Clark's Iowa Speech -- Warning: Pro Clark Thread!

[Bread and Circus]

I will admit, Clark has had some rocky patches in
the last day or so. The on-and-off again relationship
with the debate was wearysome. Additionally, his
(dare I say) mis-step suggesting he "probably" would
have voted for the congression Iraq resolution was
a bit confusing. However, he has corrected both issues.
First, he will be in the debate -- case-settled. Second,
he has clarified his position to be clearly consistent
with what we all thought -- his is an opponent of the
Iraq War. More on this will need clarification, but I
know Clark was/is against the Iraq war as well as unilateral
use of force and the abuse of the UN.

However, more importantly, Clark gave a speech today at
the University of Iowa. It was amazing and inspirational.
His vision of our role in the world will be the gold-standard
of this nomination period as well as the election. Frankly,
he gave a lucid, candid, and refreshingly philosophical
framework to build upon that will bring peace and safety to
our nation and to those abroad. It is more comprehensive
and cogent than any other speech/view on foreign policy I
have ever heard.

I challenge even the most ardent pacifict to listen to the
second half of his speech and disagree with the bulk of it.
It is no PNAC agenda. It is the agenda of peace and prosperity.
Not only for Americans but people all around the world.

I will grant it to those that feel uncomfortable with Clark's
votes for Nixon and Reagan. I will admit that he has certainly
not been "Mr. Democrat" his whole life. But Clark has a special
panache, charisma, and intellect that transcends petty party
labels. Back in June, I originally caught onto Clark because
I thought he could be a "savior" for the Democratic party. At
that time, Bush was still polling well and Dean had yet to make
his surge. But now, after studying him intensively for the past
few months, I believe he is really the most qualified potential
President to set the agenda for the 21st century in terms of
security, national defense, and a humane/just foreign policy.

I will admit, Clark has not yet laid out a similar plan for domestic
issues. I will also admit, he will not be as liberal as some
people here on DU want him to be. But I know that when he applies
his values, principles, intellect, and vision to domestic issues,
he will present an amazing and comprehensive plan that will be
both liberal in scope but broad enough to include views from the
left and the right.

Clark does not seem to think in terms of "what will win the next
election" as most politicians seem to do, he appears to me
to think in terms of what will make our country and world better.

I know some will thoughtlessly flame me and my post. I know the
flames for Clark will continue. To me, they are reassuring...
they are signs that Clark is to be taken seriously.

The draft Clark movement, in its
sincerent purpose, has brought a great speaker and visionary
to bear upon our public discourse. Win or lose, this will benefit
our party and our country.

Thanks for reading and thanks for continuing to consider Clark.

P.S. If you still believe Clark is PNAC and a Republican in
"sheep's clothing", be fore-warned that he
singled out Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as the battlefronts of
terrorism. That's not PNAC nor is it Republican...not as far
as I am concerned. That's something we all know, but the oiled
interests have to greedy and cowed politicians have been too
weak to admit.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Do me a favor as I am tring to

get as much as I can ON ALL CANDIDATES though I must
say Dean is still my front runner, but Clark is quickly
coming up there... showing his humanity was pure gold
yesterday.. HELP MARY... that was pure gold.

Can you just email me some sites, or just post them

[Bread and Circus]

3. When I get a link to this speech...

transcript or webcast, I will post it.

To see Clark files/interviews go to www.digitalclark.com.
Some of the older stuff (meaning longer hour long interviews)
are the best.

[FubarFly]

6. Ah thanks.

[pruner]

13. showing his humanity?

LMAO

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Yes something you may have missed

but I am not surprised.

By the way that has been absent in US politics for at least
a generation

[Bread and Circus]

2. Fellow Clark Supports....

can I get an amen?

I need to know somebody read this. Man, I really
worked on it and it's from the bottom of my heart.

[slappypan]

5. I hear you, brother

Eloquent post.

[diplomats]

8. Yes, great post!

[WillyBrandt]

10. AMEN!

Thank you for writing this.

[Clark Can WIN]

30. AMEN DOCTOR

I'm with you :bounce:

[Kanola]

43. A well thought out and substantial post Family Doctor

I have watched Clark also whenever he is on television and will be watching to see what his domestic agenda entails. He is a close second to me as Dean is my first choice. If Clark wins the nomination I will be happy to work for him to beat Bushco.

Excellent post again!

[IranianDemocrat]

44. Amen Doctor!

.

[FubarFly]

4. ...

[DoveTurnedHawk]

7. Hooray!!!

Fantastic post, and good for you! Don't let the haters get you down, this is awesome and you are a fine citizen and Democrat!

