Posted on 09/14/2003 6:35:27 PM PDT by nwrep
The Associated Press
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Sept. 13 Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, sensing growing support for a Democratic presidential bid, said Saturday he is days away from announcing a decision and launched into an attack on President Bush. In a half-hour speech to 1,000 cheering Democrats in heavily Republican East Tennessee, Clark said Bush has failed the country on health care, education and foreign policy.
"The No. 1 responsibility of the commander in chief is what? The safety and security of the United States of America," Clark said, questioning the administration's efforts to avoid the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "What happened on 9-11, Mr. President? Why is it that eight months into your administration, why is it that there was no plan to deal with the number one threat that Bill Clinton's national security team warned you about when you took office?" Clark charged the Bush administration with "obfuscation and slow investigations and memos and shenanigans and creating departments" in response to Sept. 11. "Let's have some accountability, here," he said, recalling Harry Truman's credo that "The buck stops here." Clark also challenged the president to explain the administration's strategy on the war in Iraq. "What is the intent, what is the plan, Mr. President? Because the commander in chief better have a plan and we haven't heard it yet." Clark, 58, who headed the U.S. Southern Command and was NATO commander during the 1999 campaign in Kosovo, said his 34 years in the military taught him, "The highest calling of the armed forces is not to wage war, but to prevent war." Supporters chanted "Draft, General Clark. Draft, General Clark." "Now I haven't made up my mind whether I am going to run," Clark, in shirt sleeves, told the crowd. "But I have my jacket off. And you can figure this out." In an interview earlier with The Associated Press on the front porch of actor David Keith's home, Clark said there was only one decision before him. "And that decision is, do you run for the office of president or do you stay in the private sector?" Sounding like a candidate, he said without hesitation, "I think I have a tremendous amount to offer this country, a lifetime of public service and leadership." He said a vice presidential slot is not on his mind, though he won't rule it out. Clark, whose calendar includes a speech in Iowa Sept. 19, said he will announce his intentions within "the next few days probably," most likely in his home state of Arkansas. "It just seemed to me if I was going to go to Iowa I probably ought to know what I was doing before I went there," he said. Al Sharpton, one of nine Democrats already in the race, received a warm greeting in a speech to the Democrat dinner, but it seemed a warm-up to Clark. Clark's candidacy "would only expand the field" and help the party, Sharpton said later. Clark said he would support Sharpton if the minister wins the nomination and Sharpton said he would do the same for Clark. "If you can bring the Wesley Clark wing and the Al Sharpton wing of the party out, George Bush doesn't stand a chance," Sharpton said.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) Howard Dean's campaign is expanding its much-touted Internet organizing as it heads toward the all-important end of the third quarter fund-raising period. Campaign manager Joe Trippi outlined the steps Friday that range from the now-familiar Internet-organized monthly meetings via meetup.com to such newer ones as DeanTV and an expanding wireless network. It has a goal of signing up 450,000 supporters via its Web site by the end of September, 900,000 by December and 2 million by the Democratic National Convention next August. As of midday Friday, 390,111 people had signed up. Campaign staff said nearly all of them contribute in some form, nearly 40 percent financially and thousands more by organizing events, handing out fliers or gaining more visibility for Dean. Trippi, while leading reporters through a demonstration of the campaign's redoubled online efforts, told of a group of 80 from Philadelphia who attended a Phillies baseball game wearing their Dean T-shirts. They were welcomed to the game with an announcement on the ballpark's scoreboard. He showed a picture of a similar group in Florida who had done the same thing. Trippi said the goal is to develop a campaign consisting of concentric circles. The headquarters staff is at the center and networks of loosely organized volunteers across the country are in circles linking with the national team. The tools include such things as DeanTV, where the candidate gives a pep talk each month to be shown to supporters who meet via the Web site MeetUp.com.
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He's not quite as polished a liar, though. This one is especially bad.
What a perfect typo. That's exactly what he's going to do once he enters the race: sink.
Yeah, but in your 34 years in the Green Suit, did you ever get your boots muddy, Weasely? Kinda hard to get dirty from 35,000 feet, huh? Hard to tell real tanks from decoys, too. You suck, Clark.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
BTW, who other than Wesley Clark wants Wesley Clark to run for President?
This is low!...If he wants to drag the name of Bill Clinton into the debate, the Republicans can have a field day about why our intelligence and the FBI were so unprepared for 9/11, going right back to Clinton's failures.
Wesley Clarks career in the U.S. military was solid but not stellar. It included a variety of backwater assignments as well as one high point, White House Fellow 1975-76.
But an unexpected bolt from the blue suddenly ignited Clarks life, turning mediocrity into a skyrocket ride that could yet land him in the Oval Office. He was named Commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, III Corps, at sweltering Fort Hood southwest of Waco, Texas.
On a late winter day in 1993, Texas Governor Ann Richards suddenly called the base, later meeting with Clarks Number Two to discuss an urgent matter. Crazies at a Waco compound had killed Federal agents. If newly-sworn-in President Bill Clinton signed a waiver setting aside the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits the military from using its arms against American citizens within our borders, could Fort Hood supply tanks and other equipment?
Clinton did. Wesley Clarks command at Fort Hood lent 17 pieces of armor and 15 active service personnel under his command to the Waco Branch Davidian operation. It is absolute fact that the military equipment used by the government at Waco came from Fort Hood and Clarks command.
The only issue debated by experts is whether Clark was at Waco in person to help direct the assault against the church compound in a scene remarkably similar to the incineration of villagers in a church by the British in Mel Gibsons movie The Patriot.
What happened at Waco was the death, mostly by fire, of at least 82 men, women and children, including two babies who died after being fire aborted from the dying bodies of their pregnant mothers.
Planning for this final assault involved a meeting between Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno and two military officers who developed the tactical plan used but who have never been identified. Some evidence and analysis suggests that Wesley Clark was one of these two who devised what happened at Waco.
As Leftist journalists Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair noted, the ruthless tactics and attitude on display at Waco are strikingly similar to those Clark has used on other battlefields in his career.
Odd, isnt it, that the Leftist establishment press has told you nothing about the connection between General Wesley Clark and Waco or what happened to him immediately after the service he rendered the Clintons at Waco? Immediately after Waco, Wesley Clarks flat career began an incredible meteoric rise.
More at:Wesley Clark: General Issues
IOW, his career was advanced by Waco from which he reaped rewards from Bill Clinton for attacking the religious right. That in itself, undermines any credibility in your argument about his "stellar" military career.
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