after saying that he likely would have voted for it.

On a campaign trip to Florida on Thursday, Clark told reporters, after some equivocation, that he "probably" would have supported the Iraq resolution approved by Congress last fall, though he went on to say that he was "against the war as it emerged" and that he did not believe the war should have been launched when it was.

That statement caught many of his supporters, as well as many of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, by surprise. Yesterday, in interviews with the Associated Press and Reuters before a speech in Iowa City, Clark offered a revised statement of his position.

"Let's make one thing real clear: I would never have voted for this war," Clark told the AP. "I've gotten a very consistent record on this. There was no imminent threat. This was not a case of preemptive war. I would have voted for the right kind of leverage to get a diplomatic solution, an international solution to the challenge of Saddam Hussein."

It doesn't shake my confidence in him as a potential president--in fact I like a guy who doesn't see the world all black and white and is willing to admit that he would have struggled on how to vote, given two awful choices--but it does shake my confidence in his ability as a campaigner. I'll just say one more time, that the big problem with him entering so late is that pres candidates get much better over the months of the campaign, and he's out of time to learn. All the worse for a newbie to elective office.

But he's a quick study. I'm not jumping ship, just a little queasy, hoping he pulls it together.

And do I have new respect for Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi. While everybody else was piling on, the head of the camp with the most to lose cut him some slack:

Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi was less critical. "I know we were surprised yesterday [Thursday] when we heard he said he would have voted for the resolution," he said. "But, look, he just got in the race. This is a new world of politics, and I think you've got to give him some time so we can learn where his positions are. But we think he's going to have an impact on the race, and other candidates should take him seriously. We do."

Absolutely true, every word of it. But he didn't have to say so. Very classy guy.