Story on Clark speech tilts toward GOP

First, something from the AP story on Wesley Clark's Madison appearance, and then a comment or two:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark called the war in Iraq a strategic blunder that has been poorly handled by the president, but he advised Tuesday against setting a deadline to withdraw U.S. troops, as fellow Democrat U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold suggested.

Clark, a four-star general who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2004, called the war a mistake during a stop in Wisconsin to raise money for fellow Democrats. He said President Bush failed to plan for the aftermath of the initial invasion and committed a "strategic blunder" that cost 1,900 lives and $200 billion.

Still, he said his military experience has convinced him setting deadlines does not work. Clark spent 34 years in the military, including time as supreme allied commander of NATO.

"You put the deadline out there for us to come home, it's used against us," Clark said.

Feingold, D-Wis., earlier this month said the U.S. should set a target date of Dec. 31, 2006, to have all of its soldiers out of Iraq. He said the proposal was meant to jump start the process of bringing American troops home.

Wisconsin state Republican chairman Rick Graber said Clark's criticism of the war was politically motivated and a sign he will run for president in 2008. He said most Americans believe a deadline to withdraw from Iraq is a bad idea and Clark's comments show how little support exists for Feingold's target.

Feingold said in a statement Tuesday the deadline is meant as a target date to end the mission in Iraq and allow the U.S. to refocus its efforts on the larger fight against global terrorism rather than let the war "dominate our security strategy and drain vital security resources for an unlimited amount of time."

Although the AP writer, J.R. Ross, clearly knows Feingold has not called for a deadline, but rather a target date (as he explains later in the story), he allows GOP hatchetman Graber to comment on a "deadline" and say "most Americans" think it's a bad idea.

You would think the GOP chair with a corner office in one of the state's big law firms would read the Wall Street Journal, but maybe he missed its story last week, about a Harris poll, that said:

As in June, most Americans (61%) favor bringing a large number of U.S. troops home from Iraq in the next year, the poll shows. That's up sharply from 47% in a November 2004 poll. In comparison, 36% of those polled say they want to keep troops in Iraq until a stable government is established there, down from 50% in November, the poll shows.

Another poll, done for AP itself, showed 78% of Americans believe the Iraq war has either increased the threat of world terrorism or had no effect.

Unfortunately, Ross' story is what most Wisconsin newspapers will provide for their readers Wednesday morning.