The Clark Repub dinner speech in it's entirety

[bicentennial_baby]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110004065

And for the record, he was not talking about *

"And President George Bush had the courage and the vision to push our European allies to take the risk to tell the Russians to leave, and to set up the conditions so all of Germany and later many nations of Eastern Europe could become part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, part of the West with us. And we will always be grateful to President George Bush for that tremendous leadership and statesmanship."

Regardless of how you feel about the speech or the fact that he gave it, please stop saying that he's talking about Shrub, cause he was'nt.

[Closer]

1. Yeah, but he DID say THIS about Dubya and others

"And I'm very glad we've got the great team in office: men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condolzeezza Rice, Paul O'Neill--people I know very well--our president, George W. Bush. We need them there, because we've got some tough challenges ahead in Europe."

So stop taking up for him. It's sickening.

[returnable]

4. *yawn*

I thought that this was put to bed last night.

Clark said A LOT had changed in the 2.5 years since he gave that speech.

Tell me - what did you think when Gephardt and Kerry attacked Dean for pimping Gingrich's Contract with America?

[Cappurr]

13. I retract my apology to you Closer

You are just a Clark-basher and will come up with whatever is convenient to do it. If you read the ENTIRE speech (as I did) you'd find it quite inspiring and I can see why those who know him describe him a globally "progressive".

Sickening? Because he was speaking at a Republican fundraiser and he was polite the the guests there by speaking highly of their leaders? Sicking or polite.

And by the way, do you have the transcript from the democratic fundraiser he attended shortly after this one?

[Bucky]

28. We need to understand this

At that fundraiser Clark said, "We were really helped when President Ronald Reagan came in. I remember noncommissioned officers who were going to retire and they re-enlisted because they believed in President Reagan... He talked about how they {the Normandy veterans} did it for love. And we all cried. That's the kind of president Ronald Reagan was... He was truly a great American leader. And those of us in the Armed Forces loved him, respected him and tremendously admired him for his great leadership."

I don't agree with what he said, but I haven't lived Clark's life. I wasn't where he was in those years. Where he stood, Reagan breathed new life and a new sense of commitment into the institutions through which Wesley Clark and his colleagues lived out their patriotism.

In the Reagan-Poppy years I was a college student, then a teacher, then a social worker. To me those years meant contracting opportunity for the communities I lived in and worked with. It meant watching unemployment and homelessness rise. That colors what I think of Reagan, but I was not in the armed services. I did not feel any threat to my survival because people like Wesley Clark were doing their jobs and doing them well. And they say that Reagan inspired them to continue their service to me.

How can I now say he was less of a patriot or is less deserving of my consideration because he lived this different experience? The life he's lived has led him to a place where he says, "I want to lead and I want to do so as a Democrat." I think we should hear what he has to say before dismissing him.

I'm not sold on Clark as a candidate yet. But I accept him as a Democrat.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

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[boxster]

21. Read the whole speech.

It's pretty obvious that his token praise of Bush, et al, was a very small part of it and done - just like in any other speech to an organization - to make the attendees pay attention and be receptive to the "real" intent of the speech.

[OBrien]

24. double yawn

yawn

[roughsatori]

2. Here is a direct quote from the fundraiser: He praises evil

"And I'm very glad we've got the great team in office: men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condolzeezza Rice, Paul O'Neill--people I know very well--our president, George W. Bush. We need them there, because we've got some tough challenges ahead in Europe."

[WesWing2004]

5. don't like evil cabal either

but they didn't reveal their true level of heinousness until after the September surprise. from there it was all downhill fast. now everybody hates them, even arizonans!

[JVS]

7. Their heinousness was plain to see in the fraudulent selection

that happened less than 6 months before Clark said these words.

If we had "needed" these people so much maybe we would have elected them!

[boxster]

8. And so did 87% of the American public after 9/11.

Think they feel the same way now?

[JVS]

10. I guess Clark is just more accepting of illegitimate government than

the other candidates.

I'm sure it isn't important. ABB!

[roughsatori]

11. 87% of the American Public are not running as a Dem Candidate

Clark is--big difference.

[returnable]

14. But 80% of those running for the Dem nomination...

...accepted the Administration's claims prior to the Iraq War.

Even Howard Dean signed on to a 60-day disarmament plan for Iraq followed by UN-sanctioned invasion.

Kucinich and Al are the only cats in this crowd with clean hands.

[boxster]

20. Exactly. Everybody jumped on the Bush is great bandwagon,

even knowing that he was still a fraud.

