meet wes clark

Meet Wes Clark - 1

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Meet Wes Clark - 2

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Meet Wes Clark

Your Speaker

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Where We’re Going Today

Agenda• Who is Wes Clark?• His vision for America• What He Stands For: The Issues• Why Wes Clark?• Final Thoughts• Q&A

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Who Is Wes Clark

His Résumé• Pre-Military• Military• Post-Military• Politics

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His Résumé

Pre-Military• Born 12/23/44 in Chicago as Wesley Kanne

Jewish father Father died when Clark was 4 years old

• Family moved to Little Rock, Arkansas at age 5 Raised as Baptist (converted to Roman Catholicism after

marriage) Graduated from public high school in Little Rock

– National Merit Scholar– Chose West Point over Harvard and Yale

» “…in the South, that’s just] what you do—you serve your country.”

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His Résumé

Military

• West Point First in his class 3 out of 4 years (2nd in 2nd

year) Overall first in class of 1966 Decorated in Viet Nam

– Purple Heart: wounded four times

– Silver Star

» Although wounded, saved his company

– Bronze Star

• Rhodes Scholar—Oxford University Master’s: Philosophy, Politics, and

Economics

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His Résumé

Military (cont’d)• White House Fellow—Office of Management and Budget

(OMB) under Ford administration• Commander, U.S. Army National Training Center• Commander, Southern Command (CINCSOUTH)• Director, Strategic Plans & Policy, Joint Chiefs of Staff (J-5)• Supreme Allied Commander NATO & Commander, U.S.

European Command (CINCEUR, SACEUR) Kosovo: Operation Allied Force—1999

– Victory without a single combat death

Led governments, Defense Ministers, and senior military officers of 19 nations to consensus

• Retired 2000 as four-star General

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His Résumé

Military (cont’d)

• Additional Decorations/Medals Presidential Medal of Honor (after

retirement)

– Highest American civilian award Honorary Knighthoods

– Great Britain

– Netherlands Commander, French Legion of Honor

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His Résumé Post-Military

• Investment banker—Stephens Group, Inc. (7/00-2/03)• Wesley K. Clark & Associates

Strategic advisory and consulting firm• Chairman, WaveCrest Laboratories, Dulles, VA

Alternative fuels for propulsion systems• Chairman, Leadership for America

Non-partisan Non-profit Educational organization

– Dedicated to fostering the national dialogue about America’s future

• Military/defense/security analyst: CNN, Fox News, MSNBC

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His Résumé

Politics• Announced for presidency September 17,

2003 “Drafted” by over 70,000 people Draftrooters pledged some $1.8 million before

announcement

• Scorecard: 3rd in New Hampshire After Iowa, finished ahead of John

Edwards 5/8 times Won Oklahoma outright, second in New

Mexico, Arizona, North Dakota

• 2006: Most sought campaigner of all Democrats Campaigned for 86 Democrats in 26 states

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His Vision for America

Now5 Years30 Years100 YearsThe New American Patriotism

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Now• Security

“I think that Americans today understand that national security is personal security. We need to devote the resources and the attention necessary, not only to attack Al Qaeda abroad, but to ensure that citizens in our cities…are safe and protected.”

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Now• Economic Stimulus

“We need to put the right kind of demand stimulus back into the economy—a stimulus that’s efficient in terms of how much it costs us, in terms of the deficit; a stimulus that’s fair in terms of rewarding the people who need it most, not the wealthy. And a stimulus that’s long-term, fiscally responsible in terms of not creating huge deficits that our children have to deal with or that we have to deal with ten years out.”

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5 Years Out

• Job Creation “We are shedding jobs day after day in this country,

because you can hire an engineer in Eastern Europe for what you pay for an engineer’s health care costs in America.”

“Companies that can’t raise revenues are … cutting expenses by outsourcing jobs.”

“We want to change the environment in which businesses can grow. We want small businesses to have opportunities for job creation, for growth, for investment, for development…That’s through the capital markets. It’s through tax incentives where necessary.”

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30 Years Out• Human Potential

“You look to thirty years out if you are talking about human potential, because the kids that are in school today are going to be educated—they are going to grow. Their most productive years are at least thirty years out.”

“At the same time…you have to start thinking about retirement, thirty years away. You have to think about health care”

“Those are the areas that we desperately need to work on today in this society.”

