From WNYK.

From W. NYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. It looks like General Wesley Clark picked an opportune moment to enter the race for the Democratic nomination for president.

As President Bush's approval ratings continued to slide this week, a poll suggested that if the election were held now, Clark would

narrowly defeat the president. This despite an early and embarrassing Clark flip-flop on whether

he would have voted for the Iraq war, first the general said probably, then reversed himself

to say absolutely not. The press, of course, is attracted to political blunders.

It's also attracted to political frontrunners,

and that combination has resulted in some extremely skeptical coverage of the new candidate,

as reflected in Clark's first answer to a question in Thursday's debate.

Brian, if I've learned one thing in my nine days in politics, you better be careful with hypothetical

questions.

In this week's National Journal, Bill Powers compared the general's first week in the race with,

quote, one of those nature channel shows where the unsuspecting little gazelle

wanders out into the savannah and is immediately pounced on by a pack of starved hyenas.

Bill, welcome back to the show.

Thanks, Bob.

Good to be here.

So for the last four or five presidential election cycles, the media have done a lot of

hand-wringing about the way

we cover races, focusing on the horse race instead of the issues, over-emphasizing blunders

by the candidates and so on. Is there anything about the entry of Wesley Clark into the race

...