How many activists singing Michael Moore's praises today listened when he endorsed Clark in 04?

[calteacherguy]

Not enough, sadly.



Wednesday, January 14th, 2004
I'll Be Voting For Wesley Clark / Good-Bye Mr. Bush
Michael Moore

Many of you have written to me in the past months asking, "Who are you going to vote for this year?"

I have decided to cast my vote in the primary for Wesley Clark. That's right, a peacenik is voting for a general. What a country!

I believe that Wesley Clark will end this war. He will make the rich pay their fair share of taxes. He will stand up for the rights of women, African Americans, and the working people of this country.

And he will cream George W. Bush.

I have met Clark and spoken to him on a number of occasions, feeling him out on the issues but, more importantly, getting a sense of him as a human being. And I have to tell you I have found him to be the real deal, someone whom I'm convinced all of you would like, both as a person and as the individual leading this country. He is an honest, decent, honorable man who would be a breath of fresh air in the White House. He is clearly not a professional politician. He is clearly not from Park Avenue. And he is clearly the absolute best hope we have of defeating George W. Bush.

This is not to say the other candidates won't be able to beat Bush, and I will work enthusiastically for any of the non-Lieberman 8 who might get the nomination. But I must tell you, after completing my recent 43-city tour of this country, I came to the conclusion that Clark has the best chance of beating Bush. He is going to inspire the independents and the undecided to come our way. The hard core (like us) already have their minds made up. It's the fence sitters who will decide this election.

The decision in November is going to come down to 15 states and just a few percentage points. So, I had to ask myself -- and I want you to honestly ask yourselves -- who has the BEST chance of winning Florida, West Virginia, Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, Ohio? Because THAT is the only thing that is going to matter in the end. You know the answer -- and it ain't you or me or our good internet doctor.

This is not about voting for who is more anti-war or who was anti-war first or who the media has already anointed. It is about backing a candidate that shares our values AND can communicate them to Middle America. I am convinced that the surest slam dunk to remove Bush is with a four-star-general-top-of-his-class- at-West-Point-Rhodes-Scholar-Medal-of-Freedom-winning-gun-owner-from-the-South -- who also, by chance, happens to be pro-choice, pro environment, and anti-war. You don't get handed a gift like this very often. I hope the liberal/left is wise enough to accept it. It's hard, when you're so used to losing, to think that this time you can actually win. It is Clark who stands the best chance -- maybe the only chance -- to win those Southern and Midwestern states that we MUST win in order to accomplish Bush Removal. And if what I have just said is true, then we have no choice but to get behind the one who can make this happen.

There are times to vote to make a statement, there are times to vote for the underdog and there are times to vote to save the country from catastrophe. This time we can and must do all three. I still believe that each one of us must vote his or her heart and conscience. If we fail to do that, we will continue to be stuck with spineless politicians who stand for nothing and no one (except those who write them the biggest checks).

Moore....

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2004-01-14

[JeffR]

1. And your point?

No snark - just curious what you're getting at with this post.

[calteacherguy]

2. I'll leave that for others to figure out. nt

[JeffR]

3. Alrighty then

I'll wait until someone enlightens me.

[calteacherguy]

9. O.K...I'll tell you my point.

The left was a deaf to Michael Moore's recommendation of Clark as the MSM was to what Moore was saying about the war.

It's fucking ironic. And I have to ask myself: WHY THE HELL DIDN'T PEOPLE WHO WATCHED FARENHEIT 9/11 BELIEVE WHAT MOORE WAS SAYING ABOUT CLARK?

I believe Clark would have creamed Bush and won the General Election, and I can only imagine how the world would be different today. It breaks my heart.

[JeffR]

11. Fair enough

I thought maybe you were holding up Moore's advocacy of Clark as a bad thing. Thanks for clarifying. And I think you make a very good point!

[Trajan]

14. Look ....

You talk as if 'The left' is some perfectly consistent system ..... monolithic, homogenous and unified in thought and behavior ..... This is obviously a fallacious appeal .....

Many in 'The left' supported the General, while many did not .... It isn't Michael Moore's responsibility one way or another .....

Clark left 'the battlefield' seen into the primary season, and that was his choice: not Moore's, and not 'the left's' ....

You cannot get two people together to agree on a pizza topping .... Let alone a candidate ....

What you see here in DU: a fractious, cacophony of opinions and behaviors .... THAT is the norm .... 'The left' is sectionalistic ..... as the right is .... as the center is .....

There is NO consistency (except inconsistency) ....

[fishwax]

15. disagreeing with Moore about Clark is hardly equivalent to MSM deafness of Moore's

message about the war. One can easily think Moore makes a lot of great points and has done important work in his documentaries and yet still disagree with his choice in the party primaries. That's quite different from the willful ignorance and deliberate misrepresentation that one often sees in the MSM. They aren't at all the same.

And I have to ask myself: WHY THE HELL DIDN'T PEOPLE WHO WATCHED FARENHEIT 9/11 BELIEVE WHAT MOORE WAS SAYING ABOUT CLARK?