Re: the 87% - I was always in the other 13%. }(

Love your sig line, by the way. It needs to be in bold, red letters.

[goodhue]

3. talks about both Bushes

* * * *

We were really helped when President Ronald Reagan came in. I remember noncommissioned officers who were going to retire and they re-enlisted because they believed in President Reagan. I remember when he gave his speech on the 40th anniversary of Normandy. I don't know how many of you all--do we have any World War II veterans in this room? Anybody who is here? I think we ought to give our World War II veterans a hand.

I was a colonel at the Pentagon. I was working for the Army chief of staff and doing lessons learned and things. And I didn't get to go to the celebration of Normandy, but we heard the speech when he gave it. He talked about how the rangers took Pointe de Hoc. He talked about how they did it for love. And we all cried. That's the kind of president Ronald Reagan was. He helped our country win the Cold War. He put it behind us in a way no one ever believed would be possible. He was truly a great American leader. And those of us in the Armed Forces loved him, respected him and tremendously admired him for his great leadership.

I served out at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., as the commanding general out there during Operation Desert Storm. And I got to train many troops and leaders before they went over, but a funny thing happened about that time. The Soviet Union kind of collapsed. The Warsaw Pact disappeared. The East Germans gave up; they became part of Germany. The German army that was part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization moved into East Germany. I remember they sent a German brigadier general around the United States--to each of the army posts a German brigadier came in, and he said, "Fellas," he said, "it's over, we won. The Cold War is over."

We couldn't quite believe it. I mean Desert Storm was wonderful; we whipped Saddam Hussein and all that sort of thing. But the Cold War was over, the Berlin Wall was down. And President George Bush had the courage and the vision to push our European allies to take the risk to tell the Russians to leave, and to set up the conditions so all of Germany and later many nations of Eastern Europe could become part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, part of the West with us. And we will always be grateful to President George Bush for that tremendous leadership and statesmanship.

* * * *

One of the things I'm most proud of is they asked me to serve on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy. I don't know if you all know what the National Endowment for Democracy is, but President Ronald Reagan started it in the early 1980s to promote American values abroad. And one of the things that we do with a very small amount of money--which I hope Sen. Hutchinson will keep in mind and help us a little bit with, and maybe his brother will too. This is a $30 million program that could be a $70 million program. We help democracy, we help elections, we help form political parties. There's a National Democratic Institute, an International Republican Institute. And we've got great young men and women out serving our way of life in these other countries. And they're doing a great job of it. And thank God Ronald Reagan had the vision to start that. But I'm really proud to be on that. We've got to do that.

You see, in the Cold War we were defensive. We were trying to protect our country from communism. Well guess what, it's over. Communism lost. Now we've got to go out there and finish the job and help people live the way they want to live. We've got to let them be all they can be. They want what we have. We've got some challenges ahead in that kind of strategy. We're going to be active, we're going to be forward engaged. But if you look around the world, there's a lot of work to be done. And I'm very glad we've got the great team in office: men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condolzeezza Rice, Paul O'Neill--people I know very well--our president, George W. Bush. We need them there, because we've got some tough challenges ahead in Europe.

* * * *

[hedda_foil]

6. Fundie alert here!

See, what I discovered is, we are the real--what the French call the hyperpower in the world today. It's not that we're the only military superpower. That's true. We're unchallengeable militarily today. We've got a great group of men and women in the armed forces. Well, I do want to say that they're underfunded. I'm going to get to that in a minute. And I also want to say that when they vote, we better count their ballots.

But you see, it's not just the military. It's our economy. We're driving the world. It's our language, it's our culture, it's our music, it's our faith. I've met evangelical Christians--missionaries all over the world and seen the tremendous fruit of their efforts. That's what America stands for. We're truly a great world-leading country.

[roughsatori]

9. "when they vote, we better count their ballots." Was a swipe at Gore

(That was his comment on military votes.)Remember the Repuke accusations that the Democrats did not want to count military votes during the election fiasco. Clark was using this phrase 6 months after the selection--he and the audience new that was an attack on the Democrats. (His supporters will claim it was pro-Gore to say that at a Repuke fundraiser.)

[JVS]

12. how disgusting

[boxster]

15. This might be the single best example yet of

taking things out of context. All that has been discussed out of this entire speech is the fact that Clark threw a little token praise to Bush, Reagan, etc.

What is not discussed is that those plugs were a very small part of a comprehensive speech.

