Bush's Third Term
This year, we're facing the most important election in a generation. As Americans, we must ask ourselves which candidate will bring about the change our country so desperately needs. In my opinion, Barack Obama is the only candidate with the judgment to move our country forward.
The disastrous consequences of George W. Bush's poor judgment over these last 7 1/2 years are all too apparent. Now, John McCain is offering 4 more years of Bush -- while Barack Obama offers the change in direction our country so desperately needs.
Barack had the judgment to oppose the war in Iraq before it began, and he is ready to bring our troops home and end the occupation of Iraq in a responsible way. John McCain has said that American troops should be willing to stay in Iraq for 100 years.
Barack will engage in the diplomacy that is necessary to bring stability to the Middle East. Just like George Bush, John McCain repeatedly resorts to saber-rattling and threats about invading Iran while revealing a startling ignorance of the basic issues that define the politics of the region.
Barack knows we have to invest in renewable energy to end America's dependence on foreign oil and fight global warming. And like George Bush, John McCain is in the pocket of big oil.
It's about judgment -- and I think the answer is clear.
While I respect John McCain's service, I know exactly what he stands for -- Bush's third term. And in national security terms, John McCain is largely untested and untried. He's never been responsible for policy formulation. John McCain is calculating that he will use the national security debate to his advantage. He's wrong.
Like Bush, McCain has always been for the use of force, force, and more force. In my experience, the only time to use force is as a last resort. When John McCain talks about throwing Russia out of the G8 and makes irresponsible comments about bombing Iran, he reveals his own disrespect for the office of the presidency.
And while he's all too willing to continue putting our troops in harm's way, John McCain initially refused to support providing benefits like the new GI Bill to our veterans because he believes that providing good education opportunities to our troops will hurt retention. That's ridiculous.
We need new leadership in the White House -- not George Bush's third term.
Last week I sat down with Barack Obama. I know he's the right person to lead our country forward. Now we need to come together and support his campaign for change.
As I see the sacrifices our troops and their families make every day; as I see Americans buckling under the weight of record high gas prices; and as I see families struggling with sky rocketing health care costs, I know this:
We simply can't afford another 4 years of the McCain-Bush-Cheney agenda.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
HuffPost's Pick
General Clark is right, John McCain is nothing more than a Bush clone. Just another old dinosaur who will carry out the wishes of the powerful military , media and industrial complex.
It is time to get these old hanger ons out of government.
They are the ones who have kissed the butt of the big conributors, the ones who become lobbyists for dictators and terrorist states.The
How can someone expect change in Washington when we had and have Senators like Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd still in office when they were approaching their one hundredth birthday!
The Kennedys, the McCains, The Kerrys, the Liebermanns, enough is enough, get rid of them and start over with some fresh energetic people with new ideas. Gen. Clark could be a great Secretary of Defense, Colin Powell could be a great VP or national Security Advisor. BTW - I am white and would have no problem with an Obama / Powell team.
Time for a change, lets' do it!
Powell has a wealth of experience and has sound judgment. Much more so that Obama. I wish Powell had run for president. I would hate to see Powell's reputation sullied by any affiliation with a south Chicago politician who is associated with many questionable characters and who's agenda still is very much hidden from the public. What does he REALLY mean by change? Change can be both good and bad;and I am convinced that Barack's change, once we really ever see it, is something we don't want.
Colin Powell did a bang-up job of ruining his own reputation with the lying speech before the United Nations, so he shouldn't worry about affiliation with a South Chicago politician.
Powell chose which wagon to hitch his reputation to and he richly deserves the criticism that both the people and history will attach to his name. He coulda been a contendah!
"I would hate to see Powell's reputation sullied" ???
But he has already done it to himself.
How do these Huffpo "bests" get selected? This, like so many that get chosen here, is mostly off the point. That happens so often that it seems...we
Powell, unfortunately, cast his lot with Bush when he should have known better. And, he stayed loyal to him far too long.
Obama / Clark is a great combo. Powell? No way. Poor guy, but as a well-respected moderate, he KNEW he was window-dressing for Bush used to legitimize the neocons.. You make your bed--you lie in it.
Too bad. Powell's a decent guy, but he has to take some responsibility for this mess we're in. No way should he be VP, SOS or any other cabinet-level position.
Robert Byrd has more spine than most of the rest of the Senate put together. Powell, on the other hand, has shown himself to be a yes-man for the U.S.empire
Gen. Clark isn't allowed to be nominated for Def. Secretary until 2010. That's because he was in uniformed service until 2000 and there's a 10 minimum between uniformed service and eligibility to be Secretary of Defense.
