Posted on 08/26/2003 5:56:33 PM PDT by OESY
WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 — Retired Gen. Wesley Clark has been deciding for weeks and months whether to become the 10th Democrat to run for president. And for weeks and months I’ve been thinking about his eventual decision. I’ve been trying to decide whether I care whether Gen. Clark decides to runs for president.
TRUST ME, I’M not approaching this decision lightly. I recognize what an important decision it is, whether to decide to embrace Gen. Clark’s eventual decision. That’s why I’m seeking counsel from experts, I’m soliciting the thoughts of others who’ve confronted big decisions, and I’m even renewing into my personal relationship with the Lord.
And I’m looking to Gen. Clark’s own words for guidance.
For instance, when pressed on CNBC’s “Capital Report” how he makes decisions, Gen. Clark said, “The answer is that in terms of decision-making — I think when you make a decision, you have to be decisive, but I don’t think you, as a matter of practice, should make decisions until you have to make those decisions. And right now this is not at this particular moment the time I have to make this decision.”
Good political answer. It works for me. At least I think so. I haven’t decided. I’ll have to diagram the sentence to understand it. Graphs and charts might help.
Clark wasn’t any more lucid when he told CNN, “I think one of the principal rules of making decisions is, you never have to make any decision before it’s time to make a decision. And it’s not time yet to make this decision.”
FERMENTATION TIME
Make no decision before it’s time. You know, that’s also the rule for the alcohol industry — sell no wine before it’s time. I believe it’s called fermentation. And I won’t make my decision until I have to — that is, until Gen. Clark makes his.
My family is also playing a big role in my decision whether to care because it seems Clark’s family is playing a big role in his decision whether to run.
Clark told MSNBC on Aug. 18, “My family and I have to make a decision. We‘ve never been engaged in elective politics before. We’ve got to look at this. And we’re in the process of doing that.” And in July he told the “Today” show: “It’s a decision my family and I’ve got to consider, and we are considering it.” Yes, that’s how I’m approaching my decision. My family and I have got to consider it. Of course, we bore easily. So we may ask Gen. Clark’s family to consider it for us. Kind of like baby-sitting. That way we can go out for some pie.
Then there was this precious exchange on “Meet the Press” in mid-June:
TIM RUSSERT: Are you considering entering the presidential race?
GEN. CLARK: I’m going to have to consider it.
RUSSERT: By when?
CLARK: Well, sometime over the next couple of months.
RUSSERT: And your timeline is by September ..
CLARK: I don’t have a specific timeline, Tim. But I do have to consider it.
This whole running for president thing has obviously been on Clark’s mind for some time. At least the two months since June. I demand equal time. Seems like a reasonable request to devote to the weighty question of whether to run — er, whether to consider to run — um, I mean whether to care whether he considers to run. Whatever.
Like most Americans wrapped up in the whether-to-care-about-Gen.-Clark’s-decision decision, I frequently ask myself, why do I care? I don’t have the answer yet. It may turn out that I don’t care about Gen. Clark. It’s too early to tell. I’m barely two months into my decision-making process.
Why is Clark thinking about this so late? Simple. Earlier this year, he was busy being a war-time pundit. Clark got hours of air time during the Iraq war as a CNN analyst. In fact, he got so much exposure that House Majority Leader Tom Delay knocked “blow-dried Napoleons that come on television and in some cases have their own agendas. Gen. Clark is one of them that is running for president.”
That’s an entertaining insult — not just the blow-dry slam, but the Napoleon comparison.
Napoleon Bonaparte wrote, “There is a gift of being able to see at a glance the possibilities offered by the terrain … one can call it coup d’oeil and it is inborn in great generals.”
‘QUICK RECOGNITION’
Prussian military thinker Carl von Clausewitz picked up on the concept that “coup d’oeil” is inborn in great generals when he wrote, “Stripped of metaphor and of restrictions imposed by the phrase [coup d’oeil], the concept merely refers to the quick recognition of a truth that the mind would ordinarily miss or would perceive only after long study and reflection.”
Yes, glance at the possibilities offered by military expert Wesley Clark. Is he inborn with the ability to quickly recognize truth, or does he need long and study and reflection?
That answer won’t take much time.
Meanwhile, just be relieved that Gen. Clark’s decision is just a few weeks away. So is mine.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
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