Arkansas Blog

Kerry would have won in 2004 if he had chosen Clark as his VP. He didn't and lost.
I'm afraid Obama is going to follow in Kerry's footsteps.

"Clark was informed by Barack Obama's people that there was no reason to come."

Exclusion vs. Inclusion. Guess which one wins? Dumb campaign decision. Dumb.

Clinton's victorious beginnings were about inclusions.

With all of the talk about NATO since the conflict in Georgia erupted, Clark would steal the limelight from Obama at the convention.

Obama already has his hands full with keeping the Clintons entertained.

Can't swear where Wes Clark WON'T be. But can tell you where he WAS tonight, with Gert: ZaZa's.

>>>>>>
Rubbing salt in the wound even more, the "theme" of Wednesday's Democratic convention agenda is "Securing America."

Wesley Clark's PAC also happens to be called SECURING AMERICA.
>>>changed to: (with a link to Steve's explanation)

For those of you who write about the Wesley Clark/Convention issue, I
made
one change to my post that I sent you earlier. I have removed the
quote
marks around the four words "no reason to come".

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2008/08/obama_to_genera/

These words were said to me in my calls with General Clark's office --
twice
actually....but they were essentially short hand by the person to whom
I was
speaking who was interpreting for me the message that Clark's people
felt
they were getting from the Obama campaign -- which was a combination
of not
giving him anything to do and essentially telegraphing not to come to
the
convention

I was a bit surprised by the results of a poll put up @ firedoglake yesterday..About 10 VP choices. Clark won overwhelmingly with half. Folks like Hillary received around 9 percent. .. and she may have placed second.

I'm not a big fan of Clark, but I sure wish Dems in general (no pun intended) would treat republicans like that first and foremost, instead of folks like Clark.

Whoops.. I chopped of a part of my comment above.. The first point being the convention theme is "Securing Americas Future". Similar yes, but not the same. Steve never did correct that among todays kerfuffle over the change in quote.

Here's why I've never been asked to be a political consultant.

BIG -- and petty -- error on the part of Obama's campaign.

Gen. Clark puts McCain's mythical "military hero" status to shame, because Clark really IS one.

Clark's background and experience and intelligence and looks, frankly, puts EVERYBODY else who's involved in this election -- including the candidates -- to shame.

NOT to invite him to speak at the Democratic convention is insulting to the electorate, not to mention Gen. Clark.

Especially when you consider Obama's campaign was FINE featuring self-loathing hypocrite "ex-gay" gospel singer Donnie McClurkin to head their (mainly) black rally in South Carolina, despite McClurkin's revealed lurid sexpisode taped and published transcripts of his encounter with a paid male prostitute? ("Like fucking that pussy, baby?" It gets worse if you read ALL of it, A-T fans. Oh, Google it, blogsters. I don't make this up.)

So it's okay with Obama and his campaign managers to star a lying black gay man who likes to get fucked by male prostitutes, who claims he's "ex-gay" and preaches gay-hate and sings gospel to make a buck over his phony "rehabilitation" . . . but NOT okay to invite one of the most honored Generals in contemporary military history to speak at the convention?

Three words. WTF?

Look. I'm voting for Obama over McCain, no matter what.

But this is pretty ugly. Pretty low.

Ugly and petty.

What's your campaign afraid of, Barack, from Gen. Clark?

The fact that Clark's got more on the ball, in terms of education, history, experience and intelligence and international respect than either McCain OR Obama?

Obama can kiss Hillary on the cheek all he likes in photo ops. But SHE'S speaking at the convention and Clark's not?

Talk about offensive.

Barack -- if you're reading this blog (and I KNOW you are) -- YOU'RE the one in charge of your campaign. Please tell your minions they've fucked up royally and made you look like an envious, petulant jerk. Fucked up TWICE, at least.

Donnie McClurkin's worthy of a "starring" role in your campaign but Gen. Wesley Clark's not?

Is this how you're going to run your Presidency?

