Clark unexplains explanation on sorta pro-war quasi statement.
Clark Explains Statement on Authorization for Iraq War
By JODI WILGOREN
IOWA CITY, Sept. 19 — On the third day of his campaign, Gen. Wesley K. Clark struggled today to clarify his statement on Thursday that he would "probably" have voted for the Congressional resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq.
General Clark, a former NATO commander who has retired from the Army, never denied making the statement in an interview with four reporters on his chartered plane. But he seemed stunned by the headlines that it generated, as supporters worried that he had undercut his position as an antiwar candidate with military bona fides.
"I never would have voted for war," he said here this afternoon in an interview and in response to a question after a lecture at the University of Iowa. "What I would have voted for is leverage. Leverage for the United States to avoid a war. That's what we needed to avoid a war."
Speaking about the resolution on Thursday, General Clark said, "At the time, I probably would have voted for it, but I think that's too simple a question."
He then added: "I don't know if I would have or not. I've said it both ways, because when you get into this, what happens is you have to put yourself in a position. On balance, I probably would have voted for it."
His clarification, along with a slapped-together schedule in which he met few voters and offered no specifics on domestic issues, seemed to reflect the inexperience of the first-time candidate and disorganization in his nascent campaign.
His debut day in Iowa, whose early caucus is crucial to the Democratic Party's nomination process, was barely a toe touch, with a brief diner stop and a pageant of 10-minute news media interviews crammed between private receptions surrounding the long-scheduled nonpolitical lecture, for which a foundation paid $25,000. (General Clark receives 80 percent.)
Despite his disappointment with reports of his airborne interview, including one in The New York Times, General Clark seemed as comfortable as could be in his new role as candidate, stopping frequently to slap shoulders as he strode across the university campus.
Although he considered a presidential race for a month, he balked at most questions, saying he would spend this weekend at home in Little Rock, Ark., working on policy positions. Among the issues he told voters he was not ready to discuss in detail were health care, education, employment, AIDS in Africa, the USA Patriot Act and medical marijuana. In interviews this afternoon, he referred to a talking-point tip sheet on the hot local issues of ethanol and farm subsidies.
"I don't know enough to give you a comprehensive answer at this point," he said in response to a voter's question about universal health insurance. "I know enough not to give you a comprehensive answer at this point."
Regarding a complicated proposal about financing AIDS research and prevention abroad, he said, "I'm not committing anything right now to anything, until I've got my economic facts and figures in order."
What he did say, over and over, was how happy he was to be in Iowa. He exulted over the egg white omelette a waitress put in front of him. "Now this is an Iowa breakfast!" the candidate said.
He also complimented a woman's overalls, saying, "That's a real Iowa outfit!"
He also said, "Some of my best friends from the military are from Iowa."
"I've been dying to get back to Iowa," General Clark said in the Hamburg Inn, which was packed with 50 supporters, many carrying "Draft Clark" placards edited to say "Elect Clark." "I want to learn this state and meet the people here, because I think you're the very heart of America."
With his competitors counting down the 122 days until the Jan. 19 caucuses here, General Clark has a long chase in the Iowa ground game.
He has missed the summer trifecta of local Democratic politics: visiting the butter cow at the Iowa State Fair, marching in the Labor Day Parade in Des Moines and appearing at Senator Tom Harkin's annual steak fry in a balloon field.
Former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont has visited 79 of the 99 counties since he started campaigning in the state in February 2002. Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri has virtually been a regular presence since 1988, when he won the Iowa caucuses in his first campaign for the White House. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts has 12 field offices adorned with endorsements from 18 state legislators and 71 labor leaders.
Today was barely an Iowa introduction, with nary a town hall meeting or a house party.
"He didn't say very much," said Hyman Joseph, who bore his bias on his shirt in the form of a Dean button. "Any of the other candidates would have taken 10 or 15 minutes of questions. Some people who are for Dean will give him a look. But I don't know how long that look will be."
Robert Bork and Sally Mills, art historians who live in Iowa City, said they signed up with General Clark last week because he has the right combination of characteristics — "progressive and macho," Mr. Bork, 36, said — to beat President Bush.
"We were looking for a candidate who could stand out of the pack," Ms. Mills, 47, said.
"We think highly of Dean," Mr. Bork said. "We think highly of Kerry. We don't think they can bring the pain to Bush."
Late starting or not, General Clark showed a natural knack for retail politics, holding long onto each shaken hand, complete with elbow grab, as he listened to concerns. The main event was a 45-minute lecture, sponsored by the law school.
