Wesley Clark coming up on Talk of The Nation- Link

[bicentennial_baby]

http://www.kqed.org/index.jsp?flash=true

[w13rd0]

1. Thanks, listening now...

...n/t

[w13rd0]

2. Who is this speaking?

I don't think this is Clark. I thought this was supposed to be Clark.

[bicentennial_baby]

3. He's late

They just said he'll be on at about 25 after

[Jackhammer Jesus]

4. Someone called about the Pristina incident.

They're putting him on hold so he can ask Clark himself.

Apparently Clark's supposed to be calling in around 10 minutes.

[bicentennial_baby]

5. Clark on now

:kick:

[TheWebHead]

6. archive link of the interview

41 minutes:
http://www.npr.org/lightningcast/index_real.html?audioURL=http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=TOTN&showDate=22-Dec-2003&segNum=1&mediaPref=RM&getAd=1&ext=.rm

[DrBB]

7. DAMN, that was good

The one that impressed me the most was the answer on the economy. Neal Conan set up the question with everything Karl Rove could have wished: Stock market booming over 10,000, 56,000 jobs last month. Isn't Dubya doing the right thing?

And Clark SLAMMED it.

Tax cuts didn't help regular people. Stock mkt booming but jobs? 56k jobs sounds fine until you consider it would take 250,000 a month just to get even with what we've lost since the Chimp took office. And then a really nice kicker of a touch: "Anyway, it's not numbers where you see the pain of this economy, it's people's faces." And talking about all the highly-skilled (and not-so-highly-skilled) people he's seen laid off and out of work for a year or more, during his campaigning. Not just laborers but software engineers, managers, and so on.

Just a solid, beautiful answer, only one of many during the program. Another bit I especially liked was when a woman called who said a lot of nice things about his resume and qualifications, but then wandered into some politically dubious territory talking about how people are such idiots and why can't they appreciate someone as brilliant as Clark is. He hit just the right note, coming back with, "Thanks for your compliments, but you know, you have to speak to everyone, I love talking to ordinary people" etc. I think it's one of his greatest strengths that he seems genuinely at ease talking to people of working class as well as ivy league backgrounds. Hey, he ain't no senator's son--he comes from lower middle class, not a privileged frat boy pretending to be a rube.

THIS is why I support the guy. I worried when he didn't come out as strong at the beginning of his campaign as I'd hoped--I'd heard him speak, and was surprised he didn't have the same charge right at the start, and had some missteps. But it really feels like he's hitting his stride now. This interview was great.