November 14, 2003

Weswatch 0004 - The Case Against Clark

Although I don't really like digging through left-wing blogs to glean useful information, from time to time I do, and courtesy of Kevin Drum, I found a very-well written statement that sums up, at least on a topical level, much of my misgivings about General W.K. Clark and his campaign. It's a response provided by a guy going by the nom de cyber of Joe Schmoe1, and it's reproduced here in full, without prior permission or editorial alteration:

Don't assume that simply becuase Clark is a general, he is certain to win any debate on national security policy. Neither Bush nor Cheney, nor any other Republican candidate, is recoil in horror before Clark's stars.

Let's say that Bush debates Clark on national security. First, he is going to be very well prepared for the debate. I realize that Bush is not an outstanding debater, but he'll bone up for this one like crazy. He'll have the finest political minds coaching him for months in advance. Moreover, Bush has been dealing with national security issues every single day for the past four years. He's fully conversant with the issues. Given all of this, it's extremly unlikely that Clark will wipe the floor with Bush. If he's debating Cheney, or Rice, his job will be even harder.

Second, and this is by far the most important point, Clark's theories on national security can be defeated on their merits. Not everyone is going to agree with them. For example, I have heard Clark speak on national security, and I am not impressed. He seems to be mired in a pre-9/11 mindset, as he has advocated approaching terrorism as a law enforcement problem. I also think that he is placing far too confidence in international institutions. This frightens me and, more importantly, makes me mistrustful of Clark. The man obviously knows that our allies have limited capabilities, and an even more limited inclanation to help us, yet he seems to be suggesting that they will shower us with money and troops if only we use a little more diplomatic finnesse. This seems so improbable that it makes me question his veracity.

Third, people might not like Clark. I don't like him. He seems to be a power-hungry, narcissitic government bureaurecrat who is willing to say whatever he has to say to sit behind the big desk in the Oval Office. He reminds me of the vice president of some insurance company who is always kissing up to his superiors, fawning over them at the country club and taking up golf just becuase the boss likes to play, and riding roughshod over his subordinates, always threatening to fire them and holding their performance reviews over their heads like a club. This is not a favorable impression.

Lastly, don't assume that the American public will value the fact that Clark is more articulate than, and may be smarter than, Bush. Intelligence is valued in leaders, but not if it is condescending and mean-spirited. If Clark comes accross as a smirking prick, he'll suffer for it. If his supporters keep saying things like "it's time to put the adults back in charge," he'll suffer for this as well. This kind of personality poltiics won't matter as much in 2004 as it might have in past elections, because the issues facing our nation are serious. However, they will still matter.
Posted by: Joe Schmoe at November 11, 2003 04:08 PM

That, especially the national security issue, is why I don't like Wesley Clark. He places far too much trust in multilateral bodies and consensus politics to be trusted. He's far more willing to trade away our precious national sovereignty in order to bring externals on board, like the French or the Germans. In an age of declining national sovereignty, a President Clark would be too eager to exchange hard-won (with the blood of our soldiers and the treasure of our people) sovereignty for favorable reviews from the French and German governments, along with the similarly-constituted apparat of the European Union and tbe Brussels apparatchiki.

There may be considerable merit to Wesley Clark's politico-military ideas and viewpoints on the primacy of diplomacy, but I neither endorse nor recognize these merits at this point in time. Regardless of any objective measure of satisfactions that I have with President Bush, when a subjective scale is applied, he far outdistances every single Democratic candidate. Only Senator Lieberman is even able to remain in the rear view mirror in terms of national security.1

On a more personal and less noble note, the thing about Clark being a corporate VP who takes up golf because the president likes it is another reason to viscerally dislike the guy. I've seen plenty of people like that in my law school, and I'd prefer to stop those people wherever possible. Bloody sycophants and grovelers; can't stand them.

Go figure. Re-elect the President.

1 Click the "Continue Reading..." link to see another one of Joe's posts that paints him as a Democrat disgusted with the tenor of their side's campaign so far.