I like Powell a lot but would be surprised if he would even want to go through all the effort necessary to be a running mate at this point. That, and he lost too much credibility when he sold that BS to the UN.
What about this for a dream cabinet? With a couple repubs (for the type of unity government Obama talks of) and no current dem Senators.(
Chief of Staff - Tom Daschle
NSA - Susan Rice
Agriculture - Brian Schweitzer
Transportation - Tim Kaine or Ed Rendell
HHS - Robert Wexler
Labor - Kathleen Sebelius
HUD - Maxine Waters or Ed Rendell
Education - Janet Nepolitano
Veterans Affairs -John Murtha
Interior - Ted Strickland or Martin O'Malley
Homeland Security - Adam Smith or Jane Harman
Energy and EPA (under new post of Environmental Czar) - Al Gore
Treasury - Chuck Hagel or Alan Greenspan
Atty Gen. - John Edwards
... and of course VP - Wesley Clark
Obama/Clark '08!!!
Greenspan--Give America a break!
Homeland Security should probably be disbanded. It was created in haste and equally hastily became over-blown, bloated, top-heavy, incompetent, redundant, and a waste of money. Competent people in good positions can do more, do it well, and at less cost than the mess foisted on us by bush and his foolish groupies.
"the Liebermanns" ???
NO! Don't tell me there is more than one?
Hearing your comments about McCain's "WWIII and the draft" ideas was great. So calm and logical that it was actually reassuring.
I was also interested to hear that, unlike McCain, you learned the dangers of "hypothesizing on the fly" in the 2004 campaign. McCain's gaffes still haven't taught him that important point. Then again, he was 894th out of 899th in his class--and still doesn't know the difference between "Shia" and "Sunni"--so I think (hope) his learning curve during this campaign may be steep.
An Obama / Clark ticket would definitely be "The Best and the Brightest". What a change from Bush/McSame that would be!
Great piece! John McCain either cannot be bothered to gain an understanding of current events in the Middle East, or he lacks the ability to obtain it. McCain is a stooge of those Israelis wanting to keep a large portion of the West Bank even if that prevents the emergence of a viable independent Palestine.
MCain is a stooge of fanatical Jewish settlers eagerly oppressing the Palestinians and confident the American taxpayer will put up the hundreds of billions of dollars it is costing to "protect" Israel and to allow it to try to keep the Golan Heights and huge chunks of the small portion of Palestine still occupied by the Palestinians. Let us remember that McCain keenly embraced John Hagee even though he knew the rabid reverend favors ethnic cleansing in the "Land of Israel" to drive out the remaining Palestinians.
OH I LOVE THIS ONE!!!! "John McCain is untested and untried"
HeHEHE because Obama has been tested and tried. Really, this should be a comedy sight.
McCain embraced John Hagee?
He has met him less times than you can count on one hand.
But Obama did not embrace or know anything about Rev Wright's anti- Semitic anti-American and racist views. After having Wright as his spiritual mentor for twenty years and writing a book about one of his sermons. Yet every-time Wright is on camera for five minutes he blurts those things out. Because they are the corner stones of his beliefs.
But Obama was that stupid that in twenty years he never figured that out.
I would bring up a cliche about a kettle but I don't want to be called a racist.
Frankly, I agree with Gen Clark's assessment that McCain IS "untested and untried". His service was commendible, but I think overall he was a lot safer and further out of harms way than the 200,000+ US grunts in Vietnam who survived and the 50,000+ who didn't. Ever since then, he has ridden on the horse of valor for every election. Furthermore, in spite of all his years of governement service the public record mainly contains his captivity as his single most defining act. He has not been much of a leader when it came to formulating Republican policy, and he was not very effective in putting together a Republican coalition to block many of the Bush administration's transgressions.
Rev Wright's sermons certainly keep one awake and thinking. I doubt there were many sermons like the ones that have been blasted ad nauseum, but unlike you I find them very thought provoking and not at all frightening. I don't know what Barack Obama heard over all those years, and neither do you nor any of the right-wing bloviaters. I suspect that Obama found the sermons thought provoking too. And I'm willing to bet that most of the interactions between Wright and Obama over the years were as softspoken and respectful as between any minister with any parishioner. Read his books, listen to his speeches, look at his voting record. You will see an intelligent, thoughtful, emotionally well-grounded person in Obama. Exactly what we want as our next President.
I couldn't agree more, just look at the disastrous leadership of Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of
defense, also a former Navy jet jock, who probably is a hell of lot smarter than McCain.
Rumsfeld is a clone of Robert MacNamara. You remember him; the guy that President Johnson thought walked on water. Seems like the lack of smarts does not descriminate between the two parties.
