Clark's Remarks Draw Closer Scrutiny (AP)

[dajabr]

CONCORD, N.H. Jan. 15 — Democrat Wesley Clark has largely cruised under the political radar despite some eyebrow-raising remarks that abortion should be legal to the moment of birth, the Sept. 11 attacks were preventable and lobbyists make America safer.
Far from the bickering candidates and media horde in Iowa, Clark has spent much of his time campaigning in New Hampshire he decided to bypass the early caucuses and his comments haven't drawn the same attention as his presidential rivals.

Until now.

As the race tightens in Iowa and New Hampshire, the words of the retired Army general are undergoing closer scrutiny and prompting criticism both from his foes and Republicans, who may fear the four-star more than Howard Dean in a general election contest against President Bush.

Democrats label Clark a closet Republican. Republicans call him irresponsible.

Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie traveled to Clark's home state of Arkansas Thursday and criticized all Bush's rivals but paid particular attention to Clark, whom he said has made "increasingly careless comments about the president."

More: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040115_1466.html

[Leilani]

1. Republicans are scared of Clark

And they should be...

He's their worst nightmare..

He is everything Shrub pretends to be..

[Democrats unite]

2. If Clark is considered a "closet Republican"...

Then I must be one also.

[Rowdyboy]

3. Hell, I must have been a "closet Republican"

when I voted for Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton and Gore then.... Damn!

[DancingBear]

7. Yes, and my working on the McGovern campaign

was actually a stealth vote for Nixon!

Rats, I've been "outed".

[Foswia]

16. Go join Bush-Cheney04 and take your Michael Moore with you!

No wonder the GOP fawns over Michael Moore! All you closet republicans need to show up to BC-2004.

Wow. I wonder when Dean folk will see how preposterous these charges of Republicanism are.

[Maddy McCall]

4. He did NOT say abortion should be legal to the moment of birth

He said that women should have the right to control their own fertility and that the law has no place in a matter that should be decided by the woman, her family, her god, and her doctor. He is correct.

[dajabr]

5. Somebody twisting a candidate's words?

Get used to it. I have almost a year of it. Welcome to life as the favorite.

[mzmolly]

10. Do you have the quote?

ABC claims:

Clark said he opposed any restriction on abortion, even up until the last day of a pregnancy.

The position you have reiterated is shared by all the candidates, so why would their be a flap over nothing?

[elcondor]

6. Gotta love the sweeping generalizations . . .

"Democrats label Clark a closet Republican. Republicans call him irresponsible."

Um . . . okay.

[mzmolly]

8. Clark supporters did you see these statments?

In an interview last week with the Manchester Union Leader, Clark said he opposed any restriction on abortion, even up until the last day of a pregnancy. That drew criticism from anti-abortion activists and prompted the campaign to say later that Clark had not intended to get into a debate over the timing of an abortion.

At a town-hall meeting in Hudson, N.H., Wednesday, Clark defended serving on corporate boards after retiring from the military in 2000 and registering as a lobbyist. "We were trying to make America safe. That's what lobbyists mostly do," Clark said.

I think his pro-choice position is a bit extreme when your trying to overtake Bush in the South. What say you?

Also, lobbiests make America safer? EEK!

Heck I'm pro-choice, but this is a major deal. I'd say this falls under the *gaffe* category.

[dajabr]

9. Gaffes and Waffles...

The waffle part was at the end of the article, I believe.

[mzmolly]

11. The media and the other candidates are gonna really go after him now.

:shrug:

[xultar]

13. You are right. I heard a sound bite of his

Abortion statement. I was FLOORED. To say the least. I don't think he meant for it to come out the way it did. But it did. He better fix it.

[jmaier]

14. Yep.

Saw them, thanks. I sure wish all of these candidates would stop being imperfect!

I'd also classify them in "campaign speak" as gaffes but I suspect they fall, like most gaffes, mostly below the radar screen of the average voter. I know that Wes Clark's published position on pro-Choice is in line with the other candidates and the majority Democratic party position. He'd probably be better off sticking to that language than trying to be more punchy for emphasis and opening the door to misinterpretation.

Thank heavens, we have diligant DU'ers here to capture every verbal miscue of any of the candidates.

[Rose Siding]

15. As important as the choice issue is,

what's swamping our govt is the lobbyist scam and revolving door in govt- *That*, imo is the crushing gaffe. I do hope he cleans it up and isn't really standing up for that system of govt influence.

[bain_sidhe]

18. It's the "gaffe" strategy of getting your message out

Ok, that might be stretching it... but notice that the media hardly ever covers a Democratic candidate unless it's to gleefully report a "gaffe." So, you make an outrageous statement, the media covers it and "forces" you to explain what you meant. I believe the actual quote was something like "Life begins when the woman decides" - which basically says, it's up to the woman to decide if abortion is the right and/or moral choice in any given situation. It's her body, right?

It's a thought, anyway. I mean, how many people REALLY knew he was pro-choice until he made that extreme statement? Now the statement is all over the media, and everybody wants him to explain it. Oh, gee, poor Clark has to explain that he's pro-choice. Again and again and again.

