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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (508184)	12/12/2003 10:35:59 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

MOVE ALONG by Michael Crowley Candidate: Wesley Clark Category: General Likeability Grade: C I badly want to see in Wesley Clark a conquering Democratic hero. But I just can't shake the notion that the guy's a bit of an oddball--a smarter Ross Perot with medals. This feeling was affirmed for me watching Clark on MSNBC's "Hardball" Monday night. Overall I suppose Clark did fine. But he foolishly let himself get bogged down in a long exchange with host Chris Matthews over whether he'd been relieved of his post as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in 1999. The result was a long and tedius parsing of the details of one of the few lowlights in Clark's career--and an exchange that, to me, made Clark look stubborn and overly proud. Check out this (condensed) transcript: MATTHEWS: Did Bill Clinton agree in your policy? CLARK: Absolutely. MATTHEWS: Why did he relieve you? CLARK: First of all, I wasn't relieved. MATTHEWS: You weren't? CLARK: No. Uh-uh. MATTHEWS: You weren't relieved as supreme commander as NATO. CLARK: No, I wasn't. No. I was asked to retire three months early. MATTHEWS: How is that different? CLARK: Because, the way it works... CLARK: If you relieve someone, you take them out of command. What happened here was, I was asked to retire early and then it was then leaked to "The Washington Post" in an effort to keep me from talking to Bill Clinton about it. So this was a behind the back power play. Bill Clinton told me himself he had nothing to do with it, And I believe him. MATTHEWS: Why do you believe him? CLARK: Why do I believe him? Because he's the command-in-chief and he would not have done this this way… And he stood up there again and again and said he wasn't fired, he wasn't fired, he wasn't fired. MATTHEWS: You were relieved... CLARK: Chris. Chris, now wait a minute, I was not relieved, OK? MATTHEWS: You were asked to retire early. CLARK: Yes... MATTHEWS: But you weren't fired? CLARK: No. MATTHEWS: Well, it sounds like it. You were told to leave. And I just want to ask you, why do you trust the president?... CLARK: Well, let's go back into the story a little bit more, Chris... You get the idea. More than once, the live studio audience laughed heartily at this absurd who's-on-first routine, usually at the general's expense. And no wonder: Clark was playing a far-too-cute semantic game. It's also worth noting that this arcane exchange constitutes some 1200 words in a transcript of 6600 words--or nearly one-fifth of Clark's appearance. Someone needs to teach the general how to change the subject. tnr.com