Great to hear!!!
I've watched McCain's camp make this argument over and over - that he's stronger in nat'l security. So exactly what are his credentials in this area??? ...and don't tell me he was a POW. I respect his service, but it doesn't make him qualified.
It seems the attempted selling point is if you're rebulican, you're stonger in nat'l security. Bull.
I'll take the guy with vision and judgement anyday.
Besides, my take on "experience" is this: Just because you've done something for a long time doesn't necessarily mean you're good at it. It just means you've been doing it for a long time.
An Obama-Clark ticket would be unstoppable! Thank you Gen. Clark for showing respect to Sen. Obama even while supporting Sen. Clinton during the primaries. You have long had my respect and I would enthusiastically vote for you as VP.
How do we petition to get Clark for Obama's VP?
THERE IS NOT A BETTER CHOICE FOR VICE PRESIDENT THAN WES CLARK!
He outranks McCain. He has no skeletons in his closet and he is literally a battle proven warrior. Something the Democrats need desperately on the ticket and in foreign policy input.
Let's not forget that he was the most-requested surrogate for the Congressional Dems in '06.
And he won Oklahoma, came in 2nd in a few of states in '04, and outraised everyone in at least q4 '03. (By contrast, Dean only won his home state, and Edwards won the Carolinas, his 'home' territory.
Also, he was a Clinton supporter, which could help "heal" the party. He's from Arkansas and should carry that state (Not sure if that's in play without him or Hillary).
Also, he ran a NATO intervention against a genocide and NOT A SINGLE SOLDIER lost their life in combat.
Plus: "Supreme Allied Commander" is the best. job. title. ever.
I'm from Oklahoma, and was proud to vote for Wes Clark in 04. He's smart ,(Rhodes scholar), military AND international experience (NATO) and really came across, while not very charismatic, as a thoughtful and rational guy that might actually tell you the truth....e
Wesley Clark came in second in New Mexico in '04 and I was one of the people who voted for him then and was hoping to see him run again this time around. He's well spoken, thoughtful, and graduated top of his class in West Point before embarking on a distinguished militay career. Democrats should begin pointing out that McCain graduated near the BOTTOM of his class at Annapolis and is admittedly computer-illiterate - do we really need consecutive academically challenged individuals running our country? Clark would be an excellent choice for VP as his military command experience would severely weaken McCain's primary arguments against Obama's lack of the same. It is good to see this article by Gen. Clark as I know he was a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton. This shows how Democratic leaders are truly rallying around Barack Obama.
Clark would do a bang-up job of providing the military expertise so necessary to a modern day president. Obama would do well to consider him on that basis alone but General Clark has much more to contribute than simply his military experience. Obama/Clark would go along way to restoring some dignity to the front office! They are both courteous and dignified in their deportment.
Bush is a sneering bumbling coward with no manners whatsoever. He must make the protocol division of State cringe every time he meets foreign dignitaries. What a perfect jackass to represent the United States.
"He outranks McCain."
I am no McCain supporter but this comment is on par with:
Franz Liebkind's " I am ze author. You are ze audience. I outrank you! "
This man should be Obama's VP candidate.
Clark for VP! Perfect balance!
Go Obama Go.
Thank you General. I have much admiration for you.
I planned to vote Clark for Pres. in '04. He's my top pick choice for VP with Obama.
I wholeheartedly agree. He is one of the few candiates for presibdent that I was actually jazzed about. I would love to him in the VP slot. he would indeed bring a nice balance to the executive office.
If Obama doesn't choose you as vice president, he is not as bright as i thought he was.
General Clark, I saw you on the "Verdict" panel yesterday and thought you were outstanding.
Articulate and personable, you kept discussion focused on the key points--McCain's weakness in foreign and military affairs, his lack of support and enthusiasm among Republicans, and how Democrats are working toward building party unity under the excellent leadership of Senator Obama.
A great job! You were very effective, I thought, polite, and yet did not back away from the main points. I'm hoping we will see you as a -permanent- Obama teammate for the next 8 years.
General Clark, thank you for standing up for the strong values the US military stands for. Each and every member of the military has made a oath to uphold and defend the Constitution Of The united States. I remember well the day I took that oath. I remember proudly saluting our flag each and every day when we joined for muster, We need General Clark as a strong symbol of what American military means to the citizens of this county. Pandering to a group of misfits should be below the dignity of any high ranking military man. Sir, I thank you for reminding the Americans that it takes more than being in the military to be a president. Now sir, lets start helping out the past and forgotten veterans.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
