Gen. Wesley Clark speaks at Payne County Expo Center
Originally published in the Daily O'Collegian
Gen. Wesley Clark speaks at Payne County Expo Center
Dallas Hammer
Chief Reporter
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark said Democrats need to take power from the Republican Party because it has failed to meet the challenges facing America.
About 500 people attended a Democratic fundraiser Thursday night at the Payne County Expo Center to hear Clark.
Clark, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, criticized Republican leadership for its response to national security threats.
“Our fighting in Iraq has actually made the terrorist problem worse,” he said. “We’ve lost support. We’ve alienated longtime allies around the world.”
Additionally, the Bush administration has compounded America’s economic problems, Clark said.
“It’s only the people in the upper income brackets that have really done
better in this economy, and we’re doing this by running a deficit in our budget of $300-400 billion a year, which is being financed by China,” he said. “You can only run up the checking account balance, overspend on the credit card, or sell bonds for so long before finally somebody says, ‘What are you over there producing?’
“I happen to believe we can handle these problems; however, our president hasn’t given a strategy,” Clark said. “He doesn’t have a clue. He is lurching from crisis to crisis, from photo op to photo op.”
President Bush’s response to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was an “oppression of incompetence,” he said.
Clark used republican leaders to characterize republican politics.
The Security and Exchange Commission investigation of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s financial dealings and Frist’s defense of pharmaceutical companies make Clark worried about Senate leadership, he said. Clark also said Tom Delay, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has “done some terrible skullduggery in Texas and across America.”
Additionally, Clark said sources claiming to have “inside information” told him that Bush administration officials could be charged with crimes in connection with the publication of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plane’s identity.
“They (the sources) told me there was a serious possibility that not only will Mr. Cheney’s assistant Scooter Libby be indicted, but maybe even Karl Rove,” he said.
Clark said the first step in addressing the country’s problems is getting democrats back in power.
But for this to happen, democrats must address the public’s skewed perception of the party.
“We are the victims of 20 years of negative campaigning and negative imaging against us by the other guys, and it’s time to set the record straight,” said Clark.
Clark outlined the misconceptions about Democrats’ stance on three issues: family values, faith and service. He then called on the audience to help correct public perception.
Whereas Republicans view family values in terms of sexual issues, such as abortion or homosexuality, democrats focus on more important values, Clark said. These values include jobs, health care, and education.
“Without those, you can’t have a family,” he said.
Clark said the Democratic Party was a “party of faith.”
While Democrats followed biblical teachings by treating everyone equally, the Republican Party operated on fear, he said.
“They’re afraid of people that don’t look like them, don’t talk like them, don’t go to the same church,” Clark said. “Democrats are about courage, and facing up to challenges and solving those problems.”
He said Republicans have tried to co-opt the U.S. flag as a symbol of their party and have implied Democrats were unpatriotic.
“It is wrong and we’ll fight on that issue,” Clark said. “We love this country, and we fight for it and we believe in it.”
Clark walked to the edge of the stage and held up a large American flag.
“This is our flag,” he yelled.
The audience reacted to Clark’s emotion with a standing ovation.
In conclusion, Clark said America needed improved relations with China and less reliance on imported oil.