Of course, by the time Farenheit 9/11 came out, Clark had been out of the race for more than three months.

[last_texas_dem]

18. I agree with your point

I'm sure there are Democrats who I look up to who endorsed each of the candidates running in '04. For most Democrats, particularly those who consider themself to be politically involved, the endorsement of a particular candidate by a major politically active Democrat or liberal is not going to make that significant of a difference in who they decide to support. Most are going to come to that decision on their own.

Additionally, it should be remembered who Moore endorsed in 2000. Yes, I know that he made his endorsement of Nader with the caveat that Democrats in swing states should vote for Gore but I still don't believe it was one of Moore's smartest moves. An important liberal figure coming out and endorsing Nader helped lend credence to Nader's line that there were no significant differences between Gore and *. I recall Moore's endorsement of Clark in '04, and remember taking it with a grain of salt, despite being a fan of Moore's books and documentary films, recalling what I considered to be his unwise Presidential candidate endorsement four years earlier.

[RagingInMiami]

4. I voted for Wesley Clark in the Arizona primary in 2004

And I consider myself an activist.

I would much rather have voted for Clark in the 2004 election than Kerry.

[calteacherguy]

6. Hmmm....I made calls for Clark to Arizona voters from California.

:hi:

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. You say this like it's a bad thing.

In the primaries, there's no such thing as a bad vote.

[calteacherguy]

7. I voted for Clark. I campaigned for him. Where did I say it like it was a bad thing? nt

[MichiganVote]

8. Not exactly the whore of Babylon but alright. I believe he also supported Kerry.

[calteacherguy]

10. Yes, as did I when Kerry won the nomination; but I supported Clark in the primary. nt

[slampoet]

12. So you're saying that you're too lazy to stir shit up yourself?

Why not hire someone to do it for you next time?


Expecting people to do things for you is what GOP'ers do.


I thought you were a better American than that.

[sampsonblk]

13. Wes Clark is the best.

Much better choice than any candidate we have running now.

[howmad1]

17. The sheeple never will.......

.....appreciate the likes of a Wesley Clark. He's to damn smart for them. Give them some simple schmuck like president putz or Freddie Thompson -- who they can have a beer with. Jeez, the assholes in this country never cease to amaze me. Unfortunately, Clark would not have had a chance in the last election. Too little, to late. BTW, My wife and I worked our asses off for the General. On the other hand, times they are a changin. We'd do it again in a heartbeat if the General decided to run.

[snowbear]

16. If you were a member of the CCN, you'd KNOW that Moore was not ignored at all !!!!

And no, I didn't say CNN... I said "CCN".. Most Clarkies will remember it well!!



After "Draft Clark", but long before "Securing America", there was the CCN.. (and boy was it BUSY!!)

p.s... You may be able to dig up archives showing TONS of Moore supportings jumping on the Clark bandwagon, as well as tons of letters that Clark supporters sent to Michael Moore thanking him.

[AlGore-08.com]

19. One could also ask how many believed him when he lied about Gore (and Bush) in 2000?

That's possibly a more important question, since his endorsement of Clark was not harmful to the nation. His smear campaign in 2000 played a role in inflicting Smirk on us. You can go even farther and say his attacks against the Clinton admin and the political system in general in the 1990s helped pave the way for the clusterf*ck that we're in now as well. (Moore told people to vote for a Ficus plant in a Senate election - - I can't remember whether it was the 1998 or 2000 Senate election - - because "there's no difference between the Democrats and Republicans".)

Just to be clear - - I'm not saying that people should shun Michael Moore for what he did in the last century. He had every right to support any candidate and any party of his choosing. Additionally people change, they evolve. But if you're looking for bitter irony in relation to the current hero worship of Michael Moore, I think his anti-Democratic past is a richer area to mine.

[Dinger]

20. K & R

:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

[Greyhound]

21. I did. n/t

:kick:

[mrgorth]

22. Oh Jesus Christ

Can we drop this? He's not running right now and it's not 2004 anymore. I supported Dean at the time but I would've given Clark everything I had just like I did John Kerry. Clark stayed out of Iowa at his own expense. Kerry surprised everyone then moved on to home turf in NH and the momentum was unstoppable after that. When I read that Kerry was being brought into town (in NH for the primaries) with an escort of firemen I knew the race was over.

[rinsd]

23. Perhaps activists didn't trust Moore.

Who just a few years earlier blasted Gen. Clark in his movie Bowling for Columbine.

[DrFunkenstein]

24. And Nader in 2000. But Seriously, I Weighed His Advice and Thought Clark Was

An excellent choice for the VP slot for John Kerry. I greatly admire Wes Clark, but I simply felt that John Kerry would have been a better all around candidate. That said, I was among many who tried to make the best of JK's choice of Edwards, but had wished he had chosen differently.

That said, I would still like to see him in a high-ranking position.

[coco77]

25. I voted for Clark in 04..