Wesley Clark is more "liberal" than Bill Clinton or Howard Dean ?

[kentuck]

For those that have been listening closely to his speeches the last few days, one cannot but help notice how liberal he is on so many positions. Whether it be national healthcare, support for the United Nations, anti-unilateralism, anti- Patriot Act, pro-free speech, his willingness to work with our Allies, his criticism of the Iraqi War, his criticism of the lack of a strategy from this WH, etc...from his speeches, one might think he was more "liberal" than Bill Clinton or Howard Dean.

It is understandable that a career military man might not be as involved in everyday politics as someone in the Congress, for example. However, he is showing himself to be a quick study. He comes across as more of a "realist" than any other candidate running for the nomination, in my opinion. He is very critical of George Bush but he does it with a scalpel, not a hatchet. I am keeping an open mind on this race but I have not written off the General...

[meegbear]

1. I would say the three of them are pretty close

[blm]

3. I would say that Clark is aligning himself with Kerry's positions

more than any other candidate. I don't think that's a coincidence.

[RichM]

6. Yes, they're all fairly close -- and the word "liberal" should be taken

with a huge grain of salt. Clinton stood modestly to the right of Nixon. He was a cheerful collaborator with (& sell-out to) the right, not an opponent. One more "victory" like Clinton & we are undone.

[Supply Side Jesus]

2. does clark support national healthcare?

and what about nafta?

[StephNW4Clark]

4. He supports National Healthcare.

It is my understanding that one of his forthcoming policy papers will describe a plan for moving the country towards national healthcare and identifying a revenue stream to support it.

[CMT]

5. I would have to listen to him more often to determine if Clark is

more liberal than either Dean or Clinton, I think all three of them are centrists with some pronounced liberal tendencies on certain issues.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. Here It Goes...

All politicians are trimmers.... At least the successful ones...

I doubt there is a dimes worth of difference on the major issues of the day between Dean, Clark, Lieberman, Gephardt, Edwards, Graham,and Kerry....

On foreign policy each one has supported every post Viet Nam adventure with the exception of Gulf War 2

There are no Noam Chomskys or Ramsey Clarks in this crowd.... To suggest otherwise is to betray a political naievete bordering on infantalism....

Of course the supporters of the sundry candidates can come up with superficial differrences bewtween the candidates and lay claim to a rhetorical coup.... But the difference between the candidates remind me of the blind taste tests in malls between Pepsi and Coke.....

Only Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton, and to a lesser extent, Carol Moseley Braun offer a fundamentally different path....

[w4rma]

8. IMHO

A Dean presidency sets up the *foundation* for a fundamentally different path...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. Is He Going To Cut The Defense Budget?

Is he going to bring our boys home from the seventy odd countries they are serving in now....

Is he going to reject the role of America as hyperpower....

Is he going to address the fact that 15% of our fellow Americans live below the poverty line

I'm not knocking Dean , Clark,Gephardt, Edwards, et all I'm just asking folks to take a sober look at all the candidates.

[no name no slogan]

13. That's what we thought about Clinton (n/t)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. Clinton Was A Great President

given the constraints of our political system which militates against fundamental change...


I can't think of one president in the last century who attacked the prevailing foreign policy paradigm or the mixed economy system...

[JohnKleeb]

17. he was pretty good I admit

but while he was a joy to grow up with he wasnt a believer of radical change.

[Julien Sorel]

16. Howard Dean: the stealth liberal with a 12 year

record of governing as an extreme fiscal conservative and social centrist, whose current econonomic plan is more conservative than George Bush's. He's just been biding his time before letting his inner liberal out.

[JohnKleeb]

18. social centrist tell me more

seriously, I have always had iffs on him but I was convinced he was socially liberal. :shrug: theys a gonna call you on it though because they are question Clark's liberalism. Cant we just have Kucinich :)?

[quinnox]

9. I have been surprised

by how liberal some of the positions are that General Clark has taken.

Especially the ANWR drilling, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Clark is on the environmentalist side on this issue.

What Clark's real potential is that he can be liberal but still have appeal to independents and left-leaning Republicans, on account of his military credentials. In other words, he gives weight to his point of view that will make it more palatable to the voter.

[CWebster]

10. It is not what he says,

he has to appeal to the base in order to get the nomination and the folks behind him know he isn't going to get it sounding like Lieberman. It is not what he says, it is who he is, who he always has been, and what he has done. As far as what he has accomplished politically we have NOTHING to compare his record to his word.

So, look at the people in his campaign---what is their agenda and balance what he says by the political philosophy of those who are behind his campaign.

This is not rocket science-don't be played.

[mojowork_n]

12. What about the alleged call to Carl Rove?

I heard something on a local wing-nut AM talk radio station that said Clark had been thinking about becoming a Republican, and was kind of fishing around for an invitation to join the Dubya administration, early on, but Carl Rove never returned his calls.

Then, someone supposedly checked the White House phone logs, and no one could find any record of Clark ever having tried to contact Rove.

I don't know what it's all about, but that doesn't sound too great, unless it's pure disinformation. (Like I said, I don't know. You can't really believe anything you hear on AM talk radio.)

[StephNW4Clark]

14. The Weekly Standard

wrote on this (apparently in their fervor to discover if Clark was a Republican). Turns out he never called Rove, Rove never called him, and as Clark said 1 sentence later in the article, he was kidding.

[mojowork_n]

20. Thank you

Although I still have to admit, I have other reasons for reserving judgement on General Wes.

This column is one:

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0923-08.htm

[RobertFrancisK]

19. I'd call him a "practical liberal"

Which is what I am too. I'd put Dean in that category, and maybe Clinton (who I think was a tad more centrist than them, sometimes a little too centrist). They both are solid liberals but realize what will work in AMerica today, so they keep from being too radical. Try to bring mainstream values a little more too the left I think is the way to win without seeming like an extremist, who really couldn't get much done.