WOULD YOU BUY A USED VEEP FROM THIS MAN?

FORMER President Bill Clinton, stung by how poor a presidential contender Wesley Clark turned out to be, worked aggressively behind the scenes late last week to pressure John Kerry to pick the retired general as his running mate.

“The former president has been calling people, including elected officials in New York, saying that Clark would make a great vice-presidential candidate,” a well-known Democratic activist told The Post.

“He’s pushing hard because this is a credibility issue for Clinton since everybody knows Clark was the guy he created, but yet Clark did so poorly when he ran.”

Hmm. If I were Kerry, I’d be reluctant — especially since Tom Oliphant, as I noted below, is blaming Clark for the Kerry infidelity scandal:

Clark’s rumor-mongering with his press corps about Kerry was the visible tip of an iceberg of rumor-mongering that had gone on for weeks, stirred not only by some of his fund-raisers but also among the press by aides and consultants that “something” was coming. This is how spin doctors feed gossip mills without actually providing gossip.

Sounds like a poor choice to me. And why would Kerry want to pick a guy who (1) spread rumors about him that exploded into a national scandal; and (2) did so so ham-handedly that it didn’t help his campaign, and (3) got caught at it to boot?

The most charitable thing you can say about Clark is that he’s inept, and Oliphant offers more examples of ham-handedness on Clark’s part. But to me he looks like a guy who’s willing to do or say anything to advance his career, but who isn’t very good at figuring out what to do or say. I’m not sure why Kerry would be looking for those qualities in a running mate — or why Bill Clinton would be pushing the candidacy of someone possessing those qualities.