Wes Clark's roundtable with bloggers Friday night

[CarolNYC]

Wes Clark met with some bloggers before a WesPAC fundraiser on Friday night in LA. I think that's pretty darn neat myself.

Here are some reports of the meeting....

hekebolos writes at Far Shooting Politics of "My meeting with General Clark":

General Wesley Clark was in Los Angeles today for a WesPAC fundraiser at a private residence in Cheviot Hills. The event was supposed to start at 7:00, but Michael Webber of SoCalGrassroots prevailed on the General to meet with some bloggers as a preamble. So there we were, in a private room at a roundtable with the general. The bloggers in question included myself, John Amato of Crooks and Liars, Mark Kleiman, MS_in_LA of Who's Counting, and Steve and Pam of SteveAudio. So essentially, seven bloggers, together with Wesley Clark and his wife Gert, all just having a conversation.

(snip)

We were only supposed to meet for 15 minutes, but the General gave us twice that amount of time, sharing stories about his encounters with Pat Robertson and talking about his ideas for foreign policy and his critiques of the administration, and what type of talk and mentality appeals to voters. One of the especially memorable exchanges on this topic was on the topic of torture. Mark pointed out that while we all know that torture isn't okay, there's a broad swath of America that doesn't think that. But I took that a step further and said to the General that we have to fight battles on the blogs every day with people who think that torturing prisoners actually makes us safer, and don't realize that it doesn't actually produce any more actionable intelligence--and we don't have any credible military personnel pointing that out.

I think that the General would have kept on talking to us for hours, but we finally had to break it off so he could address the rest of the donors at the fundraiser. And what a public speaker he is. He advocated that the Democrats change the public perception of their party to be the one that represents the common good, faith, values and service and patriotism. He also pleaded that each one of us needs to put the good of the nation ahead of our individual pet causes--a message that many people need to hear. If you haven't gotten a chance to hear the General speak, you're really missing a treat. He's warm and charismatic, but clear and powerful when he needs to be--a fantastic public speaker who can captivate and hold your attention.

more....
http://hekebolos.blogspot.com/



SteveAudio writes of the meeeting:

The General is even more personable than he appeared on TV. He looked each one of us in the eye, had a message that he clearly felt he wanted to get across, and also listened to our questions. And rather than patronize us by making supporting noises about bloggers as the wave of the future and salvation of the human race, he instead told us what he felt he wanted us to hear, his vision for uniting the Democratic Party behind a clear winning message.

He also said one thing that really struck me. He said: "I have no friends at the Pentagon."

(snip)

Of the address to the rest of the crowd, he writes:

He also talked about an Exit Strategy for Iraq, and this troubled me, because he didn't say exactly what I wanted to hear. He said that we shouldn't have gone into Iraq, something most Democrats always believed (sorry Peter Beinert, you're just wrong.) That was an idea we all could agree with.

But then he said that we also couldn't leave, and that a timetable was a strategy for failure. He said the withdrawal had to be Event Driven (again, his phrase), and that only upon certain conditions, like a truly self-sufficient Iraqi military, with some hope of maintaining a balance of power between Sunnis, Shi'ites, and Kurds, could we ever start to leave with some certainty that civil war wouldn't erupt.

This bothered me. I wanted instant gratification, an easy way out. I wanted to believe that no more American soldiers or Iraqi civilians would die. I also wanted to believe that we wouldn't watch the Oil Ministry be saved while the Electricity grid was destroyed. And I wanted to believe that the Bush administration wouldn't lie so brazenly about Iraq.

I knew they were lying, I knew the Oil Ministry was the most important target, and I knew General Clark was right.

Time to join the world, time to grow up.

Thanks, Gen. Clark.

http://steveaudio.blogspot.com/



And, ms_in_la from the blog Who's Counting (http://www.whoscounting.net/) gives a detailed account of the meeting here:
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/2151

Some excerpts:
On the subject of his visit to Regents U. and debate with Newt -- he leaned back in his chair and with a broad smile he beamed , "I love going into the Lion's Den!"

(snip)

The theme of fear resurfaced when Wes got on the subject of torture of prisoners, one that's obviously very close to his heart and most distressing to him. You could sense the personal sense of frustration and outrage on this topic and I think he really would like US - his supporters and bloggers- to try to help him on this one. He mentioned a man (Capt. Ian Fishback) that had worked with John McCain on the issue....He specifically challenged us bloggers in the room to go dig up that story and not let it die.

(snip)

Wes is disheartened it seems by the LACK of public response and outrage to much of the political landscape today. From his travels and endless interactions with the public, he feels a general malaise than manifests itself in a disconnect from the policy makers. A type of impotency that seems to be growing ,wherein the people feel they can have NO impact and so they settle into it and recoil from involvement. You could see this too was a big source of frustration for Wes.

[JDPriestly]

1. You are so lucky! Is this post intended to make the rest

of us jealous? If it was, it did. Carry on the good work.

[CarolNYC]

2. Hey, trust me....

I'm as jealous as you....I wasn't there...I only get to read the accounts of the lucky ones who were. :P

[haydukelives]

3. I saw Wes Clark

speak during the election and was very impressed.