I think I've just figured out Clark's cabinet slot in a Kerry Admin

[tameszu]

I can't believe that it's been staring me in the face all this time (sorry if this isn't an especially interesting topic for you, if you never got the Clark bug like I did).

He probably isn't going to be VP: he has a lot of pluses, and a national profile now, and I'd love him, but the media doesn't. He still a bit of newbie, and Kerry needs someone who is gaffe proof, but more importantly, "Goring" proof--in other words someone the media lurves. I am thinking Edwards (and really hoping not Gephardt).

Clark can't be Secy of Defense: against the law.

Holbrooke probably has Secy of State locked up.

I see National Security advisor as too managerial and insufficiently dynamic for him.

Homeland Security is too domestic.

So what's left? We're running out of plausible top cabinet jobs for a guy with Clark's background...that is, of course, if you assume that we have to stick with the cabinet positions we've got. But recall that Clark has spent a good deal of energy advocating a new cabinet position for coordinating international development efforts. And whereas I had assumed that that idea had just sort of faded away with the rest of his presidential platform, here he is still plugging it in his shiny new (and I'd say must-read) Washington Monthly article (last paragraph):

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0405.clark.html

What better to be its first chair/head than the guy who proposed it? Thoughts?

[seattlesteph]

1. Good point!

I posted the following on the Clark Blog, but I do believe you're right on the money with your assessment.


"I want Clark as NSA. Not VP.

Not because I want Edwards as Veep, or because I think Clark lacks the requisite experience. I just don't want him raked over the coals like he was during the primaries. Where they had that photo with the War Criminal (and yes, I know the story - authorized by one department, not authorized by another), where they'll bring up his retirement issue with Clinton, where they'll run that video clip of him praising the Axis of Evil (Bush, Cheney, & Rumsfeld).

I know those can be all explained, and like everything the Repubs accuse us of, they are false and misconstrued. But I don't want General Clark and his family to go through that crap all over again.

Edwards I think will be enough of a contrast to Cheney - youth and optimism versus Dr. Strangelove with the bionic heart.

Clark will be able to do everything he wants in terms of promoting a fair, just and multilateral foreign policy. And I want him to get that chance without facing the mud-slinging of the Bushistas."

[nickgutierrez]

2. Idiot question:

"Clark can't be Secy of Defense: against the law."

Why?

[seattlesteph]

4. Must be 10 years out of the military.

If you weren't a civilian, you have to put that much distance between service and supervision.

Clark left in 2000. (or 1999).

[nickgutierrez]

5. Thanks. n/t

[Syrinx]

3. Is it against the law for Defense Secretary to be retired military?

If so, I didn't know that.

[Kathleen04]

6. Not for them to be retired military..

they just have to be out of the military for 10 years before they are appointed.

[Syrinx]

11. well, then, I didn't know *that*

Good to be informed. :)

[Kathleen04]

7. That's a very interesting idea..

that I've never heard anyone else mention before!

It sounds like a good idea to me..I wonder what the dynamics of it could be..

[IndianaGreen]

8. Wes Clark would be a great replacement for that idiot Colin Powell

You won't see Clark making stupid speeches to the UN Security Council about uranium from Niger.

[Scoopie]

9. Here's the last paragraph

What role?

We can't know precisely how the desire for freedom among the peoples of the Middle East will grow and evolve into movements that result in stable democratic governments. Different countries may take different paths. Progress may come from a beneficent king, from enlightened mullahs, from a secular military, from a women's movement, from workers returning from years spent as immigrants in Western Europe, from privileged sons of oil barons raised on MTV, or from an increasingly educated urban intelligentsia, such as the nascent one in Iran. But if the events of the last year tell us anything, it is that democracy in the Middle East is unlikely to come at the point of our gun. And Ronald Reagan would have known better than to try.



I don't think he wants to be King or a Mullah.

[Scoopie]

10. And you know what else - I'm media and I say FUK

them.

Gaffe proof? Ain't sech and animal.

Edwards will be the next Quayle if he's picked. You watch...

However...

I still don't see the role if you're talking about the last paragraph. Are you sure it's there?

[FrenchieCat]

12. Yes.....sounds good...

To make Clark a cabinet of an organization that doesn't yet exists...meaning first we have to win the election....then Kerry's got to be able to actually get this Department proposed and approved by congress...then they have to confirm Clark as the head....

I guess we need to pray to win the presidency AND Congress back for the Dems.

I guess in a few years, Clark and his department will be up and running.

