pro Wesley Clark essay in Minneapolis Star Tribune

[Eric J in MN]

Next time, list points in Clark's favor
Patricia Palm

Published December 27, 2003 PALM1227


Your Dec. 21 news profile of Wesley Clark was very negative and minimally informed.

Things you didn't say:

This man was "drafted" by concerned citizens from all over the country on the Internet.

He has a large Internet and "meet up" involvement. Next one: Jan. 5.

He is not a part of the prevalent "greed" culture in America. He never made more than $60,000 a year in his 34 years in the military. He has made over $3 million since leaving in 2000 but he gave up that earning power to run for us.

He is a person of the people. He rose to the top from lower-middle-class upbringing and great personal loss in his life.

He is a deeply religious man, comfortable talking about his beliefs.

He is a family man, married for over 36 years to a wife who is always his partner.

He is an economist with a master's degree from Oxford and business experience. He has great ideas of how to protect and get our jobs back.

He is a teacher (West Point). He understands what education really needs.

He is an environmentalist. He has invested in and been on boards of companies involved in wind energy production and electric cars.

He is a Southerner, which is of great strategic value to the Democratic Party.

He has put his brilliant mind to work and has come up with policy papers on more issues than any other candidate. See for yourself on www.clark04.com

In this time of War on Terror, he is miles ahead of any other candidate in qualifications. He is an experienced and multilingual diplomat and can get us back into a working relationship with our allies. He is a strategist who knows how to set firm goals for our endeavors. As a complete planner, he could direct the Department of Home Security into real effectiveness. We need to have safe ports, controlled immigration, and each citizen should be informed of the best way to deal with terrorism of any kind.

This man has now been in the campaign for three months. He is learning fast and coming on strong. Your report overemphasized the first week of the campaign.

Patricia Palm, a retired Minneapolis teacher, lives in St. Louis Park.

[bahrbearian]

1. Bear's for Clark were are you ?

[maddezmom]

2. is this from a DU'er?

nice letter. :)

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. Very nice.

It boggles my mind that people haven't embrassed this man. He's a gift. He will be an extraordinary president.

[Eric J in MN]

4. spelling: embraced not embrassed nt

nt

[Democrats unite]

5. Great, thanks for sharing!

eom

[Northwind]

6. Ok, here we go...

1. The draft movement was a lie put on by party isniders.
2. His "large" meetup is less than a third of Howard Dean, and just over twice that of Kucinich, a man polling at around 3%.
3. Not part of the greed culture but has no whoring out to republican interests. Try again.
4. So what?
5. So is Jerry Falwell.
6. So what?
7. His ideas come from party insiders, and ability, despite what you may have been told, has nothing to do with the initials that appear after your name.
8. He is a teacher at a military academy, he has exactly ZERO clue what real teachers face.
9. So what? he has alos been on the boards of weapons manufacterers.
10. We need to STOP nominating damn southerners, and this is coming from someone born and raised in Texas.
11. See first part of response to #7.

In response to all of that last bit...Bullshit.

[Gloria]

8. OK, # 8 He was responsible for schools for 44,000 children...

During which time at the European Command he called for an academic review conference that updated curriculum for the first time in more than a decade. He brought in new textbooks, technology and upgraded
curriculum.
In 1998 he went to Congress to fight budget cuts that would affect schools on military bases.

He managed an overall budget of $13.7 Billion. Vermonts budget, $2.87 Billion.

His performance evaluation reads: "A great leader who takes care of soldiers and their families."

And there are many more facts about Clark and his taking care of the people he lead. He has more experience with the "nitty gritty" of people's lives than you can imagine.

[Bombtrack]

9. and his meetup is probably inflated less than Dean's by duplicates

7000 + people aren't showing up to Dean's NYC meetups.

I started a meetup in Islamibad for Dean just to show how dump his anonymous mouseclick based "army" is.

