Gen. Clark PWNS in Florida for Obama!
Jordan has a terrific diary up at Kos today about Gen. Clark's Obama tour of Florida early this week. He cites a Wes Clark quote of the day:
After eight years of this, we need new ideas and new leadership in Washington! At the top of the ticket we have a guy with great integrity, with great insight, with a unique background to be able to see into the issues, with the kind of temperament where he...he reads books. He thinks about things! He asks penetrating questions!
Lord knows America deserves a thinker after all the country has been put through on Bush instinct.
Clark spoke of the four crises of the Bush administration, beginning with 9/11 and then the invasion of Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and the now-unfolding economic crisis.
In each crisis, poor planning led to unacceptable outcomes, Clark said.
"I don't think the American people could believe their government was that incompetent, that its leaders would go into something and not have a plan and fail to follow through, until Hurricane Katrina," Clark said. "Now we've got the economic crisis. The government did not want to face this and Wall Street did not want to face it and now we're in it.
"What we need are new ideas in Washington," Clark added. "And new leadership."
Clark urged the crowd to encourage their neighbors and friends to vote for Obama.
"Millions of our fellow countrymen know that an election is coming up soon, and they know there's some guy named Barack Obama out there," he said. "They're waiting for your help. They're not going to listen to me and they're not watching the debates and they're not going to get the right answers from Fox News."
Clark said Republican nominee John McCain, for all his statements in support of veterans, has failed to follow up on his promises. Veterans Affairs hospitals are not "adequately resourced," Clark charged, and the Bush administration had, until two years ago, ignored calls to do something.
"The VA system has gotten increased resources the last couple of years only because the Democrats in Congress embarrassed the administration into doing it," he said.