Gee...why don't we just get rid of him altogether! Or better yet, make that position one that can be ran by the VP. Now that's a better idea.

Not only would we win the election......We can have this great new department.

Look y'all, all I want to do is get Bush out. We need some real expertise on this ticket. Young and energetic just ain't going to get it for me. Almost sounds like an American Idol approach to a serious threat on the very existence of our country. Considering all obstacles, Edwards looks even less attractive as VP to me now.

[Tim_in_HK]

13. Hmm, that's interesting.

Never thought of that. Good idea.

[Larkspur]

14. Thought Clark wanted to be Chief Lobbyist for the Military Industrial

Comples. Oops! He already held such a position before he jumped into the Prez race.

[democratreformed]

15. Well, you never know

He might be.

[StephNW4Clark]

17. Comples!!

I forgot about Clark's devious plan to be Chief Lobbyist!

Wondered when you'd pop up again...

[Demoiselle]

16. Make him Veep with special duties...

..coordinating international development. Screw the "media doesn't like him" stuff. He'd be in an entirely different position as vp candidate, and his inexperience could be compensated for by knowledgeable Kerry campaign coordinators. He's a terrific asset on the ticket, out front. If those idiots want to give us war, let's give em two REAL vets with credentials and medals up the wazoo.

[FrenchieCat]

18. I agree with the Veep proposition.....

so does others:

http://news.bostonherald.com/election2004/view.bg?articleid=27518

Gen. Clark's bars could take Kerry far
By Tom Keane
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

It's ``more than a system failure, a failure of leadership that goes right to the top.''

Those are the words of Gen. Wesley Clark , John F. Kerry's pick for vice president, talking last weekend about the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal.

OK, I'm getting ahead of events here. Kerry hasn't chosen Clark for anything. Just a few months ago, in fact, they were in a heated battle against each other and Clark was deriding Kerry (``He's a lieutenant, and I'm a general''). Yet if one thinks about the possible (and mostly dull) choices Kerry has for his No. 2 spot and, more importantly, about the best strategy for winning the presidency, picking Clark makes enormous sense.

more to read on this article....

and

Dem consultant in Philly:"Kerry credible if he picks a war VP"

Another person throwing Clark's name out there! :)
go to the article.....excerpt here....

Article Link:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0513/p01s01-uspo.html
(Snip)
The name now circulating with the most excitement is Gen. Wesley Clark, the retired former NATO commander who ran against Kerry for the Democratic nomination. General Clark, along with some of Kerry's other opponents, has been traveling the country and appearing as a surrogate spokesman. Now, say some analysts, with the prison abuse scandal, Clark is the obvious choice to put on the ticket. "These pictures have placed Wesley Clark on the very short list," says Ken Smukler, a Democratic consultant in Philadelphia. "Kerry, even as a
war hero, was never going to be able to make the case he was a stronger war president than Bush, until the pictures came out. Now, the easiest way for him to become credible as war president is to pick a war veep."


Carville is even saying it now....

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1084354029141800.xml

HUMOR, PASSION FLAVOR DEBATE
Pundits laugh, bicker on presidential race
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
By Steve Ritea
Staff writer
Several of the nation's top political pundits kicked off a business software conference in New Orleans on Tuesday with partisan bickering over this year's presidential election that touched on everything from the economy to U.S. involvement in Iraq.

>>

Asked whom he expected Kerry to choose for his running mate, Carville predicted it would either be retired Gen. Wesley Clark, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards or former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey. >>

And so is Donna Brazile...who never said any niceties about Clark before....

Clark, a retired four-star general who was the former supreme
commander of NATO, campaigned on opposition to the war in Iraq, which
he called ``the wrong war at the wrong time.''

Brazile said the insurgency in Iraq and the scandal over the abuse of
Iraqi prisoners may boost Clark's chances. "He's had a consistent position on the war, opposing it under the conditions and circumstances in which it was launched,'' she said.
"He looks like a sage when you reflect back on what he said and
where we are.''

www.dogstuff.com / www.duurstede.com

and finally,
Clark is one of 5 finalists for VP:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aC8W1Sp0o59s&refer=us

[FrenchieCat]

19. Also, looks like

Wes Clark speak on subjects other than Iraq.....here he is speaking for Kerry on education...

You have to look at the bottom of the article:

At the same time, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark spoke out against the law,saying the Bush administration has underfunded education reform. "It¹s billions of dollars short in funding," Clark, an Arkansan and a former presidential candidate, said in a telephone news conference arranged by the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

http://www.swtimes.com/archive/2004/May/12/news/paige.html