Can another Arkie save the Dems?
Quite intrigued to see that Arkansan Gen. Wesley Clark is seriously pondering a presidential run. I don't know much about his politics, and I don't think anyone else does either. He has supported Dems in the past, and despite his claim not to have chosen a party, I can't imagine that he would run as anything but a Democrat. It would certainly be absurd for anyone to challenge Shrub within the GOP.
From the times I have seen him on CNN, he seems bright and articulate. It is hard to imagine the Republicans being able to tar a retired general as "pot smoking terrorist-coddling socialist", as I said they would try to tar the Democrat nominee. He is rather Lieberman-like in the sense that he negates harmful stereotypes about Democrats. The flip-side of this fact is that those some stereotypes are the very impressions that make some people want to be Democrats.
A lot of liberals probably aren't big on the idea of voting for a general, with all of the cultural associations that that carries: militarism, closed-mindedness, dogmatism, hiercharchy, mindless obedience. On the other hand, we got some scary mofos running the country now. The Democratic base may be ready for anyone who is acceptable on the core issues (abortion, progressive taxation, the environment, unions) and doesn't strut around in jackboots. Note that I didn't mention gun control as a core issue. That will be the subject of a future posting.
Woody
7:48:06 PM 
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