My heart aches for Wes Clark....what must he be feeling today??

I watched so many of the people he put WesPac money and his efforts behind go down to defeat.

I hear his words about Bush's failures, his passionate efforts to set this country on the right course.

Frankly, I'm about to tear up thinking of Clark and how HE must be dealing with this.

Damn.

By touting his military experience? The GOP had already begun to work on that one during the primaries by saying that he was not a soldier's general and that he was a little "off".

By taking Arkansas? Like Gore took Tennessee and John Edwards took NC.

By being a positive, shining light? That doesn't work in this age of darkness.

While I love the general, he would have fared as poorly as Kerry - if not worse due to his inexperience in politics.

why not?

Clark worked hard and we appreciate his efforts.

I think, like most of us, he genuinely believed that Kerry was going to pull this off.

I always felt that Wes, among all the other candidates, was the one who truly fully understood what this regime represents and what it's "reelection" would mean for the future of American Democracy.

Wes poured his heart and soul into trying to get rid of Bush, with no hope of getting anything for himself in return.

I hope that he will send a message to his supporters soon.

(I think he really did make a positive difference. He was just limited in what he could accomplish with the platform from which he was working. He would have been far more effective in the role of running mate.)

Kerry talking about domestic issues in detail & skimming the top of war topics as Clark goes more into detail about the war & ripping apart Bush on it. Oh well...wishful thinking now.

Clark was my guy, but he couldn't have saved this election; it's obvious now that the fix was in even before Kerry was nominated. Whether it would have been Kerry/Clark or Kerry/Edwards or Clark/Somebody or Edwards or Gephardt or Kucinich or Dean or any combination of any of them -- the result would have been the same. All of the candidates shared the same characteristic: they are Democrats, and that was enough. Bush and the radical Right would have demonized any of them as a gay-loving, gun-confiscating, baby-killing, Jesus-hating liberal freak who'd raise your taxes, sell porn to your children and let Osama Bin Laden walk in your front door and bugger your Cub Scout troop. And just about half of the people in this country would believe it. Throw in the dirty tricks aimed at suppressing the minority vote, and possibly some BBV funny business, and it's all over. The outcome would have been exactly the same.

excuse the sarcasm

i liked wes and considered backing him in the primaries. but i don't think he would have done any better against the mafia. they would have used some other bag of dirty tricks.

if we start NOW, the war and wars to come may be such disasters by 08 that Wes could be the savior. and he's gained experience from this campaign that could make him a fierce challenger in 08.

i wish we would not play the "X would have done better" game here. what's the point? Kerry was our candidate, he fought hard, and he lost. Blame the Bush mob, blame the idiors who voted for him, blame even mismanagement in the Kerry campaign -- although all campaigns make mistakes and they were not terrible. but what good does it do to wish we had run someone else?

we need to move into stage 2 here: coalescing into a group with a shared rage of purpose. let's not beat each other up. i can't take it, personally.

rcm

in obtaining victory next time. where did we go wrong? what issues did they beat us on? what parts of the country did they continue to beat us up in? where did we improve?

Next coming up with who could have helped us in those areas?

And then move to help that person get elected.

All in the process of beating them badly next time!

And they used him to kill us.

But between the presstitutes in the media and the BBV, this election was sealed for Bush.

The candidate would have made little difference. It might have been harder to tear down a general, but the media did a lot of it during the primary without a hitch. It might have been harder to hide an overwhelming Dem win (which Clark would have gotten) via voting scams......but they would have figured out a way.

Media and BBV are the cause of the lose for Dems in this election. Don't think otherwise......or else you are being naive. This is the richest country in the world. The sophistication in which it is being stolen from us day by day is stupifying. Orwell was totally 20 years early.

pulled out of the primaries.

I (then and now) would follow him anywhere that he wants to go.

Without a doubt, I am very upset over our loss to Bush, but it has not come close to the grief that I suffered in February after our Virginia primary.

Wes spoke at our JJ dinner on Sunday before the Va primary, and I could see in his eyes that he knew the outcome. But he put up a great fight and I respected him more than ever for the struggle...and I was not happy with Kerry beating him that day but......

I came to really respect and love Kerry too.

But I will be a Clarkista forever.