DETROIT -- If Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was hoping to focus attention on the problems of his city -- or those of urban America in general -- by hosting the latest Democratic presidential debate, he must have been sorely disappointed with the event itself. Moderator Gwen Ifill (of PBS) and panelists Carl Cameron (of FOX News) and Huel Perkins (of Detroit's local FOX affiliate) largely ignored urban issues, choosing instead to confront the candidates with what Ifill called the "conventional wisdom" about their weaknesses and yet another round of questions on Iraq. Detroit itself got little attention during the debate -- which was co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and FOX News -- except when Rep.

For months they were in on the world's greatest secret. While other Democratic Party insiders and Internet aficionados toiled for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and former Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.), they held out hope that retired Gen. Wesley Clark might enter the presidential race. No one paid them much mind. But they hung on Clark's every word, read his book, Waging Modern War, with reverent care, and extrapolated his policies and positions from casual phrases the general dropped while serving as a war analyst for CNN. When they heard rumors that Clark was concerned about his ability to build a campaign organization, they started recruiting national coordinators.