I was ready to be disappointed by this, as I'm slightly leaning toward Clark. I expected with all of the hype that it was a blatant butt-kissing session directed toward Bush and Reagan.

Far from it. Again, I interpret it as token praise made before the true evil of this administration was revealed. He was doing what many professional politicians (which he pointedly made clear he was not) do at every campaign stop - they name-drop people they know the audience relates to.

Frankly, I'm more impressed with him, as this speech makes him sound very much like a human being and very little like the scheming politician/evil military pro-war freak many have made him out to be.

[Clark Can WIN]

22. Clarks comment today

"I was either going to be a VERY VERY lonely republican or a VERY happy Democrat. And I am happy and PROUD to be a Democrat".

Good enough. The man is honest, I guess people just are not used to that anymore. Tough to wrap all those conspiracy theories around I guess. :tinfoilhat:

[bicentennial_baby]

23. I like that quote!

[boxster]

27. By the way, I'm not sure if

"blow dried napoleon" is really a good thing.

}(

[Pastiche423]

26. How do people breathe w/their heads in sand?

[oasis]

17. Immaterial and irrelevant.

[bicentennial_baby]

18. Meaning?

[cosmicdot]

25. token praise? shout out to those Hutchinson brothers, too

One of the things I'm most proud of is they asked me to serve on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy. I don't know if you all know what the National Endowment for Democracy is, but President Ronald Reagan started it in the early 1980s to promote American values abroad. And one of the things that we do with a very small amount of money--which I hope Sen. Hutchinson will keep in mind and help us a little bit with, and maybe his brother will too. This is a $30 million program that could be a $70 million program. We help democracy, we help elections, we help form political parties. There's a National Democratic Institute, an International Republican Institute. And we've got great young men and women out serving our way of life in these other countries. And they're doing a great job of it. And thank God Ronald Reagan had the vision to start that. But I'm really proud to be on that. We've got to do that.


the National Endowment for Democracy

our tax money goes to pay salaries of a "tax exempt" organization and its Board members annaul retainer fee ... which is doing what in our name?

Officers and Directors
Officers

The Honorable Vin Weber More...
(Chairman)
Clark & Weinstock

Mr. Thomas R. Donahue, More...
(Vice-Chair)
Senior Fellow
Work in America Institute

Mrs. Julie Finley, More...
(Treasurer)
Founder, Board Member
United States Committee on NATO

Mr. Matthew F. McHugh, More...
(Secretary)
Counselor to the President
The World Bank

Carl Gershman, More...
President

Directors

Ambassador Morton Abramowitz, More...
Senior Fellow
Century Foundation

The Honorable Evan Bayh, More... DLC
United States Senate

The Honorable Frank Carlucci, More...
The Carlyle Group

General Wesley K. Clark, More...
Stephens Group, Inc.

The Honorable Christopher Cox, More...
United States House of Representatives

Ms. Ester Dyson, More...
Chairman
Edventure Holdings

Ms. Jean Bethke Elshtain, More...
University of Chicago

The Honorable William H. Frist, More...
United States Senate

Dr. Francis Fukuyama, More...
Johns Hopkins University,
Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies

Ms. Suzanne Garment, More...
Dow, Lohnes & Albertson

Mr. Ralph J. Gerson, More...
President & CEO
Guardian International Corp.

The Honorable Bob Graham, More...
United States Senate

The Honorable Lee H. Hamilton, More...
Director
The Woodrow Wilson Center

Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, More...
Counselor
Perseus

Mr. Emmanuel A. Kampouris, More...
President and CEO, Retired
American Standard, Inc.

The Honorable Jon Kyl, More...
United States Senate

Mr. Leon Lynch, More...
Vice President
United Steelworkers of America

The Honorable Gregory W. Meeks, More...
United States House of Representatives

Mr. Michael Novak, More...
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Ambassador Terence A. Todman, More...
International Consultant

Ambassador Howard Wolpe, More...
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars


http://www.ned.org/about/who.html

[Julien Sorel]

29. LOL

I'm sure you wanted to be perfectly honest in your evaluation of this group, so I'll point out that it has lots of liberal/left-leaning organizations involved as well: it's bipartisan. Look up:

Century Foundation

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

United Steelworkers of America

The Woodrow Wilson Center

As well as representatives from the World Bank, two major universities, and so on.

And of course, the Democratic people (Bob Graham, that rat bastard!) who are part of it as well. Another piece of the puzzle that doesn't fit the way we want it to, so let's jam it in there anyway.

[dfong63]

30. frightening insight into the mind of a dyed-in-the-wool interventionist