A retired four-star general and former NATO commander is considering entering the crowded field of presidential candidates, and ISU political science professors agree he has potential to be a wild card who could shake up the Democratic primaries.

Gen. Wesley Clark will announce his decision on whether he will run for the Democratic presidential nomination before his Sept. 19 appearance at the University of Iowa.

According to The Associated Press, Clark confirmed he was putting a campaign plan together, but attributed it to the type of “parallel planning” done in the military.

“If you want to find out whether you’re going to go ahead, you have to have financial resources and have staff available,” he said.

He has a resume that would make him a serious contender in the race; Clark was a Rhodes scholar, first in his 1966 West Point Class, White House fellow and head of the U.S. Command and NATO commander during the 1999 campaign in Kosovo.

A Clark campaign could siphon support from the other top candidates in the presidential race, said Robert Lowry, associate professor of political science.

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean’s efforts to pull in front of the other candidates would be hampered by the Clark candidacy, Lowry said. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts would be harmed in two areas: He would no longer be the race’s only combat veteran, and he couldn’t claim exclusive expertise on foreign policy.

“Clark definitely has Kerry beat on military experience,” Lowry said. “It’s one thing to command a boat in Vietnam — which he did win awards for. However, it’s quite another thing to be a general.”

Clark only announced he is a Democrat on Sept. 3, but his policies have long followed the party line. He has criticized the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, assailing President Bush for rejecting help from other countries even as he dared terrorists to attack U.S. troops. Clark favors abortion rights and affirmative action. He said Bush’s tax cuts have harmed domestic interests.

James Hutter, associate professor of political science, said Clark needs to expand his resume beyond military experience since his appeal is strictly that of a high-ranking general.

“He’s somewhat of an Arnold Schwarzenegger in that he’s an open book who hasn’t been involved in politics,” he said. “However, the similarities end there, since he is a high-ranking military official. But if he’s going to cross over from the military to politics, he needs to prove he can handle other issues besides foreign policy and the military.”

Even though he hasn’t announced his candidacy, Internet-based groups have worked for months to rouse support for Clark by planting the seeds of the campaign and raising more than $1 million in pledges.

Hutter said although Clark is months behind the other candidates, he isn’t necessarily at a disadvantage.

“We don’t know that Clark won’t get strong support from the majority of voters who haven’t chosen their candidate yet,” he said. “But he shouldn’t depend on drawing support from other candidates.”

The Democratic primary race is still filled with uncertainty. A recent CBS poll found that two-thirds of those surveyed couldn’t name one of the nine candidates seeking the party’s nomination, suggesting the race is wide open.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story