Clark on London bombings (Hannity & Colmes)
Video - Clark appears on Hannity & Colmes to discuss the London bombings. In the first part, Colmes interviews Clark, who points out that we need to use police work to determine who was behind it before we can tell if a military response is needed; that the group may be a copycat rather than actual al-Qa'ida so we need to deal with extremism and use diplomacy and outreach (which he notes that doesn't seem to be happening now); and that we need to concentrate more on homeland security, which we aren't doing. In the second part, Hannity asks some questions about WMDs - Clark says that we need to strengthen treaties and UN inspection regimes - you can hear Hannity trying to insert a comment while Clark rolls on with his list of what should be done.
Newshounds reviews Hannity's inability to reason properly, contrasting this with Clark's cleverness in making his points in this second part.
An even more detailed description and analysis, courtesy of Mitch Dworkin of the Clark08 email group, is in the extended post.
General Clark shined on Hannity and Colmes. Here is a summary of General Clark's major points that he made starting with what he said to Alan Colmes:
1) He first told Alan Colmes that the Brits have done a wonderful job as our allies and he commended them.
2) He said that a complete investigation of the facts of the London bombing was needed by police and law enforcement first before a military response.
3) He said that there are al Qaeda copy cat organizations and we do not know if there was any central direction involved in this attack.
4) He said that we need to take away the extreme terrorist ideology that God approves of terrorism and bombings. He said that is a responsibility of the Islamic community and must be done more at home and abroad.
5) He said that we have to invest more in homeland security and mentioned that we are about $100 Billion short on that here in this country while we have invested about $200 Billion in Iraq so far.
6) The last key point that he made to Alan Colmes was that you cannot depend on military action abroad (in Iraq) to insure that you do not have a threat at home!
This was the end of the interview with Alan Colmes. Now we go into Sean Hannity's loaded questions of his trying to justify what Bush did in Iraq. Hannity's whole line of questioning was about weapons of mass destruction and trying to justify the "wisdom" of why Bush went to war in Iraq!
Gen. Clark handled Hannity is a completely masterful way in my opinion. He did not play Hannity's game and get sidetracked into a debate about why we initially went to war in Iraq! Here are the main points that Gen. Clark made to Sean Hannity:
1) He mentioned a danger of local terrorist cells having the sophistication to do what they did with weapons of mass destruction such as the London bombings.
2) He made the best point to Hannity by saying that we need to talk about what we need to do NOW rather than why we went to Iraq!
3) He then went on to say that there are lots of things that we need to do to go after this and he named all of these things that need to be done right off to Hannity:
A) Strengthen nuclear non proliferation treaties.
B) Strengthen United Nations inspections.
C) Strengthen chemical weapons and biological weapons treaties and inspections.
D) Isolate rogue states.
That is where time was up and the interview ended. As Clark started mentioning this list in answer to Hannity's question about the "wisdom" of Bush going to war in Iraq, I thought I heard Hannity sigh in frustration under his breath. Please check the tape for that if you taped the interview! Hannity was not able to get another word in on Clark after Clark went down this list of things that need to be done!
Clark maintained full credibility and composure of himself and he did not let Hannity's stupid questions about trying to justify Bush and the Iraq war get to him. Clark turned everything that Hannity said into his own brilliant points and observations to the clear frustration of Hannity from what I could see!
This is why Clark being on FOX News is such as good thing. Clark had to have made a very positive and credible impression to the many millions of moderate and impressionable red state voters who happen to regularly watch FOX News!
I just wish that Clark had more time on FOX News to get his message across because this is the right message from the right person at the right time. I know for certain that the vast majority of Americans (most liberals, most moderates, and even many conservatives who are not neocons) would view Clark as being credible and would either support him for President or could easily live with him as being President in 2008!
Clark is above partisanship, he is completely credible, he does not mind if people disagree with him on issues and he will not question their patriotism if they do, and he stays right with the facts about what he is talking about. That is mainly why I see him as being extremely electable as being President in 2008 and is why I think that most of country would be happy with him as President. I definitely believe that Clark could unify the country and win back our world allies who Bush has lost!
It will be up to us to get Clark's message communicated to every voter in every state by about mid 2007 if we want to elect him President in 2008!
Getting messages like this from Clark communicated to all voters in all states and overcoming wide spread extreme right wing media bias against Clark from nuts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and the many more people out there in all 50 states who are just like them are probably our two biggest obstacles that we will have to overcome to elect Clark as President in 2008 if he decides to run again!
How I would love to see actors and entertainers like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity who really have only a surface level of knowledge on national security have to deal with Clark who is the "real deal" on national security in a real debate on an even playing field with a real moderator in public for all of America to see!
Clark would politely and credibly kick their butts all the way from here to Iraq if such a public discussion could ever be seriously arranged and he would win over many impressionable red state voters!
Please feel free to forward this on!
Mitch Dworkin
