Wesley Clark: Four-Star Fool

By Kale Bongers | Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Since Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark last visited Dartmouth, a lot has changed—his clothing styles, his stump speech, and, to some extent, his standing within the nine-way Democratic race. But at least one thing remains the same: He is still oblivious to the obvious in his proposed policies, as demonstrated during his January 9th speech at the Top of the Hop .
This was the kinder, gentler Wesley Clark. He said he was not "running to bash Bush," though he proceeded to forget this during his presentation. He did not want to talk about hard issues or policies, he said, choosing instead to discuss "faith, family, and inclusiveness." Telling short anecdotes about his days growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas, Clark sounded more like a reflective grandfather than a serious candidate for the presidency.

Clark dodged the audience's questions faster than Bill Clinton dodged the draft. Asked to give specific details of his proposed reforms, he devolved into hopelessly idealistic and utterly useless meanderings on his "vision for America."

His more complete answers were little improvement. Asked about his Republican stances on some issues, he blamed them on his close attachment to national defense. He also said he admired Bill Clinton, the man who, in a strange twist of fate, would later fire him. His flip-flopping tendency was in full effect. Before he proclaimed his candidacy, he said many times he was for the war in Iraq and "absolutely" sure Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Recently, however, Clark turned an about-face and said the quotes were "taken out of context" and that he had never supported the war. When asked about the Patriot Act, Clark said the law was an affront to civil liberties and that, when president, he will ask former Attorney General John Ashcroft to testify as to how many times several oft-maligned clauses had been used. He ignored that such a report is legally required every six months.

After the formal presentation was over, several onlookers posed even more telling questions. When one commented about how the U.S. General Accounting Office and several private sector economists had forecast utter disaster for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security within six years, Clark quickly denounced the numbers as "just not true" and said that his analysts predicted it would take "at least eighteen years." When reminded that these numbers were from credible nonpartisan economists and accountants, he continued to dismiss the claims, apparently relying on his own backroom numbers men to crunch the figures better than those with all of the information.

The audience was notably more critical of Clark than during his previous visit. In addition to asking more difficult questions, the audience saved its loudest applause of the evening not for Clark, but rather for military veterans at the meeting. It was clear that Clark's honeymoon with the voters was over.

Clark may wonder why he has not yet caught up to Democratic frontrunner Dean. Maybe he should start by firing his policy advisors, or rethinking his banal sartorial shift.

Wesley Clark: Four-Star Fool

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