In two recent articles at HuffingtonPost.com, Paul Abrams makes a compelling case for Wesley Clark to be Obama’s VP pick. I hope someone at Obama HQ is listening to him because I think he’d be a far better choice than the 3 frontrunners listed by the MSM.
In the first article, "If the VP is Clark, Here are Some Contrasts with McCain," Abrams first compares their academic backgrounds:
Clark was first in his class at West Point, won a Rhodes Scholarship, and studied . . . politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford. Similar to [Bush Junior], McCain was 5th from the bottom at Annapolis. Like [Junior], that is a badge of honor for him, and he recently proudly professed that he did not know very much about economics. [Can we survive another 4 years of belief-based politics?].
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Then, there is the fact that Clark earned his own way in the Army, while McCain skated on the coattails of his admiral father and grandfather [sound familiar]:
Clark did not come from a privileged background with contacts in the Army. McCain got into Annapolis because his father [and grandfather] were admirals. As he was working his way up the ladder in the Army, Clark received numerous letters highly commending his acumen and performance from commanding officers.
Clark became a 4-star General. McCain left the Navy because he was not going to be able to make Admiral. Incidentally, McCain also crashed several of his Navy planes when they were not being shot at.
Clark was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO--you know, one of the pesky little multinational things where hearing someone else's perspective occasionally comes in handy. McCain's insane temper tantrums at almost nothing--e.g., FoxNew's Morton Kondracke asking McCain if he would support an amendment directing a bit more NIH research for Parkinson's Disease, that made Kondracke to conclude that McCain was "not Presidential material", despite his prior admiration of him--are so frequent that they are no longer "news".
Next, there is the fact that McCain’s foreign policy and judgment is retarded, while Clark actually has good judgment based on the facts:
Clark knows that the al-Qaeda are Sunni, and Iran is a Shia theocracy. Without Joe Lieberman whispering sweet nothings into his ear, McCain does not. Oh yes, Clark also knows that Shia and Sunni have not had the greatest of relationships for, oh, say, centuries. McCain thinks it is, and has always been, all one big happy Islamist-terrorist family.
Clark opposed the Iraq invasion. McCain plumped for it. McCain said we would be greeted as liberators. Clark does not know just who the enemy is in Iraq, and what the definition of victory is. Neither does McCain. Clark not knowing leads him to doubt the wisdom of the continuing involvement of the US. McCain not knowing makes this, well, no different from just about everything else McCain espouses so why make an exception of Iraq.
Then, there’s their repective marital histories:
Clark has been married to one woman his entire adult life. McCain dumped his wife who had been severely injured in a car accident, and had waited patiently for his return from Hanoi. Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan did not like McCain for doing that. McCain committed adultery with his current wife while he was still married to his ex-wife. He also received a marriage license before he was divorced--now, here was a man on a mission!
And their finances and ethics:
After decades of service in the Army, Clark retired with little money, and earned a few million himself. McCain dumped his injured first wife for an heiress, flies around in a private plane, owns 8-10 houses. Oh yes, incidentally, remember when McCain was working on campaign finance reform--guess what form of transportation is exempt from reporting? Yep, if you use your own private plane! One wonders how that got in there.....
Their politics:
Clark truly is an independent, a non-ideologue. He joined the Democratic party because of how bad Bush and the Republicans had become. McCain calls himself a proud conservative, and has already made multiple faustian bargains on judges, on taxes, and other matters. McCain voted with Bush 95% of the time.
Their tax policy or in McCain’s case policies:
When he ran himself for President, Clark proposed a major middle class tax cut, paid for by a small increase in tax rates on the top bracket. He has not wavered. When McCain was in the Senate, he opposed the Bush tax cuts on the grounds they were fiscally irresponsible and favored the rich; when he ran for President himself McCain wavered--he backs fiscally irresponsible taxcuts for the top bracket.
Then, Clark’s actual international diplomacy experience versus McCain’s lack thereof:
McCain has no experience in international diplomacy, and his first instinct in any confrontation is to escalate it--whether it is his own insane temper, or bombing Iran, or the in-your-face arrogance of power displayed by our Dear Leader. Clark, who has actually studied and operated in the world at large, displays a more nuanced approach.
In Abrams’ second article, "The BIG Reason McCain Dreads a Clark VP Pick,"
Abrams first notes that "Clark had several appointments that required Senate approval. McCain never did. Clark was approved by a voice vote of the Republican-controlled Senate to be Supreme Allied Commander Europe. John McCain was part of that Republican-controlled Senate."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Then the big reason Clark should be the VP pick is that McCain would have to open his dubious military records:
Inevitably, inexorably, indubitably the military records of these two men will be opened, examined, sliced and diced and compared by the press. Enormous pressure will build on McCain to sign a release form that allows access to all his military records, a step he has never taken.
Even George W Bush was pressured into releasing his records, and shame on the Kerry campaign for not pointing out, for example, that Bush checked the "no" box when asked if he would volunteer for overseas duty; that Bush decided for himself not to take a physical, the first airman in military history to determine which regulations he would, and would not, follow, and so on.
Finally, Abrams makes the compelling argument that McCain’s only argument for being president would fade away with the release and comparison of the military records:
Despite his imprisonment in North Vietnam, there is reason to believe that McCain's entire military record will not look very good compared to Wes Clark's. Included in such documents will be the planes McCain crashed, his overall behavior and demeanor, comments upon his leadership potential by commanding officers, his temper and other events we can only surmise.
The Republican 527s will, as they did with John Kerry, feel compelled to bring down Wes Clark. After all, he was shot in 4 places while he continued to lead his troops out of harm's way and defeat the attacking Viet Cong contingent for which he was awarded a Silver Star. Clark rose in the ranks to become a 4-star General and, as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, conducted the entire Kosovo war without a single US casualty.
Democratic groups will have no choice but to insist that the sun shine on McCain's record as well.
As McCain's military record is shown not to match up to Clark's, his only appeal for the presidency will fade into the shadows.
As one of the comments to the second article notes: "[Clark’s] been extremely quiet and busy lately working on his Securing America's Future website at http://securingamerica.com, which by the way is Wednesday's convention theme." Hopefully, this means Clark is the VP choice.
Additionally, it should be noted that Clark was a Clinton supporter, which could help bridge that gap. While it shouldn’t take a VP choice to force McCain into releasing his military records, Clark as VP would give McCain no choice but to release the complete truth about his main "qualification" for president.
Another military choice I like is Jim Webb, who also could help with Virginia.