He won several standing ovations and earned easy laughter for his quips about adjusting to retirement after having at his disposal a fleet of security guards with machine guns, along with military helicopters and a jet.
About Iraq, he said "There was never an imminent threat," and called the war "a major blunder."
"We're not the sort of `you're with us or against' kind of people," he said.
"We're a come-and-join-with-us kind of people," he told a crowd of 1,000 in the main lounge of the Iowa Memorial Union. "Americans know in their hearts that you don't make our country safer by erecting walls to keep others out. You make us safer by building bridges to reach out.
"We also have to recognize that force should be used only as a last resort, when all other means have failed."
I read it. Dude is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. He was coronated before he said he'd even run..I think he may want to consider running the first silent campaign and try to win this thing on looks and expectations alone. Saying words out loud has not been a good thing for him.
Originally posted by Cerebral Knievel I read it. Dude is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. He was coronated before he said he'd even run..I think he may want to consider running the first silent campaign and try to win this thing on looks and expectations alone. Saying words out loud has not been a good thing for him.
I saw him on NewsNight w/ Aaron Brown the other day, and for a guy who most recently made his living off of speaking on the teev, he sure looked *deer in the headlight*-ish
Brown fawned over him for a moment or two (they seem to be personal freinds, so I really can't hold it against him all that much,) but then asked him some good *platform* questions (view on abortion, taxes, health care, the war, and such.)
One thing was readily appearent, Clark needs coaching badly. here's a hint to the general: when a reporter asks you a ?estion on abortion, and then a more pointed follow-up on partial-birth abortion, it's not a good idea to look aggravated and repeat your answer to the general abortion ?estion two more times.
He came off as a guy who war afraid to say something beyond the four or five stock lines supplied to him.
Even when Brown said something like "Well I guess I'm not going to get a straight answer from you on that question then" Clark again said his stock abortion line "I think it should be legal, and rare"
Bush does the same thing too (refusing to be pinned down on specifics), but he finds a way to talk around it without coming off as evasive. Most of the time you see him answering a question with a lot of "uh, uh"(s) people who irrationally hate him always say "Look at dummy Bush! He can't talk!" but what they don't realize is that he is executing perfect political speech. Offer as few specifics as possible while not sounding like broken tape recorder.
__________________ It's been a good day to be a Met
-- Carlos Delgado on August 22nd
Multiple "Uh. Uh's" does sound like a broke tape recorder.
I don't dislike this guy, and honestly I'll bet on anyone who can make a run of it, but dude is stumbling out the block badly. With all of this Clinton backing he is getting you'd think he'd get a bit of coaching from Willy Clint, who IMO is one of the smoothest speakers we have had as of late in the White House. This guy is being given a gift the Mosely-Brauns, Kucinichs and Grahams of the world would kill for and he is blowing it by being a lazy-brain.
Originally posted by apps I just re-read this, what on earth are you talking about homes?!?!?
the guy just announced like 80 hours ago! how on earth could he have been anywhere near victory?
If anything, that phrase should refer to Kerry
Man please. People were on his nuts before he even said he'd run. You telling me Kerry had that kind of love? Bah! Dem heavy hitters were endorsing this neophyte before he ever made a speech. Looking at the buzz and support he is getting, people want to believe in this guy (kinda like Edwards) and only he can convince them not to. Except maybe 780. Dude is sic wit it.
What he did say, over and over, was how happy he was to be in Iowa. He exulted over the egg white omelette a waitress put in front of him. "Now this is an Iowa breakfast!" the candidate said.
He also complimented a woman's overalls, saying, "That's a real Iowa outfit!"
He also said, "Some of my best friends from the military are from Iowa."
"I've been dying to get back to Iowa," General Clark said in the Hamburg Inn, which was packed with 50 supporters, many carrying "Draft Clark" placards edited to say "Elect Clark." "I want to learn this state and meet the people here, because I think you're the very heart of America."
And he will say the same thing, w/ a different state inserted in place of Iowa, everywhere else he goes. This kind of thinly-veiled cock-stroking playbabble serves what purpose?
Originally posted by b psycho And he will say the same thing, w/ a different state inserted in place of Iowa, everywhere else he goes. This kind of thinly-veiled cock-stroking playbabble serves what purpose?
voters enjoy being flirted with.
Iowan and New Hampshire-ian voters enjoyed being super-cheesed on. These two somewhat unimportant states see themselves as the arbitrares of american primary politics due entirely to the fact that they vote first.
