COLUMBIA, S.C. - Retired Gen. Wesley Clark said Friday he has enlisted former South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges as a senior adviser to his Democratic presidential campaign.

"Jim Hodges has national experience," Clark said. "He's worked education issues, quality of education issues and all kinds of important issues."

Hodges, who served one term before losing his re-election bid last year to Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, said he would lend his political expertise on education issues as Clark campaigns across the county.

Clark has "a certain fire in his belly" that separates him from the crowded field of White House hopefuls, Hodges said.

"There's a real buzz about the Clark campaign that I think the other campaigns don't have right now and I sense that," he said. "Part of the advice that I've given him is to be himself. I think that what he has to sell the most is incredible leadership skills that, frankly, others don't have."

A recent poll showed that Clark, who jumped into the Democratic race in September, had surpassed North Carolina Sen. John Edwards among likely voters in the South Carolina primary slated for Feb. 3.

Edwards is confident with the way his campaign is going in his native state, spokeswoman Jenni Engebretsen said. "We will continue to stick with our plan," she said.

Several key state Democrats have yet to endorse any of the nine candidates for the party's nomination, making Hodges' support a coup for the Clark campaign, said Winthrop University political scientist Scott Huffmon.

"It carries a lot of currency with the Democratic faithful," said Huffmon, who added those people will be likely voters in the primary.

Luke Byars, executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party, called the former governor's endorsement a "dicey political move" that might cost Clark votes.

Clark has made several stops in South Carolina since entering the race in September as part of his strategy to skip the Iowa caucuses.

Hodges said Clark's late entrance is not an issue because voters are just starting to pay attention to the race. He also thinks the former general's Southern roots will play well here.

"He has lived through issues like the integration of schools and the integration of the workplace and certainly has the feel for the significance of the symbolic issues like the Confederate flag and how they've impacted the South," said Hodges, who was governor when the Confederate flag was removed from atop the Statehouse dome to a monument on Capitol grounds in 2000.

The Confederate flag debate still "pains people" on both sides of the issue, Hodges said, but recommends Clark not be afraid to speak his mind.

"People want to hear from his heart and how he feels about it," he said.

Clark had said all of his fellow Democrats should take a stand against the Confederate flag after rival Howard Dean said he wanted "to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." Dean, a former Vermont governor, later apologized for his comment.