FOR THE LIFE OF ME I CANNOT SEEM TO REMEMBER JUST HOW MANY YEARS MR WAR HERO GEN WESLEY CLARK SPENT IN A VIETNAMESE PRISON. HE SERVED THIS NATION WITH HONOR, BUT NOT IN THE SAME CAPACITY AS SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN. I REMEMBER SEEING THOSE JUST RELEASED PRISONERS COME DOWN THE STAIRS OF THE PLANE, KNEEL DOWN AND KISS THE GROUND.
THERE WAS NOT A DRY EYE IN THIS NATION THAT DAY. HOW DARE YOU DENIGRATE JOHN MCCAIN'S SERVICE FOR THIS COUNTRY, AND THAT COUNTRY INCLUDES YOU. AT LEAST HAVE A LITTLE RESPECT FOR SUCH A MAN.

I don't know that I believe this.

I'm with Norma. I'm voting for Obama over McCain.
But it looks like the people putting together the convention are in over their heads. Catering controversy. Plans to invalidate tickets to the main event if they are scalped. (Wanna bet somebody invalidates the wrong tickets?) Quibble over a role call vote. Tell Wesley Clark there's not need to come to the convention. What else are these bright folks gonna come up with? Seems to me it should be a time when all good Dems should be headed in the same direction, toward a victory celebration the night of the first Tuesday in November. It's not happening.
And then I start having heart palpitations when I think about these same folks working somewhere in an Obama administration. How did we end up with TWO bad candidates?
PLEASE let me be wrong in my assessment.

Yeah, he came home to a faithful wife, and children, who had been horribly injured in a
car crash, and wasted no time getting into Million Dollar Cindy Cunt Five Steps Behind
panties.
So much for religious ideals...............
just another rwinger, but oh, so much less..............
if he calls me *his friend* one more time I will feel like buying a gun.

OK Large,

McCain graduated near the bottom of his class, and crashed more planes than anyone who wasn't the son and grandson of admirals would have ever been allowed to fly.

Clark graduated at the top of his class with know family connections needed to gain admittance to begin with, and went on to be a professor along his 34 year long military career.

McCain was taken prisoner and tortured in Viet nam.

Poor Wes just suffered nearly fatal wounds in Viet Nam.. so I guess by your assessment, we should have just tossed Wes into the Pacific Ocean instead of bothering to fly him home at all.

How dare Wes be smart, serve well, and be injured but not tortured and yet go on to rise to the top on his own merit! Oh the humanity.

God, all this talk about "war heroes."

Don't you just HATE hippies?

They were right about everything, all those years ago. No wonder they're so detested. Nobody likes people who're RIGHT.

Here's one, Jazzy. (And thanks for your musical links. You're an inspiration.)

She's smoked all her life. Still does. Totally politically incorrect.

40 years later, Joni Mitchell still delivers.

Enjoy.

Enjoy.

I'm so tired of reading un-Democratic crap about Obama that I could pull his hair out. MY party, my Democratic Party does not exclude people 'cause they don't fit into a one-size-fits-all mold. But evidently I'm living in some dream world where Kucinich sets the bar...where I use to be able to tell a difference between Republican crap and Democratic crap. Clearly I'm delusional...clearly I'm gonna vote for Obama regardless. But the Obama who kicked Hillary's ass 'cause he said he was different, 'cause he said he wouldn't play the same old political games, 'cause he said he wouldn't compromise his Democratic core...is a fucking illusion...or delusion, I can't tell anymore.

Everyone who is upset, please go back to the main AT blog page and hit the link to the source of this information. Multiple updates from Steve Clemons, the source, have "walked back" the initially startling statement that makes it seem as if Clark was mistreated by the Obama campaign.

I'm guessing Clark was NOT mistreated at all. Let's breathe for a minute and start over on this topic.

Yes, Obama should be more inclusive. He should do it the way McGovern did it, giving his acceptance speech at 3 A.M. with all of his scowling opponents standing behind him.

In Obama's defense, he has the Clintons speaking before him, which could be seen as a much bigger measure to be inclusive of all Democrats (since Clinton won half of them) than would simply having Clark speak. I guess Obama figured since he has the Clintons, he didn't need Clark, who would essentially perform the same service.