As far as the lobbyist statement... well, perhaps he was generalizing based on personal experience, and perhaps that was a mistake. I DON'T think most lobbyists are trying to make America safer, but many of the companies *he* represented *were* - they were new-technology companies bidding on homeland security contracts.

[bearfartinthewoods]

28. "We were trying to make America safe.

"We were trying to make America safe. That's what lobbyists mostly do," Clark said.

gee.....ya learn something new everyday.

[Killarney]

30. I have a problem with his abortion statement

I hope that he comes out with a different statement, or corrects himself. I'm as pro-choice as the next pro-choice person and that statement bothers me. He should have worded it differently. I hope that one doesn't catch on in the press. :(

[Rose Siding]

12. Lobbyists make America safe like

a big bad wolf playing Granny.

snip>
"We were trying to make America safe. That's what lobbyists mostly do," ...

Now I'm not a Clark supporter but I don't really believe he meant to make that point. I'll bet he corrects it or cleans it up somehow BUT it should be clear evidence to anyone that *any* Dem will be scrutinized and have certain phrases splashed across the news.

I *really* hope he didn't mean it.

[BootinUp]

22. I didn't have a problem with that

First, because I believe competition for Government contracts is a good thing. Second because the contracts that are awarded are for achieveing some public policy objective. If we are to blame lobbyists for wanting the contract, who are we going to blame when the objective is not achieved?

The downside to the lobbyist system is corruption, nothing that some term limits couldn't fix.

[Rose Siding]

24. Corporations/lobbyists are writing legislation

to their benefit. The corruption is so deep that I really doubt defending lobbyists is a winning strategy.

[Toucano]

17. Hmmm.

...but paid particular attention to Clark, whom he said has made "increasingly careless comments about the president."

Are those "increasingly careless comments" what have energized Clark's campaign with money and a rise in all the polls?

Keep being you, Wes! Don't let them stiffle you for speaking the truth.

[shivaji]

19. What are everyone's thoughts on the Drudge headlines?

Drudgereport.com is headlining general Clark's testimony
before the congress in which he unequivocally expressed
support for pre-emptive attack on Iraq to remove Saddam.

Is this a Drudge rumor or has anyone seen it in any of the
main stream nedia?

[Mattforclark]

21. The Columbia Journalism Review says it is utter nonsense

You can also read his full testimony, which makes his position very clear and very consistent, just as he says it is.

http://campaigndesk.org

...............

More about it - an excerpt

"Drudge is using the ellipse as a weapon, with malice aforethought.
Clark's statement that "Saddam Hussein is a threat" came from his opening remarks to the committee. An ellipse then carries the reader more than 11,500 words later into the transcript to a second quotation. Finally, Drudge uses the next ellipse to jump way back to the beginning of Clark's testimony. The effect is to make Clark's testimony sound more frantic than it really is and to incorrectly suggest that Clark had endorsed the war.

The deceptive reporting continues with two final excerpts. The first is drawn from a section in which Clark states that the use of force must remain on the table as a threat, but that all diplomatic measures must be taken before military action proceeds. Drudge's selective excerpt ends with Clark suggesting that the situation with Iraq has "been a decade in the making. It needs to be dealt with and the clock is ticking on this."

Drudge would like you to think that Clark's thoughts on the subject end there. In fact, only moments later, Clark clearly stated, "but time is on our side in the near term and we should use it."

Then Drudge leads into the final excerpt with the words, "Clark explained," implying that Clark's statements in the final excerpt modified his statements in the previous excerpt. Once again, however, Drudge is cavalierly skipping through Clark's testimony: There are 3,798 words in-between these two statements -- enough to fill four pages of Time magazine."

[windansea]

27. or you can read TPM

hmmm Drudge and Lieberman??

or Josh Marshall?

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[mikehiggins]

29. It is a Drudge lie, which is not the same thing as a Drudge rumor.

You can read the actual statement at any number of sites and on several threads here at DU.

Drudge's version of Clark's remarks are a contrived "edit" of the original smear sent out by Gillespies's RNC.

[maddezmom]

31. DRUDGE removed all the links today n/t

[MoonRiver]

20. I've got news for Repuke Clark naysayers.

Up until the last 3 months my husband and I have routinely been bitterly fighting about the Iraq war. I was adamantly against it, and he thought it was a great idea! Other than that position he's always been as liberal as I. Anyway, once it was clear that there are no wmd and that bushistas have been scamming the public for fun and profit he's turned 180 degrees on the subject. He now knows this war was bogus. If Clark said once or twice that war with Iraq was a good thing and then changed his mind, I can personally vouch for that particular phenomenon.

[elperromagico]

23. Did I miss something? Was 9-11 NOT preventable?

Conservatives sure seem to think they could have been prevented... But only by Clinton... Bush couldn't have done any more than he did. :eyes:

[Ksec]

25. Clark calls for criminal charges

against Bush for forcing the country to war
Sorry about the fox linkup
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,108577,00.html

[hellhathnofury]

26. Bout time. Share the love.