America, will you lose again?
By Doris Lane, A Wes Clark Democrat
The air in Clark land is all turgid and a-tingle with the clatter of fingernails driven by brain cells fraught with anticipation, tap, tap, tapping on computer desks everywhere. I hear it in the middle of the night with my blood beat: “Will he announce? When will he announce? What will he announce?”
That last one is the sleep-killer.
Since the summer of 2003, the constant in our lives has been the future Clark presidency. February 2004 might not have happened. (You left in the rain without closing the door.... We stood in the way.) November 2004 might not have happened. Except, of course, it did and the world is very much the worse for it. We wonder just how the voters, even more, how the party, you know, the professionals, could not have seen what we saw, what we still see. America needs Wes Clark's strategic brilliance, diplomatic skill, executive experience, leadership strength, and unmatched dedication to national service.
But looking at the “rock star” treatment certain candidates receive in the collaborating media and how that is reflected in polls and then how those polls determine who has the money to run a campaign and gets more and more money to keep that campaign going, very much including this, the pre-campaign, deciding for the voters who is or is not “electable” by how much “buzz” a candidate is allotted—we do see ahead of time, this time, how it happens that the leader America needs is probably the last one it will get.
Do you ever think about what these people do for a living, these “rock stars” of politics? They make laws. Well, they don’t actually make them, they write them. Oh, no, wait, staff writes them based on draft bills lobbyists write. Legislators don’t even read these bills, the lobbyists provide nice little summaries for congressional staff, who don’t always read the bills, either, so they can write other nice little summaries for the law-makers. So we can say law-makers pass laws, and that's important; well, every so often they do and sometimes with tragic consequences.
But what has legislating to do with running a country? Helping to get one running and keep it running, granted. But how does that work experience get to be a qualification for the job of Chief Executive?
That’s the question the media could be asking if it weren’t so busy rocking and rolling with its own creations. The presidency is an executive position, see? It’s not a legislative position (no more than it’s friggin’ Hollywood). The job requirements are simply not the same. Shouldn’t a president, at minimum, know how to actually run something?
Which potential 2008 candidate ran a war with no American casualties? Which potential candidate has streets named after him in a Muslim country as a result? Which one saw to the health, housing, education, and general welfare of tens of thousands of American families spread on bases across Europe? Name the candidate who is credited with helping save from extinction a rare desert tortoise. Who among the candidates has made the critical equation of national security and global warming?
Name the 2008 candidate whose testimony before Congress convinced law-makers who voted against the Iraq War Resolution; and then, just for fun, name the candidates who did not have the wisdom, guts or political integrity to heed that wiser voice. While you’re at it, name the candidate who told the world of the Bush administration’s secret plans to invade Iraq formulated in the days after 9/11; then name the candidates who knew it, too, but said nothing, had the office to act, but did not act, when they could have saved thousands of American and Iraqi lives, and billions of American dollars.
Speaking of American dollars, name the candidate who knows where the dollars bleed out by waste or corruption in the Pentagon. Name the candidate who helped build an alternative transportation company to move America away from its suicidal oil dependency. Which candidate, following 34 years of low-paid government service, is a successful investment banker, who might know a thing or two about what’s best for our money?
Which candidate is invited worldwide to advise other countries on national security (hint: the same candidate who advises the Democratic law-makers on national security), but also to advise on emergency preparedness? Does Katrina come to mind? It sure as hell should.
Which Democratic candidate took four bullets for his country and then rebuilt his own body after Viet Nam, stayed on to rebuild the Army, the way the nation needs rebuilding today? Who is the Democratic candidate for President of the United States of America with the practical experience of having already served as a Commander in Chief?
If you answered “Wes Clark” to the questions posed above, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. If not, America, you lose again.
