I'll be honest about Clark. ...I fear he is an "insider outsider." [View All]

[Armstead]

I like the General. He is 900 percent preferable to Bush. I admite his fundamental decency and his quiet strength. So do not take this as a slam. It is simply my thoughts, and why I can't get enthusiastic about him at this point.

The fact that he is not a Beltway Boy gives him the aura of an outsider, Jimmy Stewart coming in to clean up the mess. But I fear Clark is too much like Bill Clinton and the DLC in the wrong ways.

That is, although he is a newcomer to politics,he is a corporate centrist "new Democrat." His advisers, supporters and his involvement in the corporate sector seems like his message and policies will be more of the same old wine in a new bottle.

The horrors of free trade and the hollowing out of America? Corporate incentives and training. Huh? That's a band-aid. Robert Rubin as an advisor. More "Growth is the only goal" brand of Greenspan economics. If it's good for Corporate America it's good for everyone. Nope, that's Republican.

I also am botehred by his early unwillingness to come out as a Democrat before he ran. And his past support for Republicans, especially Ronald Reagan. Unless he has really changed his stripes since then, I find it hard to see him as a liberal Democratic populist.

Okay I know Howard Dean is actually a moderate too, and in some ways more conservative than Clark. But still, I think Dean has developed an awareness of the need for real change in the status quo.

He understands why many liberals and progressives are not only pissed at Bush, but the enabling behavioor of the corporate Democrats who have lost touch with the grass roots.

Like I said, I will support Clarek if he is the nominee. But I fear that if he wins, the liberal impetus in the Democratic Party will be sent back to the starting block.