Your (almost) Daily Dose of Clark

This Monday, December 1st is the monthly Clark 2004 Meetup. In Denver, the Meetup will be held at the John Stewart VFW Post #1, 955 Bannock St in Denver (just north of Speer). 30 are already confirmed to attend, but 84 voted so it should be a good sized group. If you plan on attending, find out your precinct number ahead of time so planning can begin for the caucus in April. Denver residents can find out their precinct numbers here. Otherwise check your voter information card or contact your County Clerk. Also, they'll be holding a clothing drive to benefit soldiers recuperating at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. If you have any winter clothes, toiletries or international calling cards or want to get some, bring them along.

Clark participated in last nights DNC Debate in Iowa (transcript here). Not that I'm biased, but I think Clark came out the winner, and most of the MSNBC analysts agreed, including Jesse Jackson, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Howard Fineman. It's interesting to note that former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and Weekly Standard columnist Stephen F. Hayes thought Dean came out the winner. Take that however you like.

My favorite Clark moment came in response to the current RNC ad airing in Iowa which accuses "Some are now attacking the President for attacking the terrorists." Clark's answer: "I'm not attacking the president because he's attacking terrorists. I'm attacking him because he isn't attacking terrorists. And that's the problem with this administration."

His closing statement, also somewhat in response to the RNC ad, sums up why I think Clark is our best chance in the general election.

CLARK: Well, Tom, tonight we're in Iowa. But the real debate is not here. It's going to be a year from now with George W. Bush and we can already see the outlines of this debate.

It's going to be about the war on terror, foreign policy and who can keep America safe. And we see the ads trying to strip us of our patriotism and our ability to hold our president accountable for the mistakes he's made.

CLARK: Now, we know that we're not safer today and we know he's made mistakes. But we also see those ads.

And so I think the real question is before this party: Who is the person best able to answer the questions America will ask? Who can stand toe to toe with George Bush and argue foreign policy and security policy and the values that we, as Americans, believe in?

I'm the only person on the stage who's led major forces in an alliance in war. And I'm the only person here who's negotiated or helped to negotiate an agreement to end a war.

I am the candidate who can stand with George W. Bush and win this election.

On a side note, I was pretty impressed with Carol Moseley Braun's performance in the debate. I wish she had a reasonable chance, but she'll probably be out of money shortly. She's the kind of candidate that could be spending her limited campaign funds more effectively on an Internet oriented campaign, but a look at her website is a let down. Oh well.

Along those lines, it's time for the DNC to start winnowing down the field for these debates. How they do it is up to them, but there's too many candidates up there on stage, most of whom don't have a chance in hell of winning the nomination, let alone the general election.

Incidentally, the DNC unveiled a new ad featuring Ragin' Cajun James Carville and being that K-Street has been retired, it looks like that's the only place outside the talk circuit you'll be seeing him.