US: "My name's Wes Clark and I'm running for president," said the groomed and polished man in dark suit, red power tie, and black shoes that were shone so hard you could see your reflection in them, writes Conor O'Clery in New York
The auditorium erupted and gave him the third cheering, whistling, stomping, standing ovation since he had appeared on stage a few minutes earlier.
From the reaction of the student audience it was evident that Mr Wesley Clark's late run for the Democratic nomination for 2004 has at last hit its stride, and one could imagine that he might just conceivably be on the road to the White House.
The retired four-star general was making his first New York campaign appearance since he declared for the Democratic Presidential nomination last month.
There to support him at Hunter College on Manhattan's Upper East Side were three members of Congress, including, most importantly, New York Representative Charles Wrangel, a key ally in getting out the African American vote.
The theme of his speech was patriotism. "There is nothing more patriotic than speaking out and holding leaders accountable, whether in time of peace or in time of war," he said.
This is the kind of sentiment, from a veteran who came home on a stretcher from Vietnam and rose to become supreme commander of NATO, that Democrats feel gives an effective answer to Republican charges that they are soft on national security.
After a rocky start to his campaign, during which he lost some key staff and made a number of tactical blunders, Mr Clark has taken the lead in polls over the other eight candidates, none of whom has emerged yet as an unbeatable front-runner.
Yesterday he delivered the first in a series of four major speeches. The theme was the "New American Patriotism". The candidate will tackle healthcare, the economy and national security in the coming days.
Mr Clark proposed the creation of a corps of civilians who could be called up for service in national emergencies like the National Guard. Every American aged 18 or older could register, listing their skills.
He suggested that in times of national emergency such as terrorist attacks, the president would have the power to call to duty 5,000 civilian reservists for up to six months. Civilian reservists also could be sent overseas for jobs like reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This "will reinvigorate America's ethic of service, tap the vast reservoir of skill, generosity, and energy that is the American people, and call millions more Americans to duty." With 34 years in the military behind him, the former general tends to lecture and has yet to master the art of stirring political oratory. But he can smile for hours on end, and the packed hall responded with cheers to any hint of passion.
Supporters at the college said they had been deeply impressed by the general. "We need someone like him to beat George Bush, I don't think any of the others can do it," said a young business woman who had just joined the Clark campaign as a volunteer.
As he spoke about his military experience, the general had an opportunity to show how he reacts in an emergency after a member of a small college honour guard standing behind him on stage fainted and fell heavily to the floor, causing a brief panic among security guards.
The former soldier supervised the efforts to revive the student, gave progress reports to the audience and when the youth was eventually helped off said, to laughter, "I was telling a war story; I didn't anticipate a real casualty."