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100 Years Out• The Environment and the Constitutional Legacy

“If you look at a vision for America…you have to ask yourself this: A hundred years from now, most of us won’t be here. But the environment will be here, and the constitution—our legal architecture—will be here. And we have to start working now if we are going to produce the kind of environment—physical and legal/institutional—that we want to leave to our grandchildren. That requires work now. So I think we have to look after the environment.”[Soundoff with Sasha, WGCU Public Radio, 6/27/03]

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Four Pillars of the New American Patriotism

1. Principled Dissent “Criticizing the government isn’t wrong or

unpatriotic. It’s one of the highest forms of patriotism. We should embrace dialogue, dissent, and open debate, especially about the issues that matter most..”

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Four Pillars of the New American Patriotism 2. Service

“Giving back to our country is a proud American tradition. All Americans should serve in the Armed Forces or in their communities, volunteer or paid, part time or full time..”

Civilian Reserve – Citizens register talents, skills, willingness to serve

– Commitment for up to six months if called

– President could activate up to 5000 citizens to handle emergencies (floods, terrorist attacks, international crises); more if Congress approves

– Responding to call-up is voluntary

– Deploy domestically or internationally

– While on active duty: Civilian Reserve personnel receive stipend, health care, guarantee of return to job

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Four Pillars of the New American Patriotism3. Opportunity for All

“We must help all Americans reach their fullest potential. That means fighting for health care, education, and job creation..”

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Four Pillars of the New American Patriotism4. Responsible Global Leadership

“America stays strong not by building walls, but by building bridges and reaching outward. We must work with international institutions and use force only as a last resort..”

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What He Stands For: The Issues

Foreign and International

Domestic

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What He Stands For: The Issues

Foreign and International• Multilateralism vs. Unilateralism• The War in Iraq• The Aftermath• Diplomacy vs. Force• China

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The Issues: Foreign and International

Multilateralism vs. Unilateralism• Believes in working through allies and International Community

• Led governments and Defense Ministers of 19 nations to achieve consensus for Operation Allied Force

• “Shared risks, shared burdens, shared benefits—it’s not only a good motto for NATO, it’s also a good prescription for America’s role in the world.”

• “This is an administration which really hasn’t respected our allies. If you really want allies, you’ve got to listen to their opinions; you’ve got to take them seriously; you’ve got to work with their issues.”

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The War in Iraq• Did not like pre-emptive war

• Did not see “imminent threat”

“I think the conflict with Iraq was elective. It was purely elective, and it represented a big distraction from the War on Terror. It was not a reinforcement of it; it was a distraction from it.”(Soundoff with Sasha, WGCU Public Radio, 6/27/03)

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The Aftermath• “I was concerned from the outset when I talked to people on the

inside that they had done a lot of thinking about how to fight a war. They hadn’t done their homework in terms of what happens next.”(Interview on Meet the Press, 6/15/03)

• Three-pronged solution: Diplomatic, Political, Military — military only as leverage and always, always, always the last resort

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The Aftermath – Loss of Legitimacy• How did] we get our former legitimacy? Where does it come from?

“I think it comes from the heart of American institutions themselves. I think it's because we formed our institutions with the consent of the governed. We are guided by an adherence to our Bill of Rights, and at least in the last century, we've viewed our conception of mankind and our rights as universal truths. We've had them embedded in documents starting with the UN Charter and Declaration of Human Rights around the world. We've advocated the enlargement of these rights to all of mankind. And in many ways, not without exception, but largely we've acted consistently with these principles, and in so doing, we earned the goodwill, the good opinion - legitimacy - in the eyes of mankind.”

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The Aftermath – Loss of Legitimacy• How did we lose our legitimacy?

“First of all, we distorted, overplayed, exaggerated the threat. This was not a defensive war. It was an elective war…We pushed it…After we reached Baghdad, we failed to take due care to protect noncombatants and property…We violated virtually every principle of Just War doctrine. It's in Christian thought. It's in Islamic thought. And it's in the common sense of ordinary people all around the world, and we violated that.”

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The Aftermath – Loss of Legitimacy• How do we regain our legitimacy?

“Well, there are three elements here. First, we have to change some of what we're doing abroad. Second, we have to change some of our laws and policies at home. And third, we've got to make some inquiries and serve justice about past conduct.”

