Karl Roves's Nightmare-Wes Clark (W.Post 1/15)

[KittyWampus]

Karl Rove's Nightmare

By Richard Cohen
Thursday, January 15, 2004; Page A21


DALLAS -- Karl Rove had a bad moment here the other night. It came as Wesley Clark was speaking to a packed hotel ballroom, when the retired general derided the president of the United States for what was supposed to be his supreme, cinematic moment: landing on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. "I don't think it's patriotic to dress up in a flight suit and prance around," Clark bellowed. The men had been separated from the boys.

snip

That was the moment I imagined Rove took notice...snip

Wes Clark does not like what George Bush has done with Wes Clark's Army. Make no mistake: It's his Army. He can hardly go a sentence without mentioning the military -- and how, in his mind, Bush has abused it. He sent it to war precipitously and then used its men and women as "props," he says. Clark's sincerity on this point is patent. In a conversation on his campaign plane, he suddenly turned intense, a kind of growling, low-grade rage that lifted my nose from my note-taking. His Army has been abused.

In a way, Clark is this season's John McCain. As did McCain in 2000, he makes a special appeal to veterans -- asking them to stand at his speech here, for instance. His themes are similar, too, but where McCain ran to the left of Bush, Clark runs to the right of the Democratic field. That assessment has nothing to do with his actual positions, some of which are downright liberal -- he has no problem with civil unions or marriage for gays, for instance -- but rather with his military record and his Southern roots.

Whatever the reason, the general is on the move. Polls show him second to Howard Dean in New Hampshire -- Dean moving down, Clark moving up, with what his campaign says are approval ratings in the high 70s. Some of that can be explained by a palpable desire for "none of the above" and some by his record and some by the fact that on occasion he has delivered a good speech -- one, incidentally, that does not disparage his Democratic opponents.

snip

Karl Rove, call your office.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18406-2004Jan14.html

[DancingBear]

1. Great minds think alike!

:) - I'll "dupe" mine

[KittyWampus]

2. Thanks Dancing Bear

It's a pretty fair article that gauges Clark's progress in campaigning.

[11cents]

3. In what way is Clark running to the right

...if, as Cohen acknowledges, his positions are liberal?

He's only running "right" if you think of "left" as a cultural package rather than a political one. That's the purpose of Clark's campaign, IMHO: to disentangle the core values of liberalism from the "fringe" packaging in which they've been hidden due both to the propaganda of the right and the mistakes of the left.

[KittyWampus]

4. Agreed. Clark Is Percieved As A Moderate

because of his Military Credentials and his focus on Patriotism and willingness to talk about Family Values.

People have a stereotype in their heads about:

Military people being Conservative
Patriotism being the sole preserve of the Rightwing
Family Values belonging to the Right

This is the beautiful thing about Clark. He appears to be moderate but is running on a Liberal/Progressive Platform.