I’ve been watching Wesley Clark do TV interviews for a few months now and I think he’s getting progressively better at it. He’s certainly not a polished pol, but that’s to be expected; he doesn’t have much experience as a political candidate.
That said, it seems as if Clark saves his strongest, most forceful TV appearances for Fox News. Maybe it’s the network’s biased slant that gets his blood boiling or something.
In November, Clark was on FNC and showed a fiery side when Fox’s David Asman questioned Clark’s patriotism for criticizing the war in Iraq. From what I hear, Clark’s supporters were so pleased by the candidate’s visibly angry response, it was one of the campaign’s best fundraising days of the year.
Clark had another equally strong appearance yesterday, going on Fox News to talk about his new tax reform plan. Predictably, FNC did its best to undercut the proposal. Clark’s responses demonstrate how far he’s come as a candidate.
The FNC correspondent, Heather Nauert, began by telling Clark that his plan would produce a tax structure whereby nearly half the country would “not have to pay taxes.” Nauert asked Clark, “Do you really want to make the federal government free to more than 50 percent of Americans in our country?”
Clark must have been tempted to say, “Wow, what a dumb question.” Instead, he answered it straight, explaining that workers will still pay payroll taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes.
So the Fox correspondent got more specific, saying these lucky middle- and lower-income families “wouldn’t be paying for the cost of the war” under Clark’s plan.
“I will tell you that people from poorer families are paying for the cost of the war, Heather, because if you look at who’s fighting it, our armed forces is made up disproportionately of people from the least advantaged families in America,” Clark responded. “They’re paying for it with their sons and daughters, with their relatives, their brothers and sisters who are over there fighting, while by and large, the wealthiest families do not have their own sons and daughters engaged in this fight. So, don’t ever make the argument that the poorer people in America aren’t contributing to this country when they don’t pay these income taxes.”
Point, set, match. Nice smackdown, Wes.