Run, Sir Clark, Run...

by teejay 95 Replies latest social current

  • teejay
    teejay

    If he runs, he will be the most qualified of all those who now aspire to the office in 2004. If he runs, General Wesley K. Clark (Ret.) will be the second most qualified person to ever seek the presidency of the U.S. over the past 100 years, second only to the Great William Jefferson Cliinton. What follows are excerpts from an article about him in a recent Esquire magazine.

    He is a remarkable man with an unassailable integrity -- the kind of man that has all the little Bushites shaking in their boots. If he runs, I will vote for him. Run, Sir Clark. Run.

    =======================================

    And so, yes, Wesley K. Clark is what the people of the United States of America generally like their presidents to be—or at least feel comfortable with their presidents being: a veteran. But there's more to it than that, of course; he's more than just a veteran, a guy who heard the call of his country and marched and drilled and slogged and shot people and got shot at and did his time and opened up a nice little law practice somewhere. He chose the Army. He was offered scholarships everywhere, but he chose West Point, where he finished first in his class as a plebe, first in his class as a senior, and went off to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar.

    "There has been since 9/11 a chill on dialogue in this country. . . . You only have to listen to talk radio or watch Mike Savage on MSNBC, and you'll see the spirit of what's out there. You can't have a democracy when people don't get the facts and when people don't get the chance to agree or disagree. We've got to have a dialogue in this country . . . that is premised on an understanding that asking questions, demanding evidence, and holding people accountable is not unpatriotic, it's the duty of every American."

  • Phantom Stranger
    Phantom Stranger

    I've got five says he's veep candidate to Dean...

  • Bendrr
    Bendrr

    Please please please tell me you're not a Clintax fan!

  • teejay
    teejay
    I've got five says he's veep candidate to Dean...

    If that happens - which I seriously doubt - it would be a major waste of his talent. Based on his appeal and the way that people are increasingly talking about The General, a the rate things are going he's gonna blow Dean -- who used to be my first choice -- outta the water. More from the article...

    =====================

    That country changed on 9/11. But what Clark asks tonight—what he feels compelled to ask in every speech he makes—is the question of what the country is changing to . . . what Americans are becoming, now that they've figured out, in Clark's words, "that national security means personal security."

    We can't just kill everybody, he says. "We better understand this about the war on terror: that it is not enough to take down states. We are not going to attack Germany; we're not even going to attack France. We need NATO. We need an alliance. We need to get these countries inside the camp, into the boat with us, so our war is their war." We need a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead of making "nation building" dirty words, we need a Cabinet-level post for nation building. Most of all, what we need is a new strategy, a new idea; we need to talk about a new strategy and a new idea. We need dialogue.

    =====================

    I don't know about y'all, but I get chills just reading the words. This is the right man at the right time...

  • bigboi
    bigboi

    I've never heard of the guy. However, Howard Dean seems to be the only Democrat with some balls and since he's so damn liberal, I think a guy that fits this description will be a good match for him.

  • Euphemism
    Euphemism

    A Dean-Clark ticket would be just awesome. Clark fills Dean in where he's weakest, foreign policy.

  • teejay
  • SixofNine
    SixofNine

    I thought, as I sat watching Wesley Clark give commentary during the war, "damn, we need this guy to be commander in chief!". I saw him on C-span a little later, talking to college students about his book and experiences as supreme Nato commander, and again thought the same thing. What a nice surprise a little later to see a Time magazine article saying he was considering a run.

    It's heartbreaking if he can't be seriously considered for the top spot because he hasn't been a politician. It's the first time I've felt seriously politically inclined since leaving the borg.

    I don't know if we would have gone into Iraq with Clark at the helm, probably not, but if so, it would be with the international communities' support, and that would be making all the difference now.

    I'll sure spread the word if he runs.

  • SixofNine
    SixofNine
    "There has been since 9/11 a chill on dialogue in this country. . . . You only have to listen to talk radio or watch Mike Savage on MSNBC, and you'll see the spirit of what's out there. You can't have a democracy when people don't get the facts and when people don't get the chance to agree or disagree. We've got to have a dialogue in this country . . . that is premised on an understanding that asking questions, demanding evidence, and holding people accountable is not unpatriotic, it's the duty of every American."

    btw, that sounds like him speaking. Is it?

    Wouldn't it be cool to have a president that could speak english as eloquently and understandably as the Iraqi ambassador to the UN?

  • bigboi
    bigboi
    Wouldn't it be cool to have a president that could speak english as eloquently and understandably than the Iraqi ambassador to the UN?

    Ouch!

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