Breaking News: Wes Clark Endorses Hillary
by Pamela LeaveyHillary Clinton was endorsed this morning by Wesley Clark. The news of the endorsement was first announced on a blogger conference call, although AP News seems to have on board for the call which was to be the first public announcement of the endorsement.
In a statement on Clark’s website, WesPac, and the Blog at HillaryClinton.com, Clark says:
“Senator Hillary Clinton has earned the support of millions of Americans in her campaign for president — and today I am pleased to count myself among them. The world has reached a critical point, and we need a leader in the White House with the courage, intelligence and humility to navigate through many troubling challenges to our security at home and abroad. I believe Senator Clinton is that leader, and I whole-heartedly endorse her for President of the United States. Senator Clinton and I share a worldview in which diplomacy is the best first-strike tool in our arsenal; in today’s complicated global system, the United States should be making more friends than enemies.”
Never before have so many Americans had our well-being so closely tied to world events. Our economic and national security has become more complicated than ever before, and we deserve a leader who draws on wisdom, compassion, intelligence and moral courage — in short, we need Hillary Clinton. She is tough but fair, a rock-solid leader equal to the many weighty challenges ahead of us.”
Clark’s endorsement is yet another big endorsement in a series of endorsements that Hillary has garnered over recent months (see here, here, here and here).
I had hoped to get on the conference call this morning but I was up too late last night. Big Tent Democrat and Jeralyn have posts on TalkLeft; Taylor Marsh and Jerome Armstrong on MYDD, also weigh in.
Clark, a candidate for president in ‘04, dropped out of the race in February and endorsed John Kerry. There had been speculation that he might run again. For the Clark supporters who were still hoping that the General might be a late entry and jump in, the speculation is over.
AP News speculates that Clark, former supreme allied commander of NATO, with “sterling military credentials could bolster” Hillary Clinton’s bid “to be the first female commander in chief.”
Clinton welcomed Clark’s endorsement as a “real sign of confidence” in her ability to lead the military as president. “He and I have been friends for 25 years, and I am deeply admiring of his leadership,” she said.
Score another one for Hillary.
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Wes’s Endorsement Will Wash in Washington, But Not With Me
I donated money and time to Clark’s 2004 presidential effort. It was a patriotic, but mistaken allegiance made during a time of inquiring political transition.
See my story above. I doubt it was mistaken at all. We now have one of the great American thinkers in the public arena and on national TV.
That can only be a positive.
Clark endorsing Hillary? What is going on in the real international economic and politcal realm: there is a much larger scale confrontation with Bush from the candidates regarding the Iraq War and the problems it is continuing to cause. Only one candidate, it seems to me, is really slamming the truth and providing the logistics and rationale for ending this disastrous war: Bill Richardson. This article was printed in the Washington Post about 9 days ago, and please take the time to read it:
Why We Should Exit Iraq Now
By Bill Richardson
Saturday, September 8, 2007; A15
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards have suggested that there islittle difference among us on Iraq. This is not true: I am the only leading Democratic candidate committed to getting all our troops out and doing so quickly.
In the most recent debate, I asked the other candidates how many troops theywould leave in Iraq and for what purposes. I got no answers. The American people need answers. If we elect a president who thinks that troops should stay in Iraq for years, they will stay for years — a tragic mistake.
Clinton, Obama and Edwards reflect the inside-the-Beltway thinking that acomplete withdrawal of all American forces somehow would be “irresponsible.” On the contrary, the facts suggest that a rapid, complete withdrawal — not a drawn-out, Vietnam-like process —would be the most responsible and
effective course of action.
Those who think we need to keep troops in Iraq misunderstand the MiddleEast. I have met and negotiated successfully with many regional leaders,including Saddam Hussein. I am convinced that only a complete withdrawal can sufficiently shift the politics of Iraq and its neighbors to break the deadlock that has been killing so many people for so long.
Our troops have done everything they were asked to do with courage and professionalism, but they cannot win someone else’s civil war. So long as American troops are in Iraq, reconciliation among Iraqi factions is postponed. Leaving forces there enables the Iraqis to delay taking the steps to end the violence. And it prevents us from using diplomacy to bring in other nations to help stabilize and rebuild the country.
The presence of American forces in Iraq weakens us in the war against al-Qaeda. It endows the anti-American propaganda of those who portray us as occupiers plundering Iraq’s oil and repressing Muslims. The day we leave, this myth collapses, and the Iraqis will drive foreign jihadists out of their country. Our departure would also enable us to focus on defeating the terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11, those headquartered along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border — not in Iraq.
Logistically, it would be possible to withdraw in six to eight months. We moved as many as 240,000 troops into and out of Iraq through Kuwait in as little as a three-month period during major troop rotations. After the Persian Gulf War, we redeployed nearly a half-million troops in a few months. We could redeploy even faster if we negotiated with the Turks to open a route out through Turkey.
As our withdrawal begins, we will gain diplomatic leverage. Iraqis will start seeing us as brokers, not occupiers. Iraq’s neighbors will face the reality that if they don’t help with stabilization, they will face the consequences of Iraq’s collapse — including even greater refugee flows over their borders and possible war.
The United States can facilitate Iraqi reconciliation and regional cooperation by holding a conference similar to that which brought peace to Bosnia. We will need regional security negotiations among all of Iraq’s neighbors and discussions of donations from wealthy nations — including oil-rich Muslim countries — to help rebuild Iraq. None of this can happen until we remove the biggest obstacle to diplomacy: the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq.
My plan is realistic because:
It is less risky. Leaving forces behind leaves them vulnerable. Would we need another surge to protect them?
It gets our troops out of the quagmire and strengthens us for our real challenges. It is foolish to think that 20,000 to 75,000 troops could bring peace to Iraq when 160,000 have not. We need to get our troops out of the crossfire in Iraq so that we can defeat the terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11.
By hastening the peace process, the likelihood of prolonged bloodshed is reduced. President Richard Nixon withdrew U.S. forces slowly from Vietnam —with disastrous consequences. Over the seven years it took to get our troops out, 21,000 more Americans and perhaps a million Vietnamese, most of them civilians, died. All this death and destruction accomplished nothing — the communists took over as soon as we left.
My position has been clear since I entered this race: Remove all the troopsand launch energetic diplomatic efforts in Iraq and internationally to bring stability. If Congress fails to end this war, I will remove all troops without delay, and without hesitation, beginning on my first day in office.
Let’s stop pretending that all Democratic plans are similar. The American people deserve precise answers from anyone who would be commander in chief. How many troops would you leave in Iraq? For how long? To do what, exactly? And the media should be asking these questions of the candidates, rather than allowing them to continue saying, “We are against the war . . . but please don’t read the small print.”
The writer is governor of New Mexico and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Stephen Fox
I personally don’t see that Richardson’s stance on Iraq is any different than Clinton’s. I worte about Richardson’s OP/ED here – http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=6531