It's not quite clear what you mean by "a less moderate candidate" than what people were led to expect. At the time, the left and the left-liberals were blasting and undercutting Carter as too conservative (and spent the next 12 years whining about how Reagan and Bush were repealing policies instituted during the Carter years, while absolutely baffled and appalled at how Reagan got elected), and Republicans have been crowing for over two decades that Carter was the epitome of the failure of liberalism.
     One of the reasons why Clark is so fascinating to many Democrats is that, as Slate pointed out, he is the intelligent peacenik's wartime candidate, while he is NO McGovern. Dean's candidacy is seductive to Democrats of all stripes, as he shows anger and spine and seeming dedication to traditional Democratic values, unlike the rest of the leaders of that sorry, incompetent, and corrupt party. And patriotic Democrats who decided to do the bipartisan thing and get behind their President and support the Iraq war because of the WMD issue have discovered to their dismay that they have been duped into the war and led into a political trap if they criticize Bush. Young Americans are being butchered for no good reeason in Iraq, and incredible amounts of national wealth are being squandered there while the Republicans rob the average citizen here at hom. But Clarkwatchers realize that the average American and/or will not be sold on the truth by one like Dean. Most Americans long ago came to realize the unfortunate truth of the modern degeneration of progressive politics: A. that the Democrats are totally incompetentand corrupt, and B. that the Left hates America, and most left-liberals have nothing but sneering contempt for this country, its civilization, its faiths, its traditions,its history and most of all, for its people. As an Atlantic article written after the Dukakis debacle pointed out, leftists and liberals hate Americans, but love power. (When the first Bush railed against "sneering liberals" at the '88 Republican convention, and Dukakis' visage would appear as the only response, I immediately knew that the '88 election was lostfor the Dems.) Clark may or may not be the answer, but someone like him certainly is. Someone who embraces traditional progressive Democratic values, someone who has spent his life in non-partisan defense of this country, someone who comes without the baggage of the post-McGovern cultural and ideological agenda of the left. People like Ann Coulter are swine, and she overindulges in hyperbole and exageration, but her message resonates and her books are best sellers because her core message about so many modern leftists and liberals is true: so many of them are fools and potential traitors. Unfortunately, the Republicans have bamboozled the majority of voters time and time and time again into believing that absolutely nothing else is possible form the Democrats, and the Left and Democrats have been more than obliging in giving them evidence of it. Leftists and liberal think their s--- doesn't stink. They're wrong, and it will be a damned shame if their usual buffoonery and idiot candidates leave this nation in the hands of oil-imperialists and corporate oligarchs after the next election. Howard Dean is the Republican's best hope. General Clark's potential is promising but ambiguous.........