General Wesley Clark on Morning Joe
May 19. 2008
Transcript by Reg NYC
Mika Brzezinski: And here with us now General Wesley Clark on the set. Thank you very much. Do we- If you need to straighten out Mark Haines, we can talk about about that later.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: We should probably talk about business with him some time.
Mika Brzezinski: (laughs) Yes, we will. No, we love having Mark on the show. So, you are a supporter of Hillary Clinton. And I, you know, reading the Washington Post pouring through the papers over the weekend, they're reporting gale-force pressure for Obama to choose a Clinton loyalist - or Clinton herself - but a Clinton loyalist as a running mate. Would you agree to be Barack Obama's Vice President, even though you are a Hillary supporter?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think, I think it's just pres- i-it's presumptuous to be talking about that right now.
Mika Brzezinski: But I'm interested.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hillary's in the race, Mika, and I think she's going to do very well in Kentucky. I think she's going to do surprisingly well in Oregon, and-
Mika Brzezinski: I'm curious though.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And I'm, I'm just incredibly proud of the way that she has run this race.
Mika Brzezinski: General.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: She is so strong. She is so smart. She is so good with people, and she will be a great President.
Mika Brzezinski: Barnicle, help me out. I got to get the answer.
Mike Barnicle: Well, I'll tell, I'll tell-
Mika Brzezinski: How do I get the answer from the General?
Mike Barnicle: I-I-I'll help you out. I'll help-
Mika Brzezinski: The General!
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: There's no answer to this because-
Mika Brzezinski: (laughs)
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: There's no answer to this because-
Mika Brzezinski: Really?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -this race is a long way from being over.
Mika Brzezinski: Gosh, a lot of people see it differently, Sir. A lot of people see the math not adding up for Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama as of tomorrow night could clinch this thing literally with the numbers. And I think it's a legitimate question.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I just look at the passion that's out there. I look at the people who just respect Hillary Clinton so much and support her, and they are just as passionate about her as the supporters of Barack Obama are about him.
Mika Brzezinski: Hm.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And she's delivered. You know, she's been written off time and time and time again. I was there in New Hampshire after the Iowa vote and people said, 'Well, this is over,' you know. Suddenly, she comes back in New Hampshire. People said, 'Well, you know, she's not going to do that well on Super Tuesday.' She did. Well, but then there was Texas. Well, she won Texas, and she won Pennsylvania, and she won Ohio. And she, she won Indiana even though she had earlier been behind.
Mika Brzezinski: Yeah.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And she was 30 points down in, in North Carolina and narrowed the gap by about 50 percent. So-
Mika Brzezinski: Okay. But-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: She's a very strong campaigner-
Mika Brzezinski: But General Clark-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I think she's a terrific leader.
Mika Brzezinski: Listen, there's no question that she's a strong campaigner and there's no question that she has evolved in a way that has been really masterful over the past few weeks. But we have to look at the math and we have to look at what's happening in some of these other states. Barnicle, help me out, because-
Mike Barnicle: Well, le-le-let's approach it from another angle, General.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Okay.
Mike Barnicle: Does elective politics interest you at all?
Mika Brzezinski: (laughs)
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I-it's not about me. This is not about me.
Mike Barnicle: But it would be.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I'm in the business community.
Mike Barnicle: But it would be if they asked you.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I'm in the business community.
Mika Brzezinski: It would be if asked.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I think what has to happen here is the American people have to, have to be given the full opportunity. You can't imagine how powerful this election is out in states where people have never been given the opportunity to express their views in a primary when it mattered. I was in Indiana. I was in Ohio. I was in Pennsylvania. People are just so thrilled about the opportunity to have their voice heard.
Mike Barnicle: Okay.
Mika Brzezinski: Do you hear this?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Why do we want to turn this off?
Mike Barnicle: Alright. L-L-L-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It's a great thing.
Mika Brzezinski: General, you're still campaigning.
Mike Barnicle: L-l-l-let's swing it out of politics then back to particular area of your-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Yeah.
Mike Barnicle: -expertise. I was speaking to someone over the weekend just returned from fourth tour Iraq and Afghanistan - fourth tour.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Mm hm.
Mike Barnicle: How long does the next administration, no matter whether it's Republican or Democrat, how long is it going to take to repair the broken Army, the broken Marine Corps, the broken United States Navy?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think the-
Mika Brzezinski: Wow.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I think the, the, the Army and the Marines are under a lot of stress. On the other hand, they've shown an amazing resilience. The families, the, the soldiers and the marines it's no one would've expected a volunteer force to have hung with this policy this long, and I think the, there's a feeling among the troops that they're making progress. Now, the problem has never, in my view, in those conflicts never been the troops.
Mike Barnicle: Yeah, but f-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It's been the strategy.
Mike Barnicle: But four deployments, it's a, it's a killer-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It's too many.
Mike Barnicle: -for families.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Its too many, and somehow we've got to wind this down. And that's what Hillary has determined to do.
Mike Barnicle: D-do-do you think part-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: She's said within the first sixty days, she'll have the first brigade moving out.
