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Tales
from the Primary Trail: Gen. Wesley Clark to the Rescue?
November
18, 2003
By Michael McCord
Editor's
Note: Democratic Underground welcomes articles about individual
Democratic candidates for political office. Publication of
these articles does not imply endorsement of any candidate
by the editors of Democratic Underground.
One day after 31 Italians and Iraqis died in a terrorist
attack in Nasariya, Iraq, retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark stepped
again into the parallel universe known as the New Hampshire
Presidential Primary. Clark's latest visit to the seaside
city of Portsmouth coincided with a Bush administration emergency
meeting in Washington, D.C. to deal with the growing political
mess and military frustration in "liberated" Iraq.
The Iraqi insurgents and the American handpicked Iraqi Governing
Council aren't providing much support to Bush's reelection
efforts and it's time for the latest policy shift towards
something that can best be interpreted as force-fed democracy.
It's also time to change the story line and accompanying visuals
- which explains why U.S. Senate Republicans took to the floor
for a 40-hour slip into the rabbit hole to highlight the fates
of a few right-wing judges trapped in filibuster purgatory
by Senate Democrats. Time to forget, for a day or a few news
cycles, about deadly guerrilla attacks on U.S. troops, those
missing weapons of mass destruction and "Mission Accomplished"
- it was "Justice for Judges" day at the D.C. day
care center.
Here's the rub. Unlike any New Hampshire primary since 1968,
when the insurgent candidacy of Sen. Eugene McCarthy caught
fire following the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the issue of
foreign affairs really matters. What happens in Baghdad and
Nasariya is shaping events on the primary ground in Concord,
Manchester, and Keene - which might play into the strengths
of Gen. Clark with his four-star resume (top in his class
at West Point, Rhodes Scholar, wounded in Vietnam, architect
of the successful, controversial, and mostly anonymous Kosovo
conflict and CNN military analyst) and the aura of a modern-day
Cincinnatus called to duty in September by a grass-root draft
movement.
As a late arrival to the grueling primary process, Clark's
"New American Patriotism" campaign is making up
for lost time (there hasn't been such a late arrival by a
name candidate since 1988 when Gary Hart returned to the race
after dropping out following the "Monkey Business"
sex scandal). On a cool, blustery day in Portsmouth, Gen.
Clark followed the well-traveled obstacle course known to
all presidential candidates who dare tread into the first-in-the-solar
system spectacle.
Clark politely charged (with an oversized platoon of doting,
prodding staffers and media groupies like myself) into coffee
shops, retail stores and restaurants to make introductions,
shake hands, answer questions with wonkish, Bill Clinton-like
enthusiasm (Clark is protean in either having a plan or working
on a plan for everything including just the day before, a
multinational plan to capture Osama Bin Laden), kiss babies
and generate as much local commotion and free media buzz as
possible.
A slightly built man, Clark appears to relish the infantry
level grunt work required of retail campaigning and approaches
unsuspecting and often candidate-weary citizens with if not
the ease of a polished pol, than certainly with the confidence
of someone who knows how to work a crowd, especially with
his eyes which are alive, intelligent, and intense. The primary
is January 27. Tick, tock, Tick, tock. So many hands to shake,
so little time.
"He's the one I've been waiting for," said Dee
Lemere after meeting Clark in Breaking New Ground, a trendy
coffee shop in downtown Portsmouth. Lemere traveled with friends
from the Lakes Region, more than an hour north. The longtime
Democrat admits to being frustrated by the other candidates,
even ignoring the nova-like rise of former Vermont Gov. Howard
Dean. "We need to beat Bush. He (Clark) can beat him."
ABB. Anybody but Bush. I've covered and closely followed
New Hampshire primaries since 1980 and giving the heave-ho
to Bush has unified Hatfield and McCoy Democrats to an unimaginable
degree. And as Howard Dean discovered and successfully exploited,
this Regime Change fever is being driven from below, by folks
still pissed off by the 2000 election (they didn't get the
memo to "get over it") and downright apoplectic
about Iraq, tax cuts for the rich, grand scale environmental
betrayal, the Patriot Act, and the endless parade of lies
that flows out of the Bush White House. The opposition to
Bush is a witches brew of the political, visceral and existential.
One 30-something voter reminded me of this yet again when
he said to me after meeting Clark, "He (Clark) gives
me hope and doesn't try to scare the shit out of me... Bush.
Cheney. Ashcroft, you name them. Man, they are fucking evil."
In Clark's Dover campaign office two days earlier, I talked
to Sue Mayer, a 53-year-old educator who had jumped on the
Draft Clark bandwagon a few months before. Mayer spoke bluntly
about the "beyond Orwellian" antics of the Bush
presidency and why Wesley Clark was her man of the hour. "I
look at Dean and I think of (Eugene) McCarthy and George)
McGovern and I see failure, disaster. Bush has to go and Gen.
Clark is the one to do it."
Imagine a Democratic Party personal ad:
DPP
(destitute political party), is tired of being confused, used,
abused, lied to and bushwhacked. Am one losing election cycle
away from complete DLC catatonic stupor. Yearn for a strong,
mostly-principled, and articulate hero type with a compelling
All-American life story to sweep me off my feet, solidify
my base, seduce crossover voters and win, please win a presidential
election (W. Bush-bashing is a definite turn on). Please be
occasionally faithful to liberal ideals and stand up more
often than not to the Neobolsheviks now cannibalizing what
remains of those three branches of federal government mentioned
in the textbooks. XXXOOOO.