2 I've never been fond of the term "homeland security"---I would have preferred that the topic be addressed as "national security". Oh well.

Tip of the pristine USS Wisconsin captain's baseball cap to Matthew Stinson for pointing this out. more...

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November 10, 2003

Weswatch 0003 - A Dedicated Blog

Early on, I had intended to provide a topical coverage of Wesley K. Clark's run for the White House, but the impetus for that has lessened since I gave up drifting through Generally Speaking. One can only take so much, and I think I reached my fill of nutso Democratic fawning and/or bravo sierra pretty quickly.

Luckily, there are some brave and dedicated souls out there on the Internet who're fulfilling my intent with far better ability than I would provide, and since I found one of them, it's time to mention them:

Wesley Watch professes to keep track of the good (or not-so-good) General, and it seems that they know what they're doing. The permanent link is over there on the right.

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October 27, 2003

Weswatch 0002

Something's occurred to me while reading Generally Speaking:

W.K. Clark may have increasing amounts of trouble as he advances through the field. Is this due to the Machiavellian doings of Karl Rove? No, at least not yet. (Muahahaha.) It is because one of the prime movers in the Democrat nominatklatura (there's you some made-up Russian) are the people who are reflexively opposed to any use of force by the United States of America.

These are the people who beat on bongo drums and consider themselves deeply intellectual for skimming Noam Chomsky and leafing through The Nation and who consider The New Republic a bunch of war-mongering Yankee imperialist dogs. The only time they like military force is when it's deployed against Americans, be they civilian or military.

You see, Wesley K. Clark used military force against Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic never fired a shot against Americans up until we started bombing him. If memory serves, Chomsky the Great deemed Operation ALLIED FORCE some sort of imperialist venture (schyeah, who would want Yugoslavia?) Ergo, Wesley K. Clark, in the fever swamp minds of these people, will probably take on the odium of George W. Bush.

One wonders what their response to Adolf Hitler would have been. I suspect that they would've hollered about how Hitler posed no imminent threat and how we had no right to go in with the British. After we found out that Hitler was turning lots of innocent people in Europe into landfill or fly ash, these very same anti-military types would probably want to know why it was that America didn't act. Or maybe not; they've never been good at accepting responsibility for their actions. Ask the dead of unified Vietnam or Khmer Rouge-era Cambodia about that.

Anyhow, General Clark's only recourse if he chooses to engage these people is to either read them out of the party as William F. Buckley did to the John Birch Society for my side of the aisle, or drown the crazies in votes, by bringing in previously "non-Democratic" constituencies to overwhelm the bongo-drum bong smoke defenses. It might be better for the country if he does the former, but I'm not sure anyone in the Democratic party is positioned to do such a thing.

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October 25, 2003

Weswatch 0001 - Clarktoberfest

And now we turn to one of the reasons I really wanted to put a blog together, namely the candidacy of General Wesley K. Clark, U.S. Army (retired). Mind you, I've no intention of voting for him. My vote was locked up late in November 2000 when Governor George W. Bush became President-elect George W. Bush. At the same time, if the President goes down in defeat, I reckon the country could do worse (read Kucininch or Dean) than Clark. If the country was destined to have one of the current crop as President, I'd rather have Lieberman at the helm than any other of the opposition candidates.

That being said, here's a little something from the gang at clark04.com:

Clarktoberfest

Bring some spice to your Halloween parties. Host a Clarktober Fest at your home. Give your guests a treat after three years of being tricked by the spooky Bush administration.

Here are some fun ideas for your Clarktober Fest gathering:

Carve a Clark-o-lantern. Show your friends and neighbors whose plans have the teeth to change America.

This is followed by patterns to carve that Clark-o-lantern. That's right, a Clark-o-lantern. I've seen a lot of things in my life, and for crying out loud, that's ...I don't know. It's kinda stupid, but honestly, it's about time that someone had some whimsicality in politics. I'm not going to sneer at it, but I certainly won't be wasting a pumpkin on Wes.

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