Houstonvoice Editorial - Endorsement: Clark for president

[wyldwolf]

On edit - I just put the title in the subject heading - not implying this paper is endorsing Clark:

A NUMBER OF gay Democratic activists jumped aboard early on the campaign of Howard Dean, drawn by his decision to support and sign the first-of-its-kind legislation in 2000 that created civil unions. But Dean’s role in the raucous debate that surrounded that law is less than perfect.

We should not forget that Vermont’s highest court had ordered the governor and legislature to adopt full marriage or its equivalent, leaving Dean only three real choices: (1) defiance, a la obstructionist Southern governors who rejected racial desegregation; (2) support for full-fledged marriage; or (3) support for a separate but “equal” institution.

Dean chose the easiest of the three, compromise, rejecting gay activists who argued (then and now) that anything other than marriage is inherently unequal. In Massachusetts today, where that same debate is repeating itself, activists are labeling the Dean position, now favored by the Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, as anti-gay.

Many of the gay activists who have so ardently supported Dean’s candidacy have not even given the race a second look since the late entry of WESLEY CLARK, the former NATO commander whose positions on gay issues are indistinguishable from those of the former Vermont governor.

Clark’s advantages over Dean are numerable: His military record and upbeat campaign make him much more electable, especially in regions where Dean’s angry rhetoric falls flat, as it did in Iowa. As a former military leader, Clark speaks with greater authority on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” than Dean, who skipped Vietnam over a supposed bad back to go skiing for six months.

...

After four years of a president who has been a divider, not a uniter, despite his claims to the contrary, the Democrats need a nominee, and this country needs a president, who knows how to bring us together, while still doing right by gay and lesbian Americans. Wes Clark is that candidate.

http://www.houstonvoice.com/2004/1-23/view/editorial/clark.cfm