Former presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark endorsed Sen. John Kerry (Mass) Friday at the Red Gym as part of the senator’s first day of campaigning in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin’s primary will be held Tuesday.

Clark, a former NATO commander, said his support for the frontrunner’s campaign sprung from Kerry’s sense of patriotism as a fellow Vietnam War veteran. He feels Kerry has the “right stuff” to lead the country.

Supporting Kerry just days after dropping his own campaign, Clark said the senator has the best chance of defeating President Bush in the upcoming national election.

Since the Iowa caucus nearly a month ago, Kerry has led in the polls and in the delegate tally in the primary race. He captured two more states over the weekend, winning caucuses in Nevada and Washington, D.C.

“I’ll do everything I can to make sure George Bush doesn’t get away with playing politics on national security,” Clark said, whose own campaign centered on the same issue.

Kerry stressed the bond formed by the two candidates’ shared history in Vietnam and the many similar core objectives of their campaign.

“[Clark] and I did not just come here to stand together,” Kerry said. “We came here to mark the beginning of the end of the Bush administration.”

Among other issues, Kerry spoke about the country’s dependence on foreign oil, the loss of jobs affecting Wisconsin residents and the country at large, the United States’ role in world politics and the irresponsibility of the “unaffordable” tax cuts imposed by the Bush administration.

Kerry said the Bush administration allowed the United States to continue its unnecessary consumption of foreign oil by working backward on various environmental regulations and policies.
“No young American in a uniform should ever be held hostage to America’s dependence on oil,” Kerry said.

He said the next generation of Americans should not be forced to deal with the lack of environmental protection put in place by today’s policymakers.
Kerry went on to discuss the recent increase in unemployment throughout the United States and particularly in Wisconsin. He said the recent loss of millions of American jobs is the sharpest since the Great Depression and feels the current administration is not doing enough to get America back on its feet.
“The President’s job is not just raising the stock market,” Kerry said. “It is putting America back to work.”
Kerry said as president he would roll back tax cuts that favor the wealthy and invest the money saved into education and social welfare programs. He added higher education should be accessible and affordable for every American.
Kerry also said he would return to the United Nations to turn a new page with foreign policy and rejoin the community of nations.
“Multilateralism is strength, not weakness,” he said.
Kerry also spoke Friday afternoon at the Alliant Energy Center as the featured guest for Gov. Jim Doyle’s economic forum.