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Diplomacy vs. Force• War as a last resort

“[In Kosovo] we did choose force as a last resort…We didn’t use diplomacy as an afterthought; we used it as the primary effort to prevent war.”

“None knows better than the military leaders themselves the dangers of war; consequently, they are usually the last to advocate it.”(Waging Modern War)

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China - The biggest challenge facing the United States• Because of sheer size, China could threaten the

livelihood of Americans “The Chinese have at least the normal shaped

distribution curve of intelligence, which means that at least they have four times as many geniuses being born in China every year than in the United States simply because they have four times as many people.”

• China is not yet developing all that talent, but they are working on it

“With China’s astounding scale and market size come capital accumulation, great universities, great technology, and ultimately great weaponry – all of which could someday come back to constrain American freedom of action.”


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The Issues -- Domestic

Education Environment – A National Security Issue Jobs Economy and Taxes Reproductive Rights Gun Control Civil rights and Affirmative Action Patriot Act Patriot Act Homeland Security Energy Health Care Immigration

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Education• Fund All-Day Kindergarten

• Required pre-school for all 4-year olds

• Create World-Class System — Curriculum and Programs

• Support Special Programs — Music, Art, Athletics

• Expand Vocational, Technical, School-to-Work Programs

• Improve Student:Teacher Ratios (18:1 for grades 4-12)

• Staff Special-Needs for Demand, Not School Size Some schools need more staff than others of same enrollment

• Teacher Pay Commensurate with Value to Society

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Education (cont’d)• No Child Left Behind

Unfunded and poorly implemented Tests don’t measure individual success

“…administration has focused too much on narrow tests and punishments, and too little on ensuring that every child can learn and succeed.”

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Economy and Taxes• Growing Deficits

“ you look at the long-run health of the country and the size of the deficit that we’ve incurred, and a substantial part of that result of the tax cuts. You have to ask, “Is this wise, long-run policy? I think the answer is “no.”(Meet the Press, 6/15/03)

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Economy and Taxes (cont’d)• Tax Cuts

“I don’t like that path we’re on. I think we needed a tax cut to stimulate demand, but the tax cut we got is inefficient; that is to say, it didn’t get much stimulus out of a huge tax package. It’s unfair—it gave the majority of the benefits to the people who have the most already. We should have given them to the ordinary people, the working people who need the money desperately…[It’s] irresponsible to borrow money to give tax cuts to wealthy people.”(WBUR Public Radio interview, 6/19/03)

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The Issues – Domestic

Economy and Taxes (cont’d)• Favors progressive taxes

Those who benefit the most from society should contribute more“We’ve had a principle in this government for almost 100 years of progressive taxation…We believed in some degree of redistribution of income to ensure everybody had a certain safety net…a certain equality of opportunities. Government has a legitimate role in doing this.”(WBUR interview, 6/19/03)

2004 Platform: No taxes, no tax returns for family of four earning under $50,000

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The Environment — A National Security Issue• A Global Problem

Biggest problem for the next century “…human beings do affect the environment, and all

you have to do is fly along the Andes and look at the disappearing glaciers down there, and you recognize that there is something called global warming; and it’s just getting started as China And India [develop].”

“We’ve just got lots of things we need to do on energy conservation and energy generation, and especially renewable resources. The means are out there now to take a much greater percentage of our energy needs from the sun, from solar, and from wind, and even from wave action. And I would hope that we would move ahead in those areas much more rapidly than we have been.”[Soundoff with Sasha, GWCU Public Radio, 6/27/03]

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Jobs• Support Small Business

• Use Tax Incentives

• “We are shedding jobs day after day in this country because you can hire an engineer in Eastern Europe for what you pay for an engineer’s health care costs in America. …Companies…are cutting expenses by outsourcing jobs…We want to change…the environment in which businesses can grow. We want small businesses to have opportunities for job creation for growth, for investment, for development. We want to strengthen the ability of this country to create jobs. That’s through the capital markets. It’s through tax incentives where necessary.”

