September 25, 2003
It was a relief that General Clark finally jumped into the presidential race last week. While his
campaign seems to be only now finding its footing, and his staffers will have to work around
the clock just to get his name on all of the primary ballots, September 17th was a great day for America.
George W. Bush hasn't been a great President (though I'm not sure Al Gore would have been ideal
either), and the previous Democratic front-runner Howard Dean is neither electable nor desirable
as President of the United States.
Which leads me back to Wesley Kanne Clark. A Rhodes Scholar from Arkansas who was first in his
class at West Point before receiving a Silver Star and a Purple Heart in Vietnam, before going on to
become a four-star general and lead NATO in the Kosovo conflict as the Supreme Allied Commander,
Clark has the perfect résumé for a presidential contender. By all accounts, he is an excellent
public speaker and a great hands-on campaigner, conveying confidence and the sense that everyone he
meets on the campaign trail is important.
Which is not to say that he isn't a human being. After thirty-four years in the military, Clark has
more than his fair share of critics. He's been described as a nitpicking, know-it-all brown-noser who
has trouble following advice and orders. He should probably go ahead and buy a waffle iron to lug
around with him on the campaign trail, judging by his remark last week that he "probably" would
have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing Bush to invade Iraq, which was soon followed
by another remark that the invasion was "a major blunder."
But at the end of the day (or the election) Wesley Clark would still make a fine President. Much
of the resentment against him is the result of jealousy on the part of lesser lights, and the
nuances of his thinking might be too fine for expression in a national campaign. At least since
Vietnam, and through Kosovo, the general has firmly believed in the need for military force,
overwhelming and unfettered, ready to back up American policies. Indeed, Slobodan Milosevic didn't
back down over Kosovo until he had been convinced that the very American invasion Clark had advocated
to his superiors at the Pentagon was imminent.
Every age needs a certain kind of leader, and the right leader for this country in the Age of
Terror is Wesley Clark. He can be courageous: in his book "To End a War," Richard Holbrooke describes Clark's rappel down a
Bosnian mountainside, at night and under gunfire, in a vain effort to rescue three members of the
delegation attempting to bring peace to the Balkans. He can be smart: He speaks Russian, has a
master’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford, and has written two books on
"Waging" and "Winning" modern wars. He can be inspiring: he earned his Silver Star for continuing
to lead his men after being shot in four places, and he had a long history in
the Army of turning around troubled units under his command, units suffering from drug, race, and
morale problems.
And most importantly of all, Wesley Clark can be right. He's for fiscal responsibility: his
latest proposal would reverse the tax cuts for those Americans earning more than $200,000 annually
and put the money towards both job creation and Homeland Security. He's for environmental
responsibility: he acknowledges that global warming is a problem, and that something should be done
about it (two acknowledgements that Bush has yet to make). And he's for democratic responsibility:
he wants to see that, in the war against terrorism, "we don't compromise the freedoms and rights
which are the very essence of the America we are protecting."
America needs leadership in the White House, and Wesley Clark is the one candidate for President
who can provide that leadership. That's why I'm supporting the general's candidacy for the White
House, and have even become involved in it (check out www.runnersforclark.com). There's always a disconnect between what a candidate says
and what an elected leader does, but I'm willing to bet that Clark the President will match up to
Clark the Candidate.