DTH

[Bread and Circus]

14. Not to get too sentimental, DTH...

but you are awesome as well. You have been
unwavering in your resolve to support Clark
while being balanced and reasonable.

I think we need to keep our tone and dialogue
as elevated as we can. I don't think we can
have people consider Clark or give us the
benefit-of-the-doubt if we don't try to post
thoughtful, intelligent, humanist letters.

WE all get caught in the mudslinging, but we need
to knock it off and work for our candidates. Writing
good stuff takes work. It is too easy to take pot-shots
and make hit-and-runs. I think we will do Clark a favor
if we spend the time to put it all on the table.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

21. Damn

Now I feel all embarrassed. It's strange, it's easy for me to take criticism and attacks and let them roll off my back while accepting the constructive bits. But it has always been hard for me to take praise, for some reason.

Thanks, and again, I LOVED your post. I agree with you on elevating the level of discussion whenever and wherever possible...it's just hard to do sometimes. :-)

:yourock:

DTH

[Eloriel]

23. Well, there you go

Boy, that's not how I experience DTH at ALL. in fact, at times he's been quite ugly. So now I must question YOUR judgment.

Eloriel

[DoveTurnedHawk]

25. I Concede I've Been Ugly Towards You and Several of Your Compatriots

And you (and they) have been the same towards me.

:shrug:

DTH

[Bread and Circus]

26. Hmmm...

I have no good rebuttal to that, but I bet if you knew me
you would trust my judgement. Maybe I have missed
some of the hard-hitting stuff from DTH. I guess I
just see so much stuff here which is intended to
mislead that I kind of like a guy like DTH who
takes it head-on.

However, I think we need to work for our candidates
and work for other's respect. I hope I can earn yours.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

28. I Don't Mislead, But I Can Be Vicious at Times

Intellectual honesty is very important to me, and I try to tell the whole story, even if it doesn't advance my agenda.

That said, I do not suffer fools gladly, and I can also be quite nasty when people are nasty towards me.

Regardless, I think your judgment looks pretty good, based on the post that started this thread!

DTH

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

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

[DoveTurnedHawk]

39. Oh My, the "Stalker" Allegation Surfaces, How Surprising!

Yeah, and in your not suffering fools gladly mode you often come off looking like a fool yourself. Trust me.

I'm sorry Eloriel, but trusting you is one thing I'm not likely to do any time soon.

But two of my DU friends who DO pay much better attention to who posts what told me a few weeks ago that they are convinced you have on occasion actually stalked me from thread-to-thread to get your digs in.

Another baseless slam. It's one you and quite a few other of your compatriots like to raise, along with the "bullying" canard. Perhaps you should try responding to the actual, substantive merits of posts rather than complaining when someone either: a) won't let you just slink away after making misleading comments or unsupported attacks; or b) advocates for his or her position strongly.

If you can't stand the heat, no one is forcing you to post. If you can, then it might behoove you to stop focusing on the personalities and complaining about silly things like this in a vain effort to discredit your opponents, and instead start addressing the issues.

DTH

[WillyBrandt]

9. Why I support Wesley Clark: Eight Words

Thank you so much for that. Do you know where the Iowa speech is online?

Anyway, I began seriously considering supporting Clark when I saw this speech at the New Democrat Network:

http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/kdrive/c04061703_newdemocrat.rm

The guy's brains and character shine through. But what hit it was near the end of the speech, where he says: (at around 26:00)

"Forget about the fear. Forget about the anger."

With that he summed up the problem with the nation's political psyche after 9/11. I was, and still am, blindly angry at the terrorists, the Saudis, the lying Republicans, the cowardly Dems (who have finally started growing spines!). But that anger is no basis for polity, and is a sad rebuke to what politics in this nation should be about.

Those eight words aren't fortune cookie shallowness; they are the marriage of wisdom and concision. I admire this guy, and I think he would be an excellent President.

(And it doesn't hurt that the thugs are scared of him!)

[Clark Can WIN]

31. And AMEN Willie

It's so refreshing to see when people take the time to actually read and listen for themselves instead of just accepting the cookie cuts of some hack with an agenda and no real intent to inform.

[Cheswick2.0]

11. Who?

Clark who?

[Starpass]

12. Thanks--there's also a post from someone who just came back from

his speech and was really impressed with him. Yes, we need someone to piss at this administration and it's isolationism and give back a feeling of being part of the world community and not just stopping at "we shoulda' gone to da' UN first". There's a future to be built and not just rehashing what we should have done. In fact Bush is now going to the UN and it seems like enough have been threatened a bribed that we will get people heading in there. Thus, you heard it here first folks, I predict a lot of this "I would go to the UN" talk that is offered by the candidates will fade into irrelavancy. They need a "I come from a place called Hope" vision.

