Wesley Clark’s busy schedule

April 12, 2005

I’ve sworn off speculating about would-be candidates in 2008, but that hasn’t stopped me from noticing that Wesley Clark has been keeping a very busy schedule of late and been maintaining the kind of role in the party that will help him in the “long term” (wink, wink).

What made me think of this is a press conference today on Capitol Hill (3 pm, if you’re in the neighborhood) featuring Clark alongside House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Reps. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Lane Evans (D-Ill.) announcing the Dems’ “G.I. Bill of Rights for the 21st Century.”

This comes a week after Clark made Richard Perle look pretty ridiculous at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the war in Iraq. Which came the same week Clark received a warm welcome from an annual gathering of the Association of State Democratic Chairs.

Also keep in mind that senior Dem leaders on the Hill are committed to a stronger, more persuasive message when it comes to national security and foreign policy, and have reached out to Clark for assistance.

Senior House Democrats have consulted leading military experts to help craft a strengthened message on Iraq, hoping to bolster their party’s position on defense issues and move beyond honoring American troops and calling for an exit strategy. […]

Clark, the one-time Democratic presidential hopeful, spoke to the Caucus at its retreat [in February], telling Members, “if Democrats do not want to be soft on defense, they can’t adopt a ‘bring home the troops now’ policy.” He suggested Democrats hammer the Bush administration for failing to come up with a plan for success in Iraq, and argue that he owes the American public such a plan.

Clark counseled Democrats to reframe their message to force the White House to articulate a success strategy, rather than simply call for an exit. He also suggested Democrats question Bush’s commitment to funding the troops, reconstructing the country and providing adequate training for Iraqi police and military personnel.

Time will tell what kind of impact these efforts will have on Clark’s political career, but as someone who backed him during the primaries, I’m glad to see Clark keeping busy.

Wes Clark is about the strongest asset the Dems should have used in ’04. With such an impeccable “defense” resume, Kerry wouldn’t have had to sell himself by harping on his Vietnam record, which tied into the personalities of the candidates some 30 years before the campaign, rather than the issues at the core.

Not to slight Edwards – who helped overcome Kerry’s charisma deficit – but I’d love to have put Clark on television with a string of ads about the proper way to bring down brutal dictators without bogging down American troops or fueling corruption at home.

  • but I’d love to have put Clark on television with a string of ads about the proper way to bring down brutal dictators without bogging down American troops or fueling corruption at home.

    Not to mention watching Clark destroy Cheney in the VP debate. That would have been fun to watch.

  • Thanks for the Clark news, Carpetbagger. A GI Bill of Rights is a positive message that Democrats can bring to the troops and supporters of the troops. An agenda that nicely combines the interests most commonly associated with the right — morality, the military — with the rhetoric of the left — human rights. It’s a start in convincing Americans that the Democrats are the party of national security. And it’s the beginning of the 2006 and 2008 platform for Democrats running for Congress and then the presidency. Very nice.

    PS As someone who is currently engaged in writing about carpetbaggers, I’m suddenly curious about the origins of your, er, name….

  • Divide and Conquer.
    Republicans have a creed or platform, the well known “screw the working middle class, and the poor dont count”.
    Democrates have………….what? No platform, no unity to present to the public. Different Dem voices discussing the same problems using different solutions. Divided, divided, divided, divided. Where is Mr Dean??? If he does not wait until election week to speak up Clark could do a lot to unite those that now feel they have no voice. He must speak up in amanner that will unite those that now wish to be something other than just opposition. He must speak up and unite those scattered groups that now go their own way. He needs to tell the democrats what they stand for and unite they on that basis.

  • jusfishn
    Howard Dean news,
    I just got an email from one of my DFA compatriots that has been in contact with Dean’s organization. The skinny that I am getting is that Dean will be here in Missouri shortly to start organizing our state. Just because he flying under the radar of the MSM – which is probably not to hard – doesn’t mean that he is not active.

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