Reply #147: They liked Kerry better period.

[Crunchy Frog]

None of the other candidates did appreciably better than Clark, although they did get more delegates than him, simply because they stuck around in the race longer than he did.

Clark simply had a more realistic idea of his chances earlier on, or else he had less ego investment, or a greater committment to the ultimate goal of getting rid of Bush. Therefore he dropped out as soon as it became clear to him that he didn't have a shot at the nomination, and threw his support to the remaining candidate whom he thought had the best chance of beating Bush.

Dean, Edwards and Kucinich all had some other agendas in place that led them to continue in the races for a longer time after it became clear that they were not going to get the nomination. That does not mean that they were liked better.