waiting for Wes

About this time 4 years ago, I was trying to find other people who had heard of Wesley Clark, or convince them that he was the one. I had read the article in Time Magazine in the fall of 2002 and his story was intriguing enough (First in his class at West Point, Rhodes Scholar, 4-star General) to ask for his book on the Kosovo campaign for Christmas. I was telling everyone I knew that he would run, and that he would win.

All my friends thought I was crazy. Then I met folks on Yahoo! groups and went to the first Clark MeetUp in April 2003. We were all sure then that Clark's announcement was mere weeks away. It wasn't until I was at MeetUps in Boston and a trip or two to New Hampshire that I was able to witness Clark's announcement in September. Then my friends were amazed at me. But by February, my dream had died because some morons in Iowa thought John Kerry was the most "electable."

Since then, it has become increasingly clear that we need real leadership in foreign policy, someone who has a track record of working with statesmen from other countries to come to difficult solutions. If Wes Clark had been nominated, I believe he would have won. And we would have troops in Darfur and Afghanistan, not an increase in troops in Iraq. The agreement with North Korea would have moved along faster, Israel would be allowed to talk to Syria, and the Middle East peace process would actually be underway.

Last time, Clark didn't get into the race until Bob Graham got out, and he ended up with some of Graham's staff. This time, Tom Vilsack has dropped out. Perhaps now Clark can now start running and take Vilsack's staff (at least for Iowa).

As great of a president as I think he would be, I am growing impatient waiting for Clark to announce one way or the other. The race seems to be a three way one at the moment, with Edwards a distant third. Can Clark raise the millions needed to compete with Clinton's machine and Obama's movement? Can he distinguish himself from the other foreign policy heavyweight in the field (Richardson; Biden is just a blowhard)? Can Clark get the necessary staff? Last time it was all Clinton/Gore people.

Now Hillary is stuck with those clowns. Meanwhile, Obama has the anti-Clinton staff: Daschle's people and Gephardt's people. These are folks who were miffed by President Clinton use of congressional Democrats as foils for his "Third Way." House liberals in particular provided a nice contrast for Bill to seem reasonable and moderate between House Republicans and House Democrats.

A Clark/Obama or Obama/Clark or Obama/Warner/Clark (Clark as Sec. State) ticket would be excellent. Obama has no foreign policy experience other than living in the Philippines as a young child and visiting his family in Kenya (and going to Africa as part of his "book tour" last year).