Author Topic: OK dems and reps.....  (Read 717 times)

Offline Dune

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OK dems and reps.....
« Reply #15 on: September 12, 2003, 01:06:29 AM »
Not Like Ike

By George F. Will
Sunday, August 31, 2003; Page B07


For some Republicans, Howard Dean's supremacy among Democratic presidential aspirants -- $10 million expected to be raised in the July-September quarter; a 21-point lead in New Hampshire -- causes merriment. They think a Dean nomination, featuring opposition to the war, enthusiasm for higher taxes and approbation for same-sex civil unions, would mean four more years of what Dean considers the Bush-Ashcroft Terror.

 
 
Unless Dean wins. Which is unthinkable.

As unthinkable as a twice-defeated Senate candidate from Illinois, whose single congressional term was more than a decade earlier, being elected president with 39.9 percent of the vote. As unthinkable as a vice president losing a presidential race, then a California gubernatorial race, then six years later winning the presidency. As unthinkable as a movie actor becoming president.

A Dean presidency is not inconceivable. Granted, it is unlikely for reasons that make it undesirable. He may not wear well with the public. If he is half as bright as he thinks he is, he is very bright. And his is no uncertain trumpet: The brio with which he proclaims his beliefs proves that he is not paralyzed by the difference between certitude and certainty.

But there is danger as well as benefit for Dean in his very Deanness. The obverse of his high opinion of himself is his low opinion of President Bush. So he probably would sigh, or do the functional equivalent.

If Al Gore had not expressed his disdain for Bush by those exasperated sighs during the first debate, Gore might be president. But Gore had to sigh. Expressing disdain of Bush was for Gore a sensual delight, almost a metabolic necessity. It might be for Dean, too. But most of the electorate would be unforgiving of bad manners toward any president.

Another potential Dean weakness, implicating his political judgment, is suggested by believable reports that he admires retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former NATO commander. Dean, more than any other possible Democratic nominee, might need a running mate who would assuage anxieties about a former Vermont governor's lack of national-security experience.

Other Democrats see Clark as a solution to a problem their party has had since the McGovernite takeover in 1972: the problem of voters' doubts about its competence in the area of national security. But the fact that Clark is the kind of military man who appeals to Democrats -- and that they appeal to him -- helps explain why the party has that problem.

Comparisons of Clark to Dwight Eisenhower are ludicrous. Eisenhower, as well-prepared as any president for the challenges of his era, had spent three years immersed in the political complexities of coalition warfare, dealing with Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, de Gaulle and others. Clark's claim to presidential stature derives from directing NATO's 78 days of war at 15,000 feet over Serbia. It was the liberals' dream war: tenuously related to U.S. security, with an overriding aim, to which much was sacrificed, to have zero U.S. fatalities.

As Clark crisscrosses the country listening for a clamor for him ("I expect to have my decision made by Sept. 19," when he visits Iowa -- feel the suspense), he compounds the confusion that began when he said on June 15 that on 9/11 "I got a call at my home" saying that when he was to appear on CNN, "You've got to say this is connected" to Iraq. "It came from the White House, it came from people around the White House. It came from all over." But who exactly called Clark?

July 1: "A fellow in Canada who is part of a Middle Eastern think tank." There is no such Canadian institution. Anyway, who "from the White House"? "I'm not going to go into those sources. . . . People told me things in confidence that I don't have any right to betray."

July 18: "No one from the White House asked me to link Saddam Hussein to Sept. 11."

Aug. 25: It came from "a Middle East think tank in Canada, the man who's the brother of a very close friend of mine in Belgium. He's very well connected to Israeli intelligence. . . . I haven't changed my position. There's no waffling on it. It's just as clear as could be."

Now Clark darkly says there are "rumors" that in February "the White House" tried -- well, "apparently" tried -- "to get me knocked off CNN." Clark still coyly refuses to say he is a Democrat but forthrightly confesses to being a "centrist." As he prepares to heed the clamor for him to join the pursuit of Dean, he is earning the description National Review has given to Sen. Bob Graham: "a deranged moderate."

georgewill@washpost.com


© 2003 The Washington Post Company

Offline SaburoS

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« Reply #16 on: September 12, 2003, 01:07:05 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by _Schadenfreude_
Yeah that Bronze star, Purple Heart, Combat Infantry Badge and 4 stars were probably just given to him by mistake along with the Rhodes scholarship and Nato command - I mean if all those people just HAD to be wrong about the guy over a 30 year career!!


Gee, guess we can't trust someone who hasn't "inhaled" or done coke while in college. Wonder if he's had special relations with any interns? Wonder if he ever went AWOL?
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. ... Bertrand Russell

Offline Cabby44

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« Reply #17 on: September 12, 2003, 04:11:35 AM »
50% of the Democrat voter "base" despise the US Military, especially US Army Generals.    The Democrat Party is solidly in the grasp of the Liberal-Left Wing ideologues.   Clark doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the Democrat nomination.

Now, the Democrats could put Clark on the ticket as a VP running-mate with Howard Dean to "balance" Dean's far-Left appeal but it won't help.    Dean's surly personality(among many other negatives)will doom any Dean/Clark ticket to defeat.

Which is exactly the outcome the titular heads of the Democrat Party, the Clintons, intend.  The "wildcard" for the Dems remains Al Gore, who is no friend of the Clintons.

It's going to be highly entertaining once the Democrat candidates swtich from inviscerating President Bush/the country  to inviscerating each other.    I'm looking forward to it....

C.

Offline Eagler

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« Reply #18 on: September 12, 2003, 06:03:12 AM »
isn't "General Clark" the Kosovo bumbler?

isn't he the one who wanted to attack the Russians at an airport and had his order ignored?

didn't he step down early?
"Masters of the Air" Scenario - JG27


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Offline AKWeav

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« Reply #19 on: September 12, 2003, 06:06:33 AM »
Quote
Which is exactly the outcome the titular heads of the Democrat Party, the Clintons, intend. The "wildcard" for the Dems remains Al Gore, who is no friend of the Clintons.


Close but no banana, I think it's Hilary. ;)

Offline nuchpatrick

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« Reply #20 on: September 12, 2003, 07:31:08 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by Cabby44
50% of the Democrat voter "base" despise the US Military, especially US Army Generals.    The Democrat Party is solidly in the grasp of the Liberal-Left Wing ideologues.   Clark doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the Democrat nomination.


Ya think so huh Cabby??   I guess I'm on the other side of the fence for the Democrap's.

As far as Dean vs Clark.  I'd put my dollar on Clark.

Speaking as a Democrat

Offline midnight Target

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« Reply #21 on: September 12, 2003, 07:35:45 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by Eagler
isn't "General Clark" the Kosovo bumbler?

isn't he the one who wanted to attack the Russians at an airport and had his order ignored?

didn't he step down early?

Bumbler?

Lets see..... all objectives fulfilled... Miloslovic in Prison (soon)... no casualties........


Yep, that was him.