From Today's Meetup or why I am fired up about Clark

[Clark4Prez]

I was able to attend my first Meetup and things were grand. It was held at a local coffee shop that had scheduled another group there as well (not a political one, that would have been fun).

While everyone was getting settled I was chatting with one of our old guard Democrats that has been with the party since 52, when he went to the convention for Stevenson. He has seen much change in our local political landscape, from yellow dog country to become Republican land. We shared some stories from working together on the first Clinton campaign and although we lost (we won nationally, but we didn't get the vote locally, you know Tip O'Neil and all that).

While we were in mid-chat a fellow came over to shake his hand. He commented on our Clark stickers and said, "Clark, I really like him and what he has to say."

"Ho, hum, that and $2.00 will buy me a cup of coffee in this joint", I thought to myself. Then he looked up and added, "Yes, he is the only guy that could make me cross the line and vote for a Democrat." Okay, I perked up (no pun intended), and after he walked away my buddy told me, "He's not just any Republican you know, he's on the school board."

As we started our Meetup intros everyone gave their name and a brief reason why they supported Clark. When it came to be my turn, I said "I could talk about a lot of reasons why I believe in Clark, but the greatest reason is the conversation that just happened. A Republican said that Clark is the only one that could make him cross over. And that, more than any other reason, is why I believe in General Clark. Because policies are nice, positions are great, and papers are wonderful, but none of it means anything without an election victory."

[Democrats unite]

1. Great story thanks for sharing!

eom

[laruemtt]

2. thanks for sharing that. clark's

appeal is pretty universal - seems to be able to transcend party lines. i'm comfortable with him and trust his judgment which is nice for a change after 3 yrs of *!

[retyred]

3. Great to hear

Aren't the meet-ups great.


retyred in fla
“Good-Night Paul, Wherever You Are”
So I read this book

[windansea]

4. nice going!

converting a pub is like gaining 2 votes

[Tadah]

5. I would have gotten indigestion...

$40 billion in homeland security spending is sick! and that's what Clarke wants. I'm not for the militarization of America just to make cats fat... Clark is an enabler...

[Justice]

7. Clark Will Enable Us To Win The General Election!

[maddezmom]

9. I'd prefer to pay for our country

to tighten security at ports, nuclear facilities, bridges, major transportation( metro, subway, railroads) etc then on zip codes in Iraq.

[funky_bug]

12. You beat me to it, maddez

Darn - and I thought I had a novel idea in my response...lol

Thanks for backing me - sort of...lol

Great post!

[maddezmom]

13. Hi there again, Wife_of _a_ Wes_Freak

just love typing that one... :pals:

[funky_bug]

10. How so?

From Clark:

"As President, I will ensure that we succeed in Iraq, that we focus our intelligence, diplomatic, financial, law enforcement and military resources on defeating al Qaeda, that we restore respect and support for America, and that we re-orient our foreign policy to meet the challenges of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, international crime, and environment threats. Taken together, all of these steps will make America more secure."

How is this a bad thing? Like it or not, 9/11 happened. It could happen again. While I'm far from a Dean supporter, I absolutely agree that we are no safer today than before Sadaam's capture. If we were, would the security level be elevated after his capture? We need a president who will go after the real threat to America. Rebuilding national security will take some coinage, my friend. I'd much rather my tax dollars be spent (and yes, I'll be paying them, as we net more than 100,000/yr) securing the freedom and safety of Americans, than securing the oil rights in Iraq.

[hilzoy]

28. Homeland security

pays mostly for things that are not about militarization: police and firefighters, more secure ports, and my personal favorite, finally, FINALLY doing something good for our public health infrastructure. These are all good things above and beyond the fact that they help homeland security.

[Jerseycoa]

6. That's great!

Thanks for the report. :bounce:

[BootinUp]

8. Nice story

Its something we instinctively know with regard to Clark drawing repubs over, its great to hear the tesimonials though!

[chookie]

11. I went to my first one too!

I attended in Pittsburgh. Very interesting and diverse group of people.

Clark is not an ideologue -- he is a patriotic American, and a damned smart one. He has guts. He fears no man. He is answering the call of service to his country yet again. On the last day of his adminstration, President Eisenhower left America with a warning -- to beware the military industrial complex, and the havoc it could wreck in our nation if it ever assumed power.

It has. And high time for a career military man to call the radicals and profiteers on their bullshit, and turn the Bush juggernaut out of the direction that is taking our nation into ruin and disgrace.

The Republican issue came up here, as well. There, as I have repeatedly said on DU -- the Republican Party has been hijacked by a group of radicals and extremists, and many traditional conservatives and Republicans despise Bush as well. Sane Republicans will be crossing over in 2004.

[maddezmom]

15. good to hear

Wes is coming on strong.

[SheilaT]

14. Aren't the Meetups wonderful?

They're an amazing way of getting people together.

[Bucky]

16. Our Houston Meet Up attendance was down by about 1/3 tonight.

So I axed our area coordinator what's up with that. He said, well, that's because our original Houston Meet Up has split into six different groups. Six! That rocks. Oh, and besides that our Meet Up was scheduled for right against Clark's appearence on the Tweety Show. That hurt too.

[SheilaT]

23. I attend meetups for a different candidate

and we've split up and have many more in our area than the original one. It's working out for the best because it's much easier to connect one on one with the attendees and do all the support stuff for the candidate. Do not look upon the splitting as a negative thing, but rather as proof that more and more people are supporting your candidate.

[Turkw]

17. There are so many positive threads about Clark tonight, Way cool

Vote Clark and win.

Those poor, poor zealous anti-Clark posters must have sore, blistered fingers trying to keep up with all the good things being said.

[snyttri]

18. GOP crossovers will consider Clark who wouldn't consider Dean.

[oasis]

19. dandy report. (eom)

[cally]

20. Huge turnout at my meetup

I sat next to a lifelong Republican who re-registered as a Democrat to vote for Wes. This man was fascinating since he was a long time environmentalist. Originally some of the most vocal politicians who supported environmental regulations were Republicans. He was chief of staff for one of those a long time ago. He told me that his party left him a long time ago and that it wasn't difficult to change parties. That and he hates Bush and what he has done for the country. Actually about 15 people re-registered at the meetup. Some were independents, some Greens some Republicans. All now are Democrats.

[floridaguy]

21. More great Florida meetups

I was involved in two meetups tonight. One in Cape Coral/Ft. Myers and in Naples. Both counties are predominantly Republican, but Clark is getting support from both parties and non-partisan folks. We had great meetups in both places, because people realize that Clark is now positioned to win the nomination, and then we can get on to the real fun.

Keep the faith. We all know that Clark is the one that can beat Bush, some of us just haven't admitted it yet.

[Clark4VotingRights]

27. Now that the holidays are over, I think attendence at these will

skyrocket.

Go Wes!

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[democratreformed]

25. We also saw a lot of new people at our Clark meetup

Sounds like you guys did great! Congrats.

[xultar]

24. Yea HOO! n/t

[Anaxamander]

26. Great news!

I think President Clark would lead the U.S. to a better place.