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Just 391 Days To Go: Enter Wes Clark

By Mark Grueter

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The future is looking bleak for our ragtag Bush administration. You don’t have to be a Democrat, a liberal, or a socialist to acknowledge that the proverbial wheels are falling off the juggernaut. It is not unfair to question whether or not these guys have the wherewithal to rebuild Iraq in any way that is just or sane. After sneering at foreign countries before going into Iraq, Bush is now asking these same foreigners to just give him money and troops in exchange for practically nothing. This is an operation that will require cooperation and compromise and Bush is not a fan of either.

On top of that, the deficit continues to swell while consumer confidence shrinks; Supply-side economics is an interesting theory so perhaps we should thank the president for demonstrating all over again that it doesn’t actually work.

Scandal lurks. It appears that a White House aide told columnist Robert Novak that former Ambassador Joe Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plume, was (is) a CIA agent. Novak took the leak and reproduced it in one of his dismal pieces this past summer. Evidently, if Plume was a covert operative then someone in the Bush camp committed a felony in revealing her name. But even if she was just an “analyst,” as many Bush flacks claim, it still looks like an attempt to fuck with Wilson for reporting that he couldn’t find any evidence of Saddam Hussein trying to buy nuclear weapons in Niger. And the cover-up is well underway.

As if it couldn’t get any worse for the pink elephants, General Wesley Clark, who is now leading in the polls, raised $3.5 million in two weeks. The GOP is afraid of this man. He is handsome, moderate, articulate, down-to-earth and most importantly, has credibility and experience on matters of war and peace. His critics are hysterical enough to point out that Clark praised the Bush people 2.5 years ago, before the course of history was altered by the events of September 11.

And Howard Dean is unwise to pretend that “Wesley Clark was a Republican 25 days ago” - unwise because it’s untrue, not because it’s meant to be a personal attack. Yes, Clark voted for Reagan and once had kind words for Bush, but so what? He’s been publicly criticizing Bush for over a year now. Are people not allowed to reevaluate prior beliefs?

Dean is likeable, however, and that explains his success. Personality is the most underrated aspect of politics, and Dean is quite a character. Political scientists spend most of their time attempting to explain that personality has nothing to do with it. But that’s why they’re political scientists and that’s why nobody pays them any attention.

But for the general election many Dems worry that Dean will get mauled like McGovern, Mondale and Roy Horn. Hence, they look to Clark or maybe John Kerrey. So now the task for Dean is to somehow persuade doubters that he could beat Bush. And Clark’s task is to prove in debate and public appearances that he’s as smart as many of us, for whatever reason, already believe.

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Mark Grueter lives in New York City, where he is pursuing his master's in Liberal Studies at the New School University's Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science.  He can be contacted at [email protected].

© 2003 Me Three