Reply #81: Good answer

[Tom Rinaldo]

I watched the rerun, then dozed off. Now I can't sleep and it's the middle of the night, lol.

Your point about how elected officials are set up to act as if they were experts on all matters is a good one, so they must learn how not to sound foolish, how to make a cogent point perhaps, but not one that puts them on thin ice where someone who knows a lot more than them can expose their lack of depth understanding. That is part of Clark's ability, especially on matters pertaining to National Security. He is brilliant and he is the expert. But the honesty aspect can not be underplayed. Clark is a deep and active thinker, and he is broadly and well educated, so he has thought through areas outside of his career specialties also, but during his campaign he was sometimes faced with the same dilemma you described that most political leaders come up against; not being an expert on everything but being expected to sound like one.

I watched Clark over time. In some early appearances when a subject was still relatively new to him and hence not yet mastered by him, Clark didn't give smug glib answers, he didn't take the safe path. He mused intelligently while nailing down a few bedrock principals and experiences that underlay his thinking. I found it refreshing. Later I would sometimes hear Clark on the same subject and it was obvious that he had done more homework. Then he would become the educator, making his points while explaining the reasoning behind his positions. I came to the conclusion that Clark is predisposed toward wanting his listener to actually understand what he really thinks about whatever the topic at hand is. I find that quality rare in politics. Normally the standard is "to come off looking good".

Listening to him tonight I was struck by something fundamentally reassuring. Clark's motivation for being there, for showing up, for going through all of this at all, comes across as something that I understand and have always honored. It is dedication to a cause larger than himself, something I have seen time and time again animating social change, human rights, and environmental activists I have known and love. Talking about the lack of public debate over possible conflicts on the horizon with Iran and Syria, I could feel Clark's core commitment to a democratic system of decision making that he feels is being subverted. Talking about this administration's parsing of words regarding torture, I could feel Clark's pride in the Geneva Conventions as an expression of our finest values. I am not saying that other politicians aren't dedicated to a cause larger than themselves, I am saying that with Clark, to me at least, it is always immediately apparent that he is.

That quality is wrapped in another; courage. A professional American soldier knows it is his or her calling in life to lay down their life for their country if needed. Some live with the implications of that choice closer to their heart than others I am sure. The willingness to take personal risks, if what is at stake is important, seems second nature to Wesley Clark. I think that is part of why he is a truth teller. Why he doesn't back down. He isn't watching his back, he's watching ours, to the best of his ability. So he will call torture torture and call that unacceptable even if the Republicans have a commanding majority in the Senate and Gonzales is a Latino possibly destined for Bush's Supreme Court. It's wrong. It's wrong for America, it's wrong for the world, that's enough. Clark isn't hoarding political capital for some later personal ambition. He is already living his ambition, defending our country. That's what he does. Fortunately for all of us Wesley Clark is a man who knows that the root of America's true greatness lies in our revolutionary democratic traditions, not in our status as the world's only super power. That is an integral part of the America it is Clark's calling to defend. It's that dedication to cause I was referring to, the heart of an activist in the body of a soldier.