Also, it should be made clear that Obama has simply not ASKED for Clark to do anything. He has not said, "Stay away." It's not like he's spurning a wide-eyed, eager Clark.

That said: What. The. Fuck. Clark's awesome. I think he would have been the best VP, and I'm still a little angry about how Obama rejected Clark when Clark made the comment of McCain. But I think that was probably the right decision because most voters ....uhh...lack the ability to filter and analyze information.... and would fall for the indignant right wing machine's "Obama is unpatriotic" gig. Even though Clark's words were the truth.

We've all got National Enquirer minds these days. Picking everything apart as it comes out the chute. We've got so good at eating our own, we don't need the Republicans around any more. Now I like to think of myself as a big man, a party insider, up to the minute on every bowel movement Obama makes. But in truth I'm just a nobody sitting in front of a cheap Best Buy computer in my boxers.

We don't have a clue what's going on inside the Obama camp. And by now we ought to know he plays his cards very close to his vest and that's very smart with all the Republicans and half the Democrats gunning for him. The bottom line is we've had shit for 8 years. McShrimp offers 4 more years of shit. If Obama pulls Wesley Clark's head off and drop kicks it thru the goal post, I'm still voting for Obama.

I'm sorry John McCain spent 5 years in an enemy prison camp making 32 propaganda tapes and shitting in a corner of his cell. But that doesn't tarnish Clark, who was busy those 5 years running and shooting and getting injured for a war we shouldn't have been in and couldn't win even though we fed the beast 58,000+ American lives.

The 60s are set in concrete, we can't change a damn thing, but tomorrow and for the rest of our lives each day brings new possibilities. We've got to pick the best and the brightest and hope they're honest, more honest than we've seen in years. All we got on the horizon is Barack Obama.

Let John McCain take his last victory lap and reward him with his 11th house and all the Depends he can soil. Our past was glorious at times, the present is a FK'ing disaster, and we're going to have to try new things or live a miserable future, if we have a future at all. Take a tablet and relax and lets see what we see starting August 25th. Obama has outsmarted them all so far, have a little faith my brothers and sisters!

LARGEASSHOLE,
To add to your FactFree post, McCain as wing commander,
that means ordering a few other jet fighters around the sky,
has ZERO, notta, n-o command experience. That's what Wes Clark
was speaking about on the infamous TV show that got twisted
and 97% of the viewers had no idea what it meant anyway.

Tv is no place for an intelligent fellow these days unless they enjoy shout-outs
which intelligent people avoid...unlike Sean Hannity(Piss Be Upon Him).

Wes also remarked that "being a prisoner of war is not a presidential qualification."
True enough.
I know 3 fellows who were prisoners of war.
They didn't make statements against their country either. Well, not to fudge-
two prisoners I know were held by (1) Germans and (2) Japanese. The third was
held by the Viet Cong in a bamboo hutch. He was rescued and very infected with
enormous sores, still has scars and he will tell you his experience was not a qualification to
be president of these United States. He's helping host a party tomorrow, Ark Vets For Obama.

Think about it LARGEASSHOLE. Suppose you gave up your ChickenHawk ways and signed up
for duty...sent to Fallujah, shot at wounded and returned to the loving arms of your wife
and kids...then she leaves you...boom! you're busted. Now ex-wife is running for Senator.
How would you vote? Think John McCain...left his crippled wife and kids...Nice guy.
Think Donna Hutchinson...old Tim porking his secretary while Donna kept the farm running
(All Ark Politicians are farm boz or WERE farm boys, cept billl clinton) and raised a mess of
kids. Now Tim is up for re election..He divorced Donna the farm girl, part Indian...How would
you cast support?
Think McCain.
.

Wes is going to miss a good party. The Arkansas delegation will be staying with Hawaii and Delaware at a hotel twenty miles away from the convention center. It was the most remote location they could find.