In theory, Gen. Wesley Clark could be the right man at the
right time to receive the hugs, kisses and votes and send
Bush back to Texas. But can liberals and progressives find
love and fulfillment with a military man and a latecomer to
the Democratic Party? (Then again, perhaps Dems should rejoice
that someone of his national stature joined the party. When
was the last time that happened?)
Clark certainly is saying the right things. He's pro-choice,
wants to repeal most of Bush's tax giveaway to the rich, supported
affirmative action in a friend of the court brief to the Supreme
Court, is highly critical of the USA Patriot Act, and would
stop the medical marijuana crackdown of Attorney General John
Ashcroft. His foreign policy vision is articulated strongly
in the language of cooperation and multinational efforts to
deal with Iraq, Afghanistan and the so-called war on terror
(of the latter he says "the best way to fight terrorism
is law enforcement," an obvious concept currently exiled
by the Bush/Cheney war first, ask questions second approach.)
Most of all, he's not tainted by the perceived capitulation
to Bush of the Democratic Party royalty in D.C.
Jon Iarrobino, 28, of Newburyport, Mass., considers himself
a liberal progressive and takes Clark seriously. "He's
created a buzz and friends of mine want to know about him
because of his strong support for gay and lesbian rights and
his ability to be a strong commander in wartime." Arnie
Arnesen, a progressive gadfly, has seen her share of contenders
and pretenders in New Hampshire as a long-time, well connected
democratic party activist and radio talk show host. Arnesen
believes that "Clark is the real deal and someone that
can bring progressives, liberals and even Reagan democrats
together to beat Bush. He's very bright and articulate and
can you imagine how easily he would clean Bush's clock in
a debate? And who knows best when the right time is to send
in the troops?" Arnesen's main complaint about Clark
is less about him than his organization, an observation in
wide circulation among the smart pundit set. "He started
out with such a bang. Now it's a disorganized mess. It was
a huge mistake to pull out of Iowa before finding out whether
he could garner union support."
Clark, an Arkansas native, is the least programmed of the
serious candidates which explains much of his subtle charisma
and that plays well for jaded New Hampshire voters accustomed
to serious face time. In Portsmouth, Clark walked down a street
with a young man, explaining his "Civil Reserve"
proposal, a volunteer public service plan which would send
Americans out into the world to help countries in a number
of ways (economic, legal, environmental), a variation on the
Peace Corps theme. When the young man mentioned something
about helping national park systems in Africa, Clark said
"That's what Iım talking about!"
Speaking on Veteran's Day, he sent his handlers into spin
control mode when he said he would support a Constitutional
amendment banning flag burning, a civil liberties stance at
odds with his repeatedly stated belief in the necessity of
democratic dissent. When given a chance to clarify (i.e. repudiate)
his remarks a few days later, Clark explained what the flag
meant to him and that if "the American people want it
(the flag burning amendment), I will support it."
I listened to Clark being interviewed recently on a statewide
radio show and when asked what his favorite music was, he
said "The Beatles, The Stones, The Doors." The Doors?
Not exactly a focus group answer. (It's easy to imagine the
right-wing attack dogs using this - "Clark supports anarchy,
lewd debauchery and Oedipal fratricide.")
Clark candidly admits he was cautious about running because
"when other generals run for office, they haven't been
treated well, not taken seriously" and didn't want to
seem "presumptuous."
When Clark says "I'm not a politician," of course
this is a crock. One does not become a four-star general without
having exceptional political skills. He once served as a White
House fellow and, by most accounts, directing the Kosovo War
was a daily exercise in political brinkmanship dealing with
the French, British, Germans and Russians.
Clark has made unconventional tactical decisions to pull
out of the pyramid-building caucus exercise in Iowa and will
sit out a heavily-hyped debate next month in Manchester. He
seems content to let his fellow candidates carry out the heavy
Bush- (and Dean-) bashing while gliding above the fray. His
strong rebukes of W. Bush are more measured than Dean's artillery
salvos, based more on procedural and rational grounds than
anything else. One Clark staffer told me the goal is to "finish
a strong third in New Hampshire and head south" for the
South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday in early March.
While the political punditburo set has so far pronounced
Clark a disappointment due to organizational chaos, organizational
staffing (too many Clintonistas) and issue ambiguities (in
particular, would he have supported the Iraq war resolution),
it's still bare trees before the first snow part of the primary
calender. Despite being saddled with single-digit poll numbers
in New Hampshire (he polls much stronger nationally), Clark
exudes the confidence of a man who has faced down Serbian
strong man Slobodan Milosevic and doesn't seem too fazed by
November poll numbers or chattering class conventional wisdom.
The GOP and its media sycophants are hardly disinterested
spectators. For example, the boys at Fox News go out of their
way to dismiss Clark as a lost cause at every opportunity
(which raises the logical reply: if he's such a lost cause
why keep dismissing him?) "Clark? They (Bush's reelection
advisors) want Dean, are salivating for Dean," said one
New Hampshire Republican to me. "They want no part of
Clark because he brings too much to the table and well, frankly,
highlights the Presidentıs weaknesses."
Michael McCord is an award-winning reporter and writer
living in New Hampshire. He's disappointed not to be on the
NRA blacklist.
More
of Michael McCord's Tales from the Primary Trail:
Dr.
Dean's House Calls
The
Unbearable Lightness of Being John Kerry
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