I make this impassioned plea under the influence of a rather strange and apparently drunken rant by Wil Saletan, who penned this after Al Gore gave his endorsement to Howard Dean.
And also because, as Democratic primary voters, this really is our last chance to put up a candidate who has the strength and momentum (a popular word these days, but I digress) to win the Presidency come November.
More importantly, I urge voters to put away the grief, drop Howard Dean, and vote for Wesley Clark, in an effort to unseat the apparently yet inexplicably insurmountable John Kerry, and win some states before March 2nd.
Being a firm Dean supporter up until this point, I’ve finally had to take a gander and decide that, for one reason or another, America is totally not ready for a Howard Dean Presidency. Those that are hoping for a possible insurgent with a fine gift for rhetoric and the ability to inspire the base like Howard Dean had best look elsewhere.
I won’t go into Wes Clark’s record, as it’s been discussed at length before. My big reason for getting into Clark is because I believe he has the ability to be an extremely effective President and Commander in Chief, and that the short time he has had to work out a sound and energizing domestic policy and platform has proven to me that he cares about these issues far more urgently than the clever sound bites of John Edwards or the incredibly insipid sound bites of John Kerry.
I’ll admit I’ve been impressed with Clark’s candidacy for a few months now, before I decided to jump ship on Howard Dean. I felt that, if Dean lost the nomination, Wes Clark would be a damn fine choice. And I still can’t seem to get over the fact that, even though I probably agree with John Kerry on more issues than I do with Wes Clark, if I hear John Kerry say “To George Bush, I say: Bring it on!” one more time, I’m going to get extremely annoyed and throw my hands up in the air and grumble about it all over again.
Hey, guys: Wesley Clark -smart, articulate, actually cares about the positions he articulates. And he’s already won one state in the South. What’s wrong with that?