Wesley Clark moves one big step closer to a presidential candidacy

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark has been an on-again, off-again presidential candidate for a few months, as I’ve mentioned before. Yesterday on Meet the Press, however, he looked and sounded a lot like a man preparing to throw his hat in the ring.

The former supreme allied commander for NATO and Rhodes’ scholar was making his second visit to Tim Russert’s table in just the last few months, once again offering expert analysis on military issues and foreign affairs.

Clark offered sound, reasonable commentary on Israel, Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. He comes across as a smart and experienced leader who’s clearly given a lot of thought to his foreign policy opinions.

But most of us already knew that. As a CNN military analyst during the most recent war in Iraq, Clark was already sharing his perspective on these issues before a national television audience. What about running for president? What about domestic policy?

Fortunately, Clark got to these questions as well.

As for whether he’s going to run for president, Clark acknowledged that he is “considering” it.

“I’d like a chance to help this country and I don’t know if that means being president or doing something else,” Clark said. “But I’ve spent my entire life in public service, except for the last three years. And it’s very hard not to think in terms of the welfare of the country, and when you see the country in trouble, in challenge, yes, you’d like to pitch in and help.” He added that he’d have to make a decision “sometime over the next couple of months.”

Clark continues to play the non-partisan game, refusing to say flatly that he’s a Democrat. While his hesitancy is a little frustrating, I suspect it’s part of a larger strategy of holding himself above the partisan fray. Clark nevertheless acknowledged having voted in Arkansas in the Democratic primaries.

As for some controversial issues, Clark sounded like he’d agree with most of the other candidates running for president.

* Taxes — Clark described Bush’s tax policies as “unfair” and “unwise” as a long-run policy. As for his approach to taxes in general, “Taxes are something that you want to have as little of as possible, but you need as much revenue as necessary to meet people’s needs for services. The American people on the one hand don’t like taxes. None of us do, but on the other hand, we expect the government to do certain things for us.”

* Affirmative Action — Clark joined several other former generals in filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in support of the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policy. “[Y]ou can’t have a society in which we’re not acknowledging that there is a problem in this society with racial discrimination,” Clark said. “There is, there has been and the reason so many of us filed this brief is we saw the benefits of affirmative action in the United States armed forces.”

* Gays in the military — Russert spent a little more time than was necessary on this one, but Clark appears to support a more inclusive military service policy. Dismissing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Clark dared to mention the obvious, “[E]ssentially we’ve got a lot of gay people in the armed forces, always have had, always will have. And I think that, you know, we should welcome people that want to serve.”

It’s hard not to be impressed with Clark after watching him speak on the issues. He may not have extensive political experience, usually a prerequisite to running for president, but Clark has spent many years dealing with the political system as a military leader.

To be sure, Republicans’ attacks on Dems as “weak on defense” and untrustworthy on national security issues would not apply to Clark. If that’s the GOP’s number one issue, it’d be great to see a Dem candidate who could effectively take it away from them.

Clark strikes me as a candidate who could do really well in the general election against Bush, with strong appeal among independents, left-leaning Republicans, and veterans. I wonder, however, whether Democratic primary voters would find him as appealing.

If you’re intrigued by Clark and want to encourage him to run, be sure to check out Draft Wesley Clark.com, which as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, is already running radio ads in New Hampshire.