Call for leadership
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Clark on presidential bid: I’ll decide soon
Lou Rom
lrom@smgpo.gannett.com
August 27, 2003
LAFAYETTE — Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, looking and sounding very much like a presidential candidate, told reporters Tuesday that he expects to make a decision about entering the race in the next week or two.
“I am considering it seriously,” Clark said at a news conference at the Lafayette Cajundome Convention Center.
Clark, who was guest speaker at an Acadian Ambulance luncheon honoring medics, told the crowd about his on- and off-the-battlefield experience and expressed his concerns about the current leadership in the White House.
“The U.S. is in the midst of a transition,” he said, “and to be successful in a transition, you’ve got to be in the front seat and put your hand on the wheel.”
Clark, the focus of a push among Democrats who want a pro-military candidate to run against President Bush in 2004, never mentioned the president by name, but suggested that the current administration was hurting America’s image abroad.
“We’ve got a lot of challenges in the world, and people want to know what we’re going to do,” said Clark, a former NATO supreme commander and Rhodes Scholar.
“Mostly, it’s about vision, about what the country is about — not just being strong, but being inclusive.”
Clark, 58, focused primarily on the current war effort, saying the United States needs “a new strategy.”
He said this country has lost its direction since the end of the Cold War, citing a lack of focus following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the demise of the Soviet Union.
“When we lost our enemy, we lost our purpose; we then looked around and said, ‘Well what should we do?’ ” he told the crowd.
Answering his own question, Clark said the United States can — and should — build its strength through policies and actions that stress diplomacy and patience, especially when it comes to putting American lives on the line.
“War is always unpredictable … so, the use of force should always be a last resort,” he said.
“Our troops over there are having a very hard time right now. If we gave those troops another division or two, they wouldn’t turn us down,” Clark said.
But when asked during the post-speech news conference if he would send more troops to Iraq if he were in the White House today, Clark skirted the issue.
“First, we have to have a far-reaching political strategy,” he said.
During the past several months, Clark has become the darling of the political talk show circuit, appearing on CNN, FOX News and MSNBC. In addition, Clark supporters have launched at least three Web sites touting his military and political experience and urging him to run for president.
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