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Reproductive Rights• “I am pro-choice”

(Crossfire, 6/25/03)

• Supports rights of women to make their own decisions

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Gun Control• Personally Owns Guns for Sport and Hunting

• Should be Governed by States

• Assault Weapons “I have 20 some-odd guns in the house. I like to hunt. I have grown up

with guns all my life, but people who like assault weapons should join the United States Army; we have them.”(Interview on CNN’s Crossfire 6-25-03)

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Civil Rights and Affirmative Action• Individual choices across broad spectrum of issues

• “[In Little Rock] I saw first hand the racial prejudice, the civil disobedience, the intolerance… I've often gone back to that experience. It's something I've related to.”(Waging Modern War)

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Civil Rights and Affirmative Action (cont’d)• Supports Affirmative Action

“I’m in favor of the principle of affirmative action. Whether [the University of Michigan’s affirmative action plan] is the right plan or not, and whether that should be 10 points, not 20 points, whether it should be, let’s say, an income level cutoff there at which you don’t get the points if you’re above a certain income, you can tool with the plan. But … you can’t have a society in which we’re not acknowledging that there is a problem in this society with racial discrimination. There is, there has been and the reason so many of us filed [an amicus brief in support of the University of Michigan’s affirmative action plan] is we saw the benefits of affirmative action in the United States armed forces. It was essential in restoring the integrity and the effectiveness of the armed forces.”

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The Patriot Act• Should Be Re-Examined

“The Patriot Act ought to be pulled out and given a full sunshine review…You’re not going to win the war on terrorism if you destroy who we are as Americans and take away our rights and liberties.” (WBUR Public Radio Interview, 6/19/03)

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The Issues -- Domestic Homeland Security

• A Global, Not Local Problem “The United States needs to keep homeland security and

the war against terrorism at the top of our list of national priorities; we can’t be distracted by other entanglements, including Iraq, that might divert our attention.”

“Terrorism is a multilateral problem. You cannot defeat it in one nation. You need international police work, teamwork, international harmonization of laws against terror--a whole series of things. [If] you act unilaterally, you lose the commitment of your allies to make it work. That’s the one thing that will kill you in the war on terrorism.”

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Energy• Balanced Policy

Emphasis on supporting renewable energy forms

Alternative energy sources (CEO, WaveCrest Laboratories)

“I am not one of those people who will rule out nuclear energy as a contributor to dealing with the energy problem. We’ve just got lots of things we need to do on energy conservation and energy generation, and especially renewable energy resources. The means are out there to take a much greater percentage of our energy needs from the sun, from solar, and from wind, and even from wave action. And I would hope that we would move ahead in those areas much more rapidly than we have been.” (Soundoff with Sasha, WGCU Public Radio, 6/27/03)

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Health Care• World-Class Health and Dental Plan

“The health and well-being of our active duty and military members is increasingly important as we face an increased military operations tempo with decreases in recruitment and retention. We have an increasing responsibility to provide a world-class health and dental plan, with uniformity of medical and dental benefits and standardized processes for beneficiaries as they move through the world.”[Joint Vision 2010 speech]

• Prescription Drugs and Universal Health Care “We have to do something to address the prescription drug needs of

our seniors; and we need to produce health insurance for all Americans. We’ll take a look at how soon we can do that and how.”[“Newsnight,” CNN, 9/17/03]

• Must begin move to universal, single-payer system

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Immigration• Comprehensive approach

Stronger border security Path to earned citizenship for undocumented

immigrants already in the country “I don't believe that people who are here should be

given amnesty, but I do believe they should be given a way to earn citizenship based on good performance and contributing to the American economy and the American way of life.”

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Why Wes Clark?

Winning in 2008 • Strongest national security/defense credentials of all candidates

(either party)

• Only one other candidate (either party) with hands-on diplomatic experience

• Moderate social/domestic views

• Strong on values, character, morals, faith, and family

Near Universal Appeal• Moderate/Embarrassed Republicans

• Democrats

• Independents

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Final Thoughts

Wes Clark on America• "Ultimately, your generation will have the decisive voice. You will

determine whether rage or reason guides the United States in the struggle to come. You will choose whether we are known for revenge or compassion. You will choose whether we, too, will kill in the name of God, or whether in His Name, we can find a higher civilization and a better means of settling our differences. And this is not a new choice, not for your generation - it is a choice that many others have faced throughout history. Only now, we can hope that with your help and engagement we can find a new answer.“ [Commencement address at Seton Hall University, May 13, 2002]

ELECT WES CLARK

Thank You!

Questions?

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