Lexington, VA – General Wesley K. Clark (ret.) will deliver the key note address May 26, 2007, at 5 p.m. on the Lee Chapel Lawn, during Washington and Lee University’s Spring Kickoff (May 23-26) for the 100th anniversary of its Mock Convention, the premier student-run convention in the nation. The W&L Mock Convention, which predicts the nominee for U.S. President from the party not in the White House, is held every four years at the historic Washington and Lee University campus. Since its inception in 1908, the student body has been correct 18 out of 23 times, with only one incorrect prediction since 1948 when students predicted Sen. Edward Kennedy would win the Democratic nomination in 1976.

The Spring Kick-Off begins May 23rd at 7:30 p.m. with a debate between the College Republicans and Young Democrats. Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, will join a panel discussion of presidential issues featuring prominent political commentators Mike Allen, Steve Jarding, and Chuck Todd on May 24th at 7:30 p.m. The weekend will also include a live performance by the band Gov’t Mule. All events are open to the public and the media.

The Spring Kickoff marks the start of the centennial Washington and Lee University Mock Convention, which will take place on its campus January 25-26, 2008. Historically, approximately 90 percent of the Washington and Lee student body participates in the quadrennial event. The Convention will feature prominent keynote speakers, a political parade through downtown historic Lexington, and an actual simulation of the Presidential Nominating Convention. Previous speakers at the Convention have included Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson, James Carville, Harry Truman, and William Jennings Byran.

This event previously has received gavel-to-gavel coverage on C-SPAN and has been covered in the Washington Post and New York Times, among others. Time magazine referred to the Mock Convention as the "biggest and boomingest” of all amateur gatherings. Newsweek dubbed it “the most realistic” student conclave. The Mock Convention has been applauded on the floor of the U.S. Senate as an “outstanding practical experiment in politics.”