Everytime they hear a reporter say "finishing in the top 3 in Iowa/New Hampshire is crucial for [canidate X]" their nipples get hard.
__________________ It's been a good day to be a Met
-- Carlos Delgado on August 22nd
Originally posted by apps voters enjoy being flirted with.
Iowan and New Hampshire-ian voters enjoyed being super-cheesed on. These two somewhat unimportant states see themselves as the arbitrares of american primary politics due entirely to the fact that they vote first.
Everytime they hear a reporter say "finishing in the top 3 in Iowa/New Hampshire is crucial for [canidate X]" their nipples get hard.
If everytime a reporter said something that was obviously BS I got a nickel I'd be richer than Bill Gates by now.
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark has thrown his helmet into the ring. He has improved the Democratic presidential field by entering it, just as he improved the Army by leaving it.
Gen. Clark is a brilliant man, and a brave one. A Rhodes scholar, he was decorated three times for heroism as commander of an armor company in Vietnam.
"Those of us who knew him as a captain thought the country would be shortchanged if he didn't rise to very high rank," said a retired Army colonel who was a student of Wesley Clark's when Gen. Clark taught at West Point.
But Gen. Clark's kindergarten teacher probably noted he doesn't play well with others.
Gen. Clark "is able, though not nearly as able as he thinks, and has tended to put his career ahead of his men to the point of excess," said a defense consultant well acquainted with the Army's senior officers. "He is opportunistic and lacks integrity. He will be an absolute menace if he gets into a position where he can exert influence on the Army because he lacks true vision and is prone to be vindictive."
Gen. Clark "regards each and every one of his subordinates as a potential threat to his career," said an officer who served under him when Gen. Clark commanded a brigade of the 4th Infantry Division in the 1980s. An officer who served under Clark when he commanded the 1st Cavalry Division said he was "the poster child for everything that is wrong with the general officer corps."
Gen. Clark doesn't get along terribly well with superiors or with allies either, which lead to his premature departure as commander of NATO.
Gen. Clark was CINCEUR when the Kosovo war began, and bears much of the responsibility for President Clinton's decision to try to bomb Serb dictator Slobodan Milosevic out of Kosovo. Gen. Clark argued that after a few days of bombing, Mr. Milosevic would fold his tent and slink away. When the Serbs didn't budge after months of bombing, Gen. Clark lost Mr. Clinton's favor.
As the war dragged on, Gen. Clark advocated the use of ground troops. This put him at loggerheads with Gen. Henry Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and with Gen. Eric Shinseki, chief of staff of the Army, who thought this was a terrible idea. These generals faulted Gen. Clark for getting America into an unnecessary war, and for having done a poor job of preparing for it.
"NATO did not expect a long war," wrote former Clinton national security aide Ivo Daalder. "Worse, it did not even prepare for the possibility."
The conduct of the war drew unprecedented criticism from Gen. Clark's predecessor, Gen. George Joulwan, and a quiet rebellion by subordinate commanders.
"Clark found his control over ongoing operations eroding," wrote retired Army Col. Andrew Bacevich. "Rather than the theater commander, he became hardly more than a kibitzer."
What may have triggered Gen. Clark's early departure from NATO was a confrontation with the British general who was to command NATO peacekeepers.
After a Serb surrender had been negotiated with the help of the Russians, Gen. Clark ordered British Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson to parachute troops onto the airport at the Kosovar capital of Pristina, so NATO would hold it before Russian peacekeepers arrived.
Gen. Jackson refused. "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you," he told Gen. Clark, according to accounts in British newspapers.
Shortly after the confrontation with Gen. Jackson, Gen. Clark was told his tour as CINCEUR would end two months early. Neither Gen. Shelton nor Defense Secretary William Cohen attended his retirement ceremony, a remarkable snub for a four-star general.
Gen. Clark read Mr. Milosevic wrong, helping to provoke the Kosovo war, which he then fought badly. Gen. Clark picked up where he left off in his second career as a television kibitzer of military operations. As an analyst for CNN, Gen. Clark harshly criticized the war plan for Iraq devised by Gen. Tommy Franks, the CENTCOM commander, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Gen. Clark turned out to be completely wrong.
It says something fascinating about the Democratic field that this failed general is the class of it.
Jack Kelly, a syndicated columnist, is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette.
__________________ It's been a good day to be a Met
-- Carlos Delgado on August 22nd
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Clark unexplains explanation on sorta pro-war quasi statement.