I don't know if it's Obama himself, or his supporters and campaign handlers, but this crap of dissing folks who didn't support him or who irritate them, just reminds me of the hubis problem that is mentioned occasionally. Instead of fretting about events of the past and laying blame, they need to reach out, pull together and be inclusive. This is not a fraternity, it's the future of our country at stake.

"According to a Denver TV Station (HT Michelle Malkin), many of those who are expecting tickets for Barack Obama's Invesco Field speech on the final night of the Democratic Convention in the Mile High City are being told they have to do volunteer work for the campaign - this week - to qualify."

Michelle Malkin...YUCK... is this true?

[LINK] blue bejeeus

mag;
You wrote: "Multiple updates from Steve Clemons, the source, have "walked back" the initially startling statement..." and suggested we check the original link, so I did and guess what? I didn't find anything 'walked back', I found a lot of Obamaniacs livid that someone was reporting less than flattering news about The One and Mr. Clemons responded to every one of those baseless attacks and stood by the thrust of the original report.

Everything Obama is doing seems designed to piss off as much of the Democratic base as possible. Pretty soon his only supporters will be the blogger boyz and the seriously deluded (and some of the boyz seem to be opening their eyes).

I own my vote.

Clark is a military hero-----ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. There is a very good reason why obamayomama doesn't want him around---he is a joke. Every military superior that he had didn't have anything good to say about him. I would send him to Georgia. He has a real nak at getting a war started with Russia. He almost accomplished that in the Balkans.

Wes isn't the only one whose going to miss a good party. The entire county of Sebastian, both Republicans and Democrats are going to sit their conventions out. Oh...the kids are in school, it cost to much, I can't get off work.....that's right...not a single representative of the political parties of Sebastian county will be there to cheer on McCain or Obama.

"It's a tough economic time and not anything that somebody can pick up and travel and spend a week off work for," Jake Files (r) said. "We're committed. I think it's just a function of timing and other activities. I don't think anything more can be read into it either way."

Let me read more into it for you Jake. The Sebastian County Republicans don't like McCain because despite what McCain said at the Brokeback Jesus Love-in yesterday, they know he's an adulterous old windbag, rich enough to live in Sebastian County but won't, senile, and though his voting record is to the right of old dead Jesse Helms, they perceive him to be too close to Democrats.

The Sebastian County Democrats are worse than that...they aren't going to spend their hard earned money to go be in the same room with a Negro. They don't want to hear him and they sure as hell don't want their picture taken with him. In honesty, I don't think any of the Sebastian County Democrats have enough money to buy an airline ticket and their clunkers won't make it to Denver if they tried to drive.

And we wonder why our country is in such a FK'ing mess? Click my blue name (if you say that loud and strong it sound kinky)

DBI, most counties don't have anyone from their county going as a delegate. You'd have to go about 4 counties away from ours to find a delegate.

Let's see, Wes Clark reportedly won't be going to the Dem convention. Okay.

And pretty much every Repug in the western hemisphere won't be going to the Repug convention. Who wants to be associated with other losers? Can't blame 'em. Is there a worse brand in the world than being a Repug?

Yes, being a party of wimps.

=================================================================

I'd much rather be in a party that acts like Christ (pacifist), than goes around killing others.

=================================================================

Can you please define "wimp?" Then give me your address and I'll come over and kick your ass.

Sent this blogger story to a very sharp friend, got this back:

"Posted by Onyx488 Aug 16, 3:09PM - Link
FAKE!!!
I don't believe this Article. The Author is a staunch Hillary Supporter, just trying to stir up phony drama.
I don't believe Obama would be so dismissive of someone who has been such an Outspoken Supporter."

DAR
Actually, I read further down in the comment thread. The writer of the article denies he is a Hillary supporter but in several attempts to defend his conjecture that it was a direct snub, ends up admitting he made that part up. Here is what he says:

"What I know for a fact is that Clark has not been asked to play a role at the convention. If there is nothing for him to do there, then there is no reason to go. The Obama team did not explicitly tell Clark not to attend the convention -- they just have given him no role."

Bingo.

He just wanted a catchy title to piss people off and stir stuff up. Bastard.

.