Reply #138: We should be seeking converts to our Party, and lost sheep returning.

[Tom Rinaldo]

I am struck by all the suspicion that Wesley Clark was greeted with, and still is faced with by some in our Party. Clark was an Independent with an early record of voting for Republican Presidential candidates and a later record of voting for Democratic Presidential candidates.

I am not talking about the hesitancy some felt about supporting Clark in 2004 for the Presidential nomination, given the obvious importance of the position and what many felt was an insufficient track record to gage Clark by. I can understand that. I am talking about the more overt hostility some expressed toward Clark for having once voted Republican and for having had a career in the military.

The Republican Party immediately embraced Colin Powell despite the fact that he held many positions far more moderate than their platform called for. Clark on the other hand holds positions fully in line with the center left mainstream of our Party. As a Clark supporter who works with a broad array of people in my professional world, I found many moderate Republicans and Independents were favorably impressed by Clark, along with my own far more leftist friends. There is a reason why Clark did well in places like Arizona and Oklahoma in the Primaries.

We have to think outside the box some to promote competent candidates with good progressive values but broad appeal. If McGovern and Carter can forgive Nixon and Reagan Democrats, we should welcome them back also once they see the error of their former ways.