Chris Kofinis does a double-take as he passes a rack of Saint
Louis University T-shirt/baseball cap combos on the way to the
cashier at the University’s Barnes and Noble Bookstore. He sorts
through a few of them.

“Do they have any larges?” he asks himself, then finds one and
carries it to the register with the box of Band-Aids he had
originally entered the store to buy.

“This will be great for Flat Wesley,” he says as he pulls out a
fold of cash and a half-dozen Wesley Clark campaign buttons.
Thanking the two women behind the counter with a big smile, Kofinis
makes sure to hand two pins to each of the cashiers before he
leaves.

A minute later, he is digging a life-size cardboard cut-out of
General Wesley Clark out of the overhead storage space of the Clark
Race for America mobile home, which was parked on Laclede Avenue
outside the Busch Student Center last Monday afternoon, Nov.
24.

Outside again, he laughs with excitement as he tries to drape
the Billiken T-shirt over the cut-out without losing both to gusts
of bitter wind.

Kofinis, a former professor of American politics and the deputy
policy director for Clark’s presidential campaign, seems less and
less to be projecting enthusiasm for the sake of his candidate and
more so to be genuinely enjoying the subtleties of grassroots
organizing.

He and his half-dozen colleagues–some from Clark’s headquarters
in Little Rock, Ark., some from his St. Louis office–arrived at
SLU last Monday afternoon after nearly 24 hours of hand-pumping at
local hotspots like the Savvis Center, Uncle Bill’s Pancake House,
Blueberry Hill and Washington University. Yet, they spilled out of
their van, one of two that left Little Rock the previous Friday,
hungry for more gloved hands in which to place a miniature Clark
chocolate bar, to which they had stapled Clark campaign
information.

“I’ve never seen a candidate who gets more sincere joy out of
campaigning,” Kofinis said of Clark, whom all the staffers simply
call “The General.”

It seems to have rubbed off–at least for this band of
campaigners–which may bode well for a candidate who entered the
race relatively late and whose tardiness could cost him votes if
primary season rolls around and he has been unable to build support
on the ground in individual campaigns.

Clark has already decided not to run in the Iowa Caucus and has
set his sights on the Feb. 3 primaries, according to Brad Bakker, a
Clark representative in St. Louis. Looking to first gain momentum
in the New Hampshire primary, Bakker said the Clark team hopes
state primaries on Feb. 3, including Missouri’s primary, will weed
out all the Democratic contenders except Clark and Vermont Governor
Howard Dean.

The logic goes that Clark’s moderate image and military marks
could easily stomp the more radical Dean in a two-man race.

And the unique enthusiasm that initially pushed Clark into the
race encourages the feasibility of this eleventh-hour bid.

“The guy ran because people participated!” Kofinis gushes,
speaking of the Draft Clark campaign, which he and others launched
in mid-June–and which Kofinis says is the main reason the general
ran.

“I think we’re in a fantastic spot,” he added, pointing out that
the last few weeks have seen a surge in Clark’s popularity. “The
campaign has really changed.”

The challenge for Clark will be to sustain support after the
Jan. 27 New Hampshire primary, the first race in which Clark plans
to run.

Kofinis noted that one handicap will be the campaign’s use of
matching funds, which will give Clark a financial boost, but will
cap the amount of money he is ultimately allowed to raise.

Opponents, like Dean, have opted not to accept the government
funds–and students, among other volunteers, may soon be making up
the difference for Clark.

“They’re central to this campaign,” said Clark’s student
outreach coordinator, Damien Wesley Clark Goodmon (who swears his
name is just a coincidence).

Goodmon said he believes students have more time and energy to
commit to the campaign, noting that plans are underway for an
internship program in which students will help canvass in New
Hampshire and South Carolina, another Feb. 3 primary state.

After an about an hour, Kofinis rounds up his crew and uses a
Palm Pilot to scroll through dozens of pages of e-mails he has
accumulated over the last couple of days.

As quickly as they popped out of the van, the staffers duck back
into its warmth, ready to hit more restaurants and campuses, Flat
Wesley in tow.