[ima_sinnic]

15. Yes, I was really drawn into that speech

. . . . and I WAS listening for the undertones, the PNAC, but didn't hear it either. I was a little harsh earlier. No one can argue with that vision. He would be a brilliant statesman.

[WillyBrandt]

19. Thank you

ima--

Thank you very much for giving Clark a chance. Don't let the enthusiasm for his supporters (like me) make you skeptical.

Clark is great. He's the real deal. A lot of the candidates--Edward, Kerry, and Dean--are really good. But I think I'd be _proud_ for Clark to be our President.

Give yourself a few weeks. You'll be crazy like us.

[disgruntella]

16. another thanks - and an idea

Your writeup is well done. I think this post fits fine in GD, but it would also work in Politics & Campaigns, since it was a campaign speech -- that forum attracts a few less gratuitous flames.

[southern democrat]

20. Thank You

And I also support Clark.Undoubtibly this campaign wiil be about his slogan:Leadership,Character,and Courage.By the time this is over with,he will a whole hell of a lot of all three.I had concerns about the Reagan vote but that was in the past.I could be wrong but I see somtehing special in Clark.And another thing if he threatens the right wingers so much.He's allright with me.

[cmd]

18. Thank you, familydoctor

I appreciate the report.

[DemExpat]

22. Thanks, Familydoctor, and I believe you are right

about the flames being a 'good sign' - that Clark really IS a positive force to reckon with.

I'm sure that Clark knows this as well...

I'm disappointed, but not surprised about all the savaging Clark and supporters are getting from fellow DUers though.....

:kick:

DemEx

[kayleybeth]

24. Amen!

I didn't really have a candidate before Clark got in, but I was leaning toward Dean. I've committed to Clark now that he's in but will gladly support Dean next November if he gets the nomination. It's still early. Clark may totally tank for all I know. If so, I'll gladly support Dean or whoever gets the nomination.

I'm all about getting shrub OUT of our white house. That's my mission. Any of the Dem candidates will be an improvement over what we have now.

[Bread and Circus]

27. I challenge all Clark-bashers to give him 34 minutes of your time..

Another post-er here delivered this link. It may
have been overlooked. It is an excellent Clark speech,
it hits on some of the same points as today's speech.

I believe it to be a "must-see".

The Clark I see in this speech is not the war-mongerer,
PNAC sponsored, Republican monster people have made him out to be.

I think if people watch all 34 minutes, they will view all
the Clark-bashing done here (and by the fascist Right in
the media) with great skepticism.

Clark needs to find his sea legs in the campaign, but he
will hit his stride soon I am sure.

Thanks for giving him your time.


http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/kdrive/c04061703_newdemocrat.rm

[Nashyra]

29. Amen family doctor

I was waiting to see a post about his speech. Glad it went so well.

[Bread and Circus]

32. WillyBrandt deserves the credit

for the link.

Thanks.

[WillyBrandt]

34. No prob

eom

[Clark Can WIN]

33. Thanks for the link

It is well worth the look.

[RandomUser]

37. Very good link

Thank you.

[MoonRiver]

35. Thanks so much for that post.

I do believe that Wesley Clark is a wonderful human being. He has been on a lifelong philosophical and moral journey like the rest of US. The fact that he hasn't been a political party animal, and maybe vascillated between the right and left somewhat, makes him more like me than many career politicians who are all glossy and greased with smooze appeal. I sincerely like and trust this man. He espouses the common sense and humanistic values that I believe in. And, perhaps because of this, he can beat Bush.

[KT2000]

36. Good post and I agree

with what was said. Win or lose he will benefit the party - but I really want him to win. I want to see what he can do - because something awful has happened in this country. The Republican sludge has poisoned the atmosphere and nearly made democracy a relic.

It is going to take someone who can think outside the "political box" to save this country. He looks like he could do it.

[Palacsinta]

40. Thanks and Amen!

Clark's the right candidate for these times. We sorely need a person of vision. Thanks for your eloquent and well-presented endorsement. (I'm not good at marshalling my thoughts and presenting a cogent argument......I count on and am grateful for yinz guys that can!)

[RedEarth]

41. Good Post

Thanks for the post and the link to the speech. I honestly feel Clark is the only candidate that has a strong chance to beat b... It is my understanding, 30-40% of the population is considered to be swing voters, and I feel Clark will have the greatest appeal to these voters. That being said, I will vote for any candidate that is nominated by the Democratic party. However, my main objective is to get rid of b..., and IMO Clark is the candidate that has the best chance.

[Ishoutandscream]

42. Excellent!

I finally decided to commit to Clark a couple of weeks ago. Your wonderful post just confirms the wisdom of my choice. Thanks for your thoughtful message.