Mike Barnicle: I-i-i's kind of, of surprising but not really, when you go around the country - you've been in many, many states - you don't hear people talking about the stress of three, four, five deployments because hardly anybody is serving.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That's exactly right, and I think, you know, it's one of the great, i-it's one of the things that really pains me. One of the things I love about it by the way is the troops are so well respected. When they come back and you see them in the airports and their uniforms on, people are proud of them and people thank them for it. But when it comes time to join up and put their children there, people don't provide support.
Mike Barnicle: Mm hm.
Mika Brzezinski: G-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I was out with a college group a month or so ago and, and told them that they should take a couple of years off from college and really make a difference. Stop talking about-
Mike Barnicle: Did you get booed? (laughs)
Mika Brzezinski: (laughs)
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: No, but they called their, I asked them to call their parents and tell them I'd have a recruiter up for them the next day. And a number of them called their parents, and they reported in the next morning's seminar what their parents had said. It was always like, 'Well, you know, you're too independent minded for the Army, but maybe the Foreign Service,' 'You know, this is not for you, because you're too' well, 'capable,'-
Mika Brzezinski: Yeah.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -'intelligent, talented, versatile'-
Mika Brzezinski: Aww.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -'I mean, too much of a future.' And until we can convince the American public and the young people that every American has an obligation to serve their country, I, I personally-
Mika Brezeinski: General Clark-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -won't be satisfied.
Mika Brzezinski: General Clark, Pat Buchanan has a question for you from Washington. Pat, go ahead.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Go ahead, Pat.
Pat Buchanan: Hi, General.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hi, Pat.
Pat Buchanan: General, let me ask you, President Bush has really been very, very tough on Iran, talking about the Quds Force. General Petreaus said they're murdering Americans.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Yeah.
Pat Buchanan: It looks like they're giving signals that the President of the United States may strike the Quds Force inside Iran between now and November. What would be Senator Clinton's reaction to that in light of the fact that she's talked about, you know, if Iran strikes Israel, they'd be obliterated and all the rest of it.
Mika Brzezinski: Yeah.
Pat Buchanan: Would she support that kind of strike?
Mika Brzezinski: Mm, good question.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think it would depend on, on exactly we had the strike and what else has been done. Hillary's been very clear so far in that we should have had a dialog in that region. This administration has done nothing but rattle a saber and talk tough and threaten. It hasn't really undertaken the kind of dialog that's required in the region, and I think that most of the Democratic Party would be a lot more comfortable with the kind of strength that President Bush is trying to convey, trying to convey, is he had balanced it with the kind of diplomacy and dialog-
Pat Buchanan: Mm hm.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -that's necessary to be a leader in the world.
Mika Brzezinski: Willy, go ahead.
Willy: General Clark, I want to ask you about something that made news last week, President Bush over in Israel talking about 'appeasement,' a thinly veiled reference to Barack Obama saying that he would-
Mika Brzezinski: Wow.
Willy: -negotiate with rogue states. Now you, in your work in Bosnia, had to certainly talk to some unsavory characters from time to time.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I did. I talked to the worst people in the world.
Willy: The worst people in the world and to great effect. What's your take on that? Is it naive to think we should talk to these people? Do you agree more with Barack Obama or do you see something-
Mika Brzezinski: Hm.
Willy: -in what President Bush has to say.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I-I don't know why President Bush would say something like that. I think it was outrageous that he would go before a, a group in another country and talk about American domestic politics like this. I mean, it's just not called-for, and the idea that any discussion with someone you disagree with is appeasement-
Willy: Right.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -is so simplistic. (Chuckles) W-we won the Cold War through a combination of strength and dialog. And finally President Reagan, who was Bush's great hero, sat down with the, with the leader of the Evil Empire, and I guess President Bush would have said that was appeasement?
Willy: Right.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You know, it just doesn't make any sense. It's just pure politics. It's hype. It's overstatement. It's not helpful. It's not leadership, and we were very disappointed to hear that kind of talk coming out of the President of the United States.
Mika Brzezinski: Yeah.
Willy: This is a man who knows.
Mika Brzezinski: He would know.
Willy: He sat a a table across from pretty ugly people.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, you've got to- Look, I sat with these people and I learned who they were and I learned what motivated them. And to be honest with you, it's one of the things that helped us succeed in the later campaign against Slobodan Milosevic.
Mika Brzezinski: Mm.
Willy: Mm.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And we, we had a 79-day war. We beat him. We broke his will. We got him out of office. We put him in The Hague. We got him on war crimes, and I testified against him.
Mika Brzezinski: Barnicle.
Mike Barnicle: Sat at a table with the worst people in the world?
Willy: Right.
Mike Barnicle: Pundits.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: (laughs out loud)
Mika Brzezinski: Pundits. There you go.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Now, don't be feeling bad about yourself.
Mika Brzezinski: Now you're here.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You must be getting a guilty conscience.
Mika Brzezinski: Face to face with Barnicle, my gosh.
(laughter all around)
Mika Brzezinski: Couldn't be more dangerous. General Wesley Clark, thank you so much for coming in the studio.
Willy: Thank you, General.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you, Mika and Willy.
Mika Brzezinski: And I'll get my answer. Maybe you'll come back?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you.
Mika Brzezinski: Okay
