Comments on "Confirmed: Wesley Clark is an idiot"

On June 30th, 2008 at 9:01 am, Lifeofthemind said:
Goldwater Knight
Did you count your fingers afterwards? Met him once myself. Possibly the only unimpressive flag officer I’ve ever met.

On June 30th, 2008 at 9:15 am, Lifeofthemind said:
thefoundingfathers said:
Wesley Clark is the poster child for the saying we all rise to our own level of incompetence. In Mr. Clark’s defense he has risen at least five levels above his own level of incompetence. This shows how desperate the Democrats are to have people with miltary experience to put out in front of the American public. They seem to attract the Lt. Cmdr Queeg and Captain Binghamton types.
Now that isn’t fair to Captain Binghamton. I’m confident he turned out to be a pillar of yacht club society. No doubt he mixed a good martini too. Clark on the other hand is as Dr Johnson put it, “a most unclubable man.”

On June 30th, 2008 at 9:32 am, Lifeofthemind said:
Which scenario is better?
1) Obama uses and discards every element of the democratic coalition, ensuring that they are all so angry at him that he goes down in flames.
2) Obama ties himself to a shameless suck up incompetent like Clark, allowing McCain to demolish him so he goes down in flames?

On June 30th, 2008 at 9:50 am, Lifeofthemind said:
It is my belief that McCain was a success as a squadron CO. Readiness etc. dramatically improved under his command. Finances were straightened out. Also he has shown a fine sense of how to lead the troops in other ways. The story is that when he first ran for Congress he went up to the warehouse workers at his Father in Law’s beer business and said, (once again “Or words to that effect.”) “Either help get me elected or I will work here and I will be such a sonofabitch that you will all be sorry.” It worked, they helped, he got elected.

On June 30th, 2008 at 11:06 am, Lifeofthemind said:
prendad
Wish I could get back on active duty. Be happy to go in as an Ensign even or CWO, hate to think I might miss the show at Abadan when the balloon finally goes up.

On June 30th, 2008 at 11:07 am, Lifeofthemind said:
Cue claims of “Swiftboating” from Clark
1…2…3…?

On July 1st, 2008 at 11:32 am, Lifeofthemind said:
SoonerMarine
Well said. Your experience is part of the puzzle. It does not invalidate other anecdotal evidence that the man was a poor manager or leader before other people. Obviously we are talking about shades and gradations as well as a weakness to succumb to his worse instincts that may have grown over time. One reason that intelligent and hard working people, and I believe that Clark had those basic gifts, need to be careful not to act like a horse’s ass is that doing so deprives the society of the benefit of what they can contribute. In other words Clark screwed up first by getting a reputation as excessively manipulative and political (among an admittedly highly competitive group of officers) and second when in a combat leadership role in Bosnia and it cost him his job and made him ineligible for elective office. His frantic efforts to keep inserting himself into the public debate only compounds the problem. There is a reason that most retired senior officers sit on boards and play golf. Being a public person is with rare exceptions frowned upon as contrary to a warrior’s code in a democracy.