Tavern on the Green, New York City

I arrived early. So, not many people were there, but it filled up quickly. I walked laps around the restaurant until I started recognizing people. My god, did I start recognizing people. Jack Murtha was the first face I recognized. Then, of course, Charlie Rangel arrived. Then I noticed Eric Massa. A crowd began to form in one spot. So, I went over to see what was going on and saw Donald Trump and his daughter. I noticed a lot of local people: Christine Quinn, New York City Council speaker and my City Councilwoman; Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer; NY Attorney General and future Governor, Elliot Spitzer; Former Governor, Mario Cuomo.

General Wesley Clark at the Rodman and Renshaw Investor Conference
Question and Answer Session
June 19. 2006
transcript by Reg NYC

Questioner: (inaudible)

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Not until we get an effective exercise program that identifies critical needs. Until that's done and has legitimacy, people won't feel comfortable committing the money to programs. They, they just- I mean, I've done a lot of work with DHS too, and it's an extremely frustrating environment. I always tell people who come to me who want me to introduce them to people in DHS, I say, "I'll be happy to, but honestly you should avoid the government at this point as a customer, if at all possible." It's, it's just extremely difficult for companies to get these government contracts in anything other than the Iraq circumstances with rapid turnaround contracts. DHS is tough to work with. That's- they, they don't have a good way of prioritizing, and they won't get a way of prioritizing to break the political process until they do exercises.

General Wesley Clark at the Rodman and Renshaw Investor Conference
June 19. 2006
transcript by Reg NYC

John, thanks very much for the kind introduction and the opportunity to be with you all at Rodman and Renshaw. I really like them, and I circulated a little bit through the conference today. Didn't John and the guys from Rodman do a nice job?
(Applause)
I'm really happy to be here. I was really excited to think I had the opportunity to speak to this group, because you're a very important group. But I got to say, first I have to give a political disclaimer here. I don't want to talk as someone who is, who has- I don't want to talk as someone who might be running for office. So, you know, what I've said is I'm only interested in 2006. I can't change history. I did run in 2004, but I'm here on a professional basis. I have a body of knowledge I want to share that experience with you and then, and, and lay out just a few simple ideas, and I'd love to hear from you all about what might be of interest to you.

Eric Massa in NYC
June 19, 2006
transcript by Reg NYC

I uh- How do you follow in the shadow of that? Well, you don't, except to- first allow me to express my gratitude and in no particular order except I think the most important first, because here as a representative of my family, of my wife, of those back in Corning who have stood to help me, I have here today my 15-year-old daughter, and if you'd please join me in (drowned out by applause). I've been honored to have the support and the endorsement of some incredible, incredible people, but in my life, the endorsement that counts the most is that of my family, because it is to them to whom I turn to have given me strength. You know, I was the first individual, man or woman, Republican or Democrat, to declare my candidacy for the 2006 House election cycle. And I did it the day after President Bush was re-selected, because I just couldn't take it anymore.

General Wesley Clark at the NYC fundraiser for Eric Massa
June 19, 2006
transcript by Reg NYC

Jacques, thank you so much and thanks to all of you who helped put this event together for my friend, Eric Massa, the next Congressman from the 29th district.
(Applause)
Now, I want to ask all of you that are sort of lurking back there to lurch forward and lurk up closer here. (laughter) So that we have a little bit of, you know, like a coach's huddle.
(laughter)
Now look, we got some serious work to do for this country, and that's the truth. I don't want to talk about, you know, in terms of sort of a rabble rousing political rhetoric. I think the- (disappointed crowd noise) No, I think facts, the facts speak for themselves, and when you see that facts, if you're not roused, then there's something missing in your heart. I mean, really. You see, if you look at what's happening in this country, we're engaged in an endless war for political purposes. There hasn't been anything this nefarious done in the United States of America since the founding of the Republic to the best of my knowledge.

Crooks and Liars

October 24, 2005
Transcript by Reg NYC
Thanks to Blah3 for a little help.

John Amato: This is John Amato from Crooks and Liars, and I'm joined once again by very special guest. Please welcome Mr. General Wesley Clark.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: John, I'm Happy to be with you. I hope your listeners can hear us over the noise of the Chilis 2 by gate 42 bravo in L.A...

John Amato: ...Faced many battles before and you're facing another battle. How has it been for you to be on Fox News as their analyst?

Given on September 12, 2005. Transcribed by Reg

I'd love to hear from you all. We've got a couple of students with microphones, and if you like to ask a question or offer a comment, please...(instructions for questions).

Young woman: I agree with you about talking to other countries, and I think that's a great idea, but how do we go about talking to other countries when, granted I'm not very political, but it seems to me our own country is becoming increasingly polarized in our beliefs among ourselves. If we can't have a united idea in our country to any extent whatsoever and we're always fighting each other on ideals, then how are we supposed to take other countries and effect their ideals when we can't even have a united front with ourselves?

Given on September 12. Transcription by Reg.

And finally, we've got to pay attention to what's happening here on the home front. Yes, we've got a Department of Homeland Security, but we've never put out standards that distribute the effort between government and industry - the petrochemical industry for example. What's the standard? How many guardsmen do you have to have? What kind of protection do you have to have? How do you deal with the threat? What kind of security do you have to have? What's the standoff distance? We haven't told industry that. We're waiting for industry to discover and industry can't, because security takes away from the bottom line. And so unless everybody's on the same playing field everybody undercuts what they have to do to secure their own facilities. It's just the nature of private enterprise. So we've got to have some government leadership in this. We need to put more resources into homeland security, and that's clear from the response to Katrina. We need better training exercises. We need stronger control of the border. We need to field some of that new technology. We need a real civil defense organization in America. Every American neighborhood should have a place in the civil defense organization, so that if we have to do an evacuation we don't leave 80,000 people behind and nobody knows who they are or how to take care of them. We can do better than that in the United States of America.

Given on September 12, 2005. Transcribed by Reg.

Number 4.
We've got to have a new framework for US security. We have no national strategy for the United States of America. That's the simple truth. I was talking to- in the elevator -to Dave on the way down. We both are products of something called the National Defense Education Act, passed in 1958. Many of you are too. Because in this country after the Soviet Union launched the first Sputnik, we realized that we need to keep up with education and we put a lot of extra emphasis on education. The we changed P.T., physical training, in the United States. John F. Kennedy pu a new American physical fitness program in. We worried about nutrition and advanced technology. It all was designed to help America win the Cold War, and when we won the Cold War we lost our strategy. There's no organizing principle for what we're doing in the world today. We took advantage of a global opening of trade, technology, communications. We created 22 million jobs during the 1990's. It was unprecedented prosperity, but we had no national strategy. I was a senior officer in uniform. We committed the United States more in the 1990's than we ever had since the Vietnam war. We delivered relief supplies in Rwanda.

Given on September 12. Transcribed by Reg.

Third thing: We've got to deal realistically with Iraq.
We cannot continue to stay the course. The Bush Administration, in my view, is making the same mistake we made in Vietnam in the late 60's and early 70's. They're saying it's about resolve. They're saying it's about American will power. It isn't. It's about having a correct strategy to persuade other people to help us solve the problem. The mistake the administration made in the 1960's and 70's was they tried to solve Vietnam militarily in isolation from all of its neighbors. The Johnson Administration and the Nixon Administration couldn't quite face the fact that it was Russia and China providing enormous support to Vietnam. 200,000 Chinese manned the Ho Chi Min Trail on logistics. 40,000 Russian specialists manned the anti-aircraft system. And so we tried to just solve the problem of Vietnam and we failed.