Wesley Clark's Gerald Ford Moment

Reporting on the second debate between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, Time Magazine reported in October 1976:

Chopping the air with his right hand, Gerald Ford boldly declared: "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford Administration."

Incredulous, New York Times Associate Editor Max Frankel asked a follow-up question that offered Ford a chance to retreat, but Ford lowered his head and charged into a trap of his own making. By his reckoning, Yugoslavia, Rumania and even Poland were not under the Soviet thumb. "Each of these countries is independent, autonomous; it has its own territorial integrity."

On The Corner, John Podhoretz locates a a similar blooper Wednesday, leading him to ask:

Is Wesley Clark Not All That Smart?

This is a totally serious question. I know Gen. Clark was a Rhodes scholar and was Supreme Commander of NATO, but the once and possibly future Democratic candidate for president just said something on The O'Reilly Factor that might even cause eyes to roll at Daily Kos. He said it was silly to assume we'd be greeted as liberators in Baghdad. O'Reilly said, Well, we went into Kabul and were greeted that way. To which Clark responded, "Yes, but the Afghan people had been oppressed by the Taliban." O'Reilly then said, You mean people weren't oppressed in Iraq? Well, yes, there was unhappiness there, said Clark. Or he might have said there was some happiness there, I couldn't quite tell. Either way, Clark basically just said the people of Iraq weren't really that oppressed by Saddam's rule. [emphasis added]

This from the same man who knows all about those "New York money people":

"How can you talk about bombing a country when you won't even talk to them?" said Clark. "It's outrageous. We're the United States of America; we don't do that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the military option is off the table -- but diplomacy is not what Jim Baker says it is. It's not, What will it take for you boys to support us on Iraq? It's sitting down for a couple of days and talking about our families and our hopes, and building relationships."

When we asked him what made him so sure the Bush administration was headed in this direction, he replied: "You just have to read what's in the Israeli press. The Jewish community is divided but there is so much pressure being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers." [emphasis added]

The Democrats have already distanced themselves from Cindy Sheehan.
Can they afford to associate with Clark?

Also Check out The Amboy Times: Wes Clark Blames Jews

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