Gen. Wesley Clark Endorses Hillary Clinton
Update: Here's Gen. Clark's statement.
*****
In a blogger conference call this morning, Gen. Wesley Clark endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. (Big Tent Democrat and I were both on the call. Be sure to read his separate post on the endorsement.)
Big Tent asked him for thoughts on Hillary's Iraq plan and what he finds attractive about it. Answer: Hillary understands the proper role of the Senate and the executive branch. She's aware of what the power of the Senate is given the current makeup.
She believes we should begin withdrawing forces now. So does he. She believes in diplomacy with all of Iraq's neighbors. She has said there would be no permanent presence of troops in Iraq.
Taylor Marsh asked about Hillary being Commander in Chief. Answer: She'd be great. She's loyal and will be loyal to the armed forces. She's very strong and decisive. She's been to Iraq, Bosnia and other places. He thinks the troops will be very proud of their commander in chief.
Jerome Armstrong: Would he accept the VP nomination? Answer: He hasn't thought anything about that. This is about putting the right person in the White House.
More....
Next question is about her other policies: Answer: She's the total package. She really has it and she will make a great President.
Hillary-Clark would be a great ticket. I've always liked Clark.
Back in 2003, here was Gen. Clark on the Patriot Act (in a Rolling Stone interview.)
Q: The president is urging Congress to grant him wider powers to wage war on terrorism at home. A: Come on, give us a break. The Patriot Act, all 1,200 pages of it, was passed without any serious congressional discussion. There was no public accountability, and now he wants more? What does he think this country is? We shouldn't do anything with the Patriot Act until it's unwrapped. I'd like to see what violations of privacy it entails, and whether those violations are in any way justified by their preventing terrorism in this country. And we need to do it now before we take another step forward and pay for that.
Here's how he would fix it:
I will suspend the portions of the Patriot Act that have to do with search and seizure law, and we'll go back to old way with probable cause and judges and warrants, and then we'll take the whole act back to the Congress for legislative review. We will have all the authority we need to protect the country from terrorists, but you can't win the war on terror by giving up the very freedoms we're fighting to protect.
Here is Wesley Clark in 2003 on crime:
I'm concerned about the lock-up policy, the 3-strikes policy, putting people in jails and the way we've treated people in prison. We've got to look seriously at the American penal system and what it does when it returns people.to the streets." Source: WBUR Public Radio interview Jun 19, 2003
He's uneasy about the death penalty.
“A government like the United States has the right to, in extraordinary cases, take the life of a criminal, but I don’t like the way the death penalty has been applied in America,” Clark said. “ I think its been applied in an unfair and discriminatory fashion and I think we need to go back and use modern technology and unpack all those cases on death row.”
This is a big endorsement for Hillary. I hope she gives serious consideration to choosing Gen. Clark as a running mate if she gets the nomination.
| < Hillary Responds To Rudy Ad | General Clark's Endorsement of Sen. Hillary Clinton > |





