QandO

January 27, 2004

Clark the phony?
Posted by McQ

Per Peggy Noonan there is no question:

Which gets me to Wesley Clark. Forgive me, but he seems to be another first class strange-o. He has been called arrogant and opportunistic. That's par for the course in politics, but what worries me about Gen. Clark is that it seems to be true to greater degrees than is usual.

She recalls Camille Paglia’s impression of Clark:

"What a phony! . . . Clark reminds me of Keir Dullea in '2001: A Space Odyssey'--a blank, vacant expression, detached and affectless." But, said the interviewer, his supporters say he is handsome and great on TV. Ms. Paglia: "Doesn't anyone know how to 'read' TV? The guy's an android . . . a slick, boudoir, salon military type who rubbed plenty of colleagues the wrong way. Clark is not a natural man's man. And he's no Eisenhower. . . . This is just another hysterical boomlet, as when the nerdy Northeast media went gaga for John McCain--'Finally, a soldier we like!'"

"A slick, buodoir, salon military type"? ... I love it when Camille gets cranked up.

But Paglia’s impression is very much in line with mine. Certainly not a Republican or Libertarian, Paglia is, at least, a straight shooter. And Clark does appeal to the Dems for mostly the reasons she cites.

So why's Clark where he is at this point? It’s a case of opportunity meets need, and Clark is the opportunist’s opportunist. Seizing on the opportunity to use the Dems for a run for the president he exploits the Dems need (or a desire) for a person to help them in their “security” and “foreign policy” deficit. It’s a marriage of convenience and one which, if successful, could be disastrous.

How so? Per Noonan, it’s a scary because, when looking a little deeper into Clark:

Gen. Clark gives off the vibrations of a man who has no real beliefs save one: Wes Clark should be president. The rest--the actual meaning of his candidacy--he seems to be making up as he goes along. It seems a candidacy void of purpose beyond meeting the candidate's hunger.

Had the same opportunity in ‘04 presented itself on the Republican side of the fence, there’s little doubt that Clark would have found it quite easy to have suddenly discovered that he’d been a “Republican” all of his life, supported the war, was totally against abortion and, by the way, completely supported unilateral action if necessary.

What a phony.

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