Retired Army General Wesley Clark launched his bid for the presidential race, setting his sights on the presidency with a war-tested military record he said makes him the ideal candidate to challenge President Bush.

Clark, 58, became the 10th Democratic candidate to enter the race Wednesday. Although he is several steps behind the other candidates, who have been aggressively hitting the campaign trail for months, Clark has the support of a nationwide grassroots campaign.

Several independent Web sites, such as draftclark2004.com, have raised over one million dollars for the Clark campaign, completely independent of Clark.

Max Guyll, Iowa regional coordinator for draftclark2004.com, said he believed the general was the best candidate to beat Bush.

“He’s the right person to lead the nation because he will be a great representative of our country,” he said. “He will work with our allies in a diplomatic way, not a bullying way.”

Clark’s late entry offers Democrats an answer to Bush’s potential advantage on national security. His resume is reputable — Clark was a Rhodes scholar, first in his 1966 class at West Point, White House fellow and NATO commander during the 1999 campaign in Kosovo.

“Without question, Clark has the best military, foreign policy and diplomacy record of the candidates,” said Guyll, assistant scientist at the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research at Iowa State University.

However, the retired general has never held political office, and he has never been pressed to produce a domestic agenda.

Guyll said although Clark hasn’t held any official office, he has an equal amount of political experience as the other Democratic candidates.

“Those who make the rank of general, they often have much political experience,” he said. “When you make reports to Congress, work with politicians and lead the 19 countries in NATO, you have political experience.”

Josh Reicks, president of the ISU College Republicans, also believed Clark could be a strong contender in the Democratic presidential race.

“I think the White House recognizes that Clark will be a strong candidate,” Reicks said. “However, if he becomes a front runner, [former Vermont Governor] Howard Dean will fight him tooth and nail.”

Reicks said he didn’t believe Clark would be a threat to Bush’s re-election campaign.

“Whether it’s Dean or Clark or any of the other candidate, whoever wins the nomination will be so battered and bruised after the primaries, it’ll be easy pickings for Bush.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.