More on Clark

mid-morning on Friday, the 26th of September 2003 by Scott

Unlike Chad I’m not very familiar with Wesley Clark and most of what I have been learning about him has been acquired since the Summer when the “Draft Clark” movement popped up on my political radar screen.

In general I think that most military men make crappy presidents. Why? Because the greatest part of being a president is leading through consensus - and that involves a lot of compromise at times and stubborness at others. Military men may have the latter in spades, it’s the former that worries me. Generals are used to “chain of command”. From a General’s point of view in the Oval Office, a Senator is akin to a Colonel. The President therefore outranks him.

But try convincing that to the Senator during budget negotiations. The Senate is filled with 100 prima donnas who need to be stroked about as often as they need to be smacked. Then there’s 435 congress members, and more importantly, 50 governors. Governors are seriously outranked by the President you would think - until you read the Constitution. There’s this little clause that says that power not vested in the federal government is vested in the states. Doh! Sometimes the only leverage that the Federal Government has over a state is holding back federal highway funds. Not much of a threat, really, considering that Grey Davis is blowing a huge hole in homeland security by giving illegal aliens drivers licenses.

The job of being president cannot be pigeon-holed easily. Do CEOs make good presidents? Nope. Generals? Nope. Teachers? Nope. Truth be told there have been good former CEOs and Generals who have held the job, Eisenhower springs to mind, and there have been god-awful ones like Grant. It’s impossible to say who Clark would be most like. Grant whumped the South, but then blew Reconstruction and the Economy.

So don’t be lulled into the siren song of “He’s a General - he’ll make a great president.” There is no formula that guarantees success in the highest job in the land.

That said, read this Newsweek article on Clark. I think it says a lot about the man.