Dean's also been running for 3 years

[robbedvoter]

19. Also, everyone who's ever been signed with a HD meet-up - but left

is still counted there since THERE"S NO WAY OF UNSUBSCRIBING FROM THE DAMN THING.
The "I left Dean on Nine Seventeen" is not reflected by those numbers.
This article does:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/10/23/clark/ 
The general and his ground troops
Howard Dean is not the only Democratic candidate who has inspired an army of followers. Wes Clark's ranks are growing, and they include Bush deserters.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Michelle Goldberg

[Scoopie]

11. Southern flaming biased

Excuse me, Mr. or Ms. Bigot,
But, what, praytell, is wrong with Southerners?
Southern Democrats/Independents are the most electable in the country because we're in the middle - like most of the damn country?

And... I have "issues" with calling Texas "Southern." Southwestern, yes, and the epitomy of it, but not exactly my neck of the woods.

If someone here were to say a bad word about black people, gays, women or any other workplace minority, your bell would be rung: but, as is the case with all media and elitists, it's OK to rag on Southerners.

However, in my book, it's bigotry. Pure and simple, and not worthy of an alleged Democratic forum.

Oh, and Dean can kiss my Southern, non-Confederate-flag-adorned truck!
:P

P.S. I don't really drive a truck - but you get the point. However, my step-Dad drives one, so does my Dad, who lives in Alabama. Neither one of them has CFs on their trucks and my Dad is a Confederacy historian!!

[Jerseycoa]

12. This is a lie

"1. The draft movement was a lie put on by party isniders."

[Tinoire]

14. Google Chris Kofinis DLC

This was a charade from the start and I have many posts from the "draft Clark" era that contested this.

From the beginning, the entire movement has been Soros & Clinton and their boys trying to get one of their own on the Dem ticket.

You have to admit that the enire idea of a DLC candidate being drafted by the people while David Wallace from the American Enterprise Institute is in charge of the media production is a little... preposterous.

[SahaleArm]

16. It was John Hlinko (et al) who started it...

Not exactly outsiders or insiders: http://www.draftwesleyclark.com/who_we_are.htm

The DLC candidate was Lieberman.

[maddezmom]

17. kick

thanks for the info. :)

[robbedvoter]

20. Oh, tell me more about how I don't exist - sheesh!

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Well, she laughed when people called the house in February of 2003 and said, '”We wanna talk to General Clark and ask him to run.” She would snicker. Then after the war, and people began to talk about it, she began to be anxious, and then my son announced he was getting married in July or in late June and we were gonna have a reception in Little Rock. He said, “I don't wanna hear about this until after this is over.” And then in late July, people began to talk to her: “You know your husband has a responsibility.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/19/60II/main584548.shtml
March 2003 - Aaron Brown made a remark on CNN to Clark: you seem so much better than these guys running the show, why don't you run?" Clark laughs. The same day 3 people form a yahoo group that becomes thousands over night. They followed Clark with signs at every appearance he put, they pledged money, collected signatures, opened offices. We never knew until September 15. I wasn't part of those efforts but on behalf of those good people, don't rewrite history. It was made.


All smoke and mirrors, I know. I am just a DLC robot programmed to write on DU to make believe there are people behind this thing...You got us! Can't fool DU's top research guy/girl! No siree...

[peacetalksforall]

7. I'm not ready to choose...

...I'm still learning...but I admire Patricia Palm's initiative in promoting her selection. A letter like that will win some for Democrats in general and get people educated. Good job!

[webkev]

10. great article - much thanks for sharing this(nt)

[Jerseycoa]

13. This is incorrect

"He never made more than $60,000 a year in his 34 years in the military"

It took him a long time, but I think he reached $100,000+ in the end.

[MoonRiver]

15. What a wonderful essay!

She succinctly says it all. Clark is truly the best, and is in this race for the sake of his country. That theme has dominated his entire career. Go WES!!!

:kick:

[Myra]

18. Excellent news!

Hey, the General's almost reached his funraising goals for the month.