Sat Feb 03, 2007 at 06:42:50 PM EST
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| General Wesley Clark was the third speaker in Friday's General Session. I don't think he explicitly said he is running for President, and indeed I thought it was pretty funny that before the candidates spoke, Howard Dean said we have ten speakers that have declared their candidacy. Then he realized that wasn't quite true and backtracked, obviously thinking out loud as he spoke.
Clark spoke of all the time he spent stumping for candidates in 2006 all around the country. He too praised Howard Dean and the 50 State Strategy. [Really, I have to say it's pathetic the party ever got into the mode of writing off huge regions of the country.] One problem for Clark was that the crowd was obviously not as interested as they had been in Obama.
He spoke very movingly about the sacrifices due to war, the casualties and the family and friends of the fallen. He went on to talk about his military experience, and how he managed the war with Serbia without losing a single American in combat. There's no question in my mind that he is making this speech, and running for President, because of his concern for this country and the military. |
| Hopeful :: My View of the Presidential Speeches. Part III: Wes Clark |
| He then spoke about equality. He reminded us that women still only make 77 cents to every dollar a man makes.
Then he talked about justice. How a sergeant can be tried and convicted for Abu Ghraib torture, but the political leaders who ordered it are exempt. How so many people don't have health insurance, how so many live in poverty. How we need fair play: CEOs are raking in huge pay based on the productivity of the American worker, but the workers are not seeing their fair share.
I think he is a better speaker than four years ago, and he is raising important issues that are at the heart of the progressive mission of the Democratic party. It's a shame the room just did not have the energy of the two previous speakers.
He ended by returning to the war. There will be a monument someday for this war, where people will come to vist and politicians will make speeches. Then he recalled a great West Point speech by General Douglas MacArthur about the war dead. (Though he made the point that he disagreed with MacArthur's politics.) Clark declared that the only memorial for our war dead is a stronger, safe, more just America.
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