"He's a leader. With low-key style and image as political outsider, Clark"

[Clark4VotingRights]

"...drawing converts in N.H.

NASHUA Geraldine Ahearn has just finished hearing former Gen. Wesley Clark outline the tax plan he'll implement when he becomes president, and like everything else about Clark, it impressed her.

She likes the fact that Clark isn't a career politician. She likes the fact that Clark is critical of President George W. Bush. She likes Clark's policies. Despite all this, she has a hard time pegging exactly why she plans on voting for Clark in this month's New Hampshire primary.

"There's something about him. I don't know what it is," said Ahearn, who lives in Nashua.
...
"I saw a sign with 'Wes Clark' with the red, white and blue and it hit me what it was," Ahearn said. "This is somebody we can respect and admire as a leader."..."

http://www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105~4746~1897188,00.html

[in_cog_ni_to]

1. (sigh) I LOVE Wes Clark!

The story below is so..... "Classic Clark"...This makes me SMILE! He is so "real". He knows how to talk to "real" people. He can relate to them. He knows where they're coming from. He's been there. I love how he can move from stump speech to "shoot the shit" with every day people about YOGURT! LOL! Heartwarming! :loveya:

<snip>
On Monday, Clark was at Stonyfield Farms, a Londonderry yogurt company. Following a tour of the factory, he meets with about a dozen employees. After ripping through a short stump speech and taking a few questions, Clark is met with blank stares and no questions.

Oftentimes at this moment, a politician thanks his audience, wraps up and leaves. Instead, Clark begins to go around the table, asking this group of voters about their lives and their jobs. He finally digs into a cup of white-chocolate-and-raspberry yogurt, and the former commander of the allied NATO forces is suddenly a food critic.

"It has a nice consistency, it has a nice flavor to it, and I don't want to put crumbly things in it," he says.

But Clark has bigger things on his mind than a tasty yogurt. He and Erik Drake talk about why Drake came to Stonyfield and Drake helped invent the Moo-la-la yogurt Clark is eating.

The effort helps Clark make a connection. As he speaks, he looks around the room and in short time has looked every single person in the room directly in the face. He talks quietly, but with conviction, and doesn't bog down his speech or answers in wonkish jargon. When he's done, he's made himself a contender with Drake.

[Clark4VotingRights]

5. For some reason I love the "crumbly things" comment.

It's (dare I say?) cute.

And I like the same thing these folks noticed:
Wes is confident, not arrogant.

My single biggest surprise after learning about him from
Michael Moore's letter asking him to run was expecting him to
be a haughty guy, then seeing him and he's modest and self-deprecating
and able to say he made a mistake and humorous. I never expected him
to be so personable.

Leadership without the attitude.

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. I started to post

about Clark's "cute and adorable" factor, but figured I'd get grief for it so I decided against it. He does have a cute, endearing quality to his personality. Even my husband...a (ahem) man's man...agrees with me when I say..."That was so cute!" or "He's so cute." The Stonyfield's story is the perfect example of his "cuteness." He effortlessly slides from campaign stump speech to talking about the texture of yogurt...lol! That is very endearing to me and shows how personable and "real" he is. I assume that ease to "schmooze" comes from the military and all the different people he had to be in constant contact with. From Heads of State to the newly enlisted men. Clark is just a "peach" and I truly adore everything about him!

[aquanut]

2. Nice article.

Clark: a true leader, is respectable, admirable, intelligent, articulate, down to earth, confident, trustworthy, honest, has integrity

Clark is NOT: arrogant, going to tell you what you want to hear, a Washington insider

[dfong63]

3. style and image only - no substance

[The Magistrate]

11. That Is What People Vote On, Mr. Fong

It is no good complaining about it.

People vote for someone they can identify with admiringly. Most people do not feel themselves particularly informed about issues, and so make their choice on whether they feel a candidate is like them, for they feel that in that case, the candidate will, in office, do about what they would if they were themselves in office and fully aprised of the ins and outs on which the decision will be made.

People vote against candidates they do not feel an affinity towards, and particularly against candidates they feel present themselves as something better than they themslves are.

"Substance", if by that is meant positions on particular questions of interest to cogniscotti, has nothing whatever to do with building a mass following. "Substance" takes on meaning only if by the word is meant a degree of life achievement that allows people to think the person is of sufficient heft for the job being sought. In this latter, functional meaning, Gen. Clark has a great deal of substance: he has risen to the highest rungs of an organization most people recognize as a genuine meritocracy, and displayed not only commendable courage, but great diplomatic and executive skills in the exercise of high command.

Combined with his bearing, and his wit, all of this builds into the "X factor" that encourages identification with him, and high regard for him, among people in general. That is one of those things people either have, or lack, and Gen. Clark has it in spades....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Jerseycoa]

4. Stonyfield's my favorite yogurt

Wes Clark, of course, my favorite president. :)

[Clark4VotingRights]

6. Do you put "crumbly things" in it?

'Cause that says a lot about yogurt...I hear. :)

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. Stonyfield's

must be on the East coast only? I've never heard of it, but I'm sure it would be by favorite, hands down...since you and Wes like it....it must be good! ;)

[bicentennial_baby]

9. Oh It's the Best!

Especially the Whole Milk line...soooo good!

[in_cog_ni_to]

10. For "some" reason

I'm hungry! The Yogurt and Clark Bar threads have made me very hungry!

Go, Wes!

[FrenchieCat]

12. Me hungry too......

GO CLARK

[The Magistrate]

13. We Get That Here Around The Great Lakes, Sir

It is quite good....