General Wesley Clark on Your World with Neil Cavuto

January 24, 2007
Transcript by RegNYC

Neil Cavuto: Massachusetts Senator John Kerry announcing today that he will not be running for President after all. He was pretty good on the internet. We're at that point now where it's a bigger story when someone (laughing) says he's not going to be running for the White House. At last count, by the way, 20 hopefuls officially in or forming exploratory committees with more, I am sure, to come, and believe it or not my next guest could be why. You know, General Wesley Clark entered the '04 race late in the game when most of the money was already spoken for, but he did so well and startled so many skeptics so quickly that many have argued had he entered in earlier, it might have been a different scenario. Maybe, General Clark, I think others have looked at that and said, 'I don't want to make that mistake.' What do you think?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think the, the record of recent campaigns is that people like to get in early. They like to get the donor base established. They like to hire the right staff and so forth. I really am, am not into that. I, I'm a, more of a policy person, Neil, and, and what I believe is that you, you have- running is about carrying a message to the American people, and I think when I ran last time, it was a little bit early, I- it was, for people to understand what a disaster the President's strategy in Iraq was.

Neil Cavuto: But, but you know, General, people could agree or disagree with what you said then, what you say now, but I, I really think your, your campaign at the time - I think you declared in September of '03, so just months before Iowa effectively - and, and you created a great deal of buzz, but all the money was essentially spoken for and divided between the Howard Deans and the John Kerrys, to a lesser extent the, the John Edwards, and you really didn't have a chance. And I'm wondering whether other prominent Democrats this go round have said, 'I don't want to be out-Wesley-ed.'

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: No, I don't think anybody has used those (laughing) terms, but I think you're- You know, I, I think it's nice of you to say I created a lot of buzz when I came in. I, I was very happy. We, w- I went to 30 states in 90 days. We raised 20 million dollars. There just wasn't time to do everything that needed to be done, and I'd never had the experience of running before. So, it was a great experience for me. I loved doing it, but mostly it was about taking a message to the American People, and Neil, I would tell you right now if you look at the response to last night's State of the Union address, you look at what's happening in the United States Congress, this is not partisan. The American people have spoken. They have looked at it. We, as the American people, what President Bush said last night is, "Nobody voted to go over there and lose." That's true, but nobody went over there with the understanding that this was going to be the kind of problem that it's turned out to be.

Neil Cavuto: But let me ask you, General, regardless of views on the war - and I could speak to you forever about that - on this idea of 20 people already in the race or all but declaring that they're in the race and we have another couple of years to go, what do you think about that?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think, I hope a lot of the American people'll be interested in this. You know, not everybody in America follows Fox News or CNN or hangs onto what political reporters say, and when I travel across America, I'm always, I, I talk to people in every airport. I travel by public transportation, and people come up to me all the time, and a lot of people just, they don't follow politics that closely. So, I think if people get energized by the fact a lot of people are in the race, and people are saying, 'Gee, what makes them different? What are they saying?' I think that's good, because I think Democracy-

Neil Cavuto: Well, are you running? Are you going to run?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -is about that communication. Well, I haven't made a decision on that yet. I haven't said I won't run, but for me it's about the message. I'm very concerned about where this country's heading-

Neil Cavuto: Okay.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -strategically. We're not taking America forward the way we should be.

Neil Cavuto: Alright, General.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: We're bogged down in the Middle East, Neil, and I'd love to pursue the points you covered with Tony Snow on the economy.

Neil Cavuto: We will. We will. General, it's good to have you.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You can have me back on, and it's do it.

Neil Cavuto: Done done, you'll have to wear a pink tie though.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: (laughs)

Neil Cavuto: General Wesley Clark, thank you very much.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you Neil.