Is Clark a working class hero? Is a working class hero something to be?

[billbuckhead]

Just wondering? I'm sick of Ivy leaguers always being assumed as smarter. Sorry if it sounds like prejudice, but I want a change away from Harvard and Yale.

[Wonk]

1. He's a Rhodes Scholar with a Masters in Philosophy, Politics and Economics

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Wesley+Clark%22+%22Rhodes+Scholar%22+Oxford

[MoonRiver]

2. I believe Clark's father, who died when Wes was three, was a professor

or lawyer. His mother remarried and moved to AK. I think they were somewhat poor. Clark is definitely a self-made man. He's incredibly brilliant and became a Rhodes Scholar, was first in his class at West Point, shot up through the military, and p.o.'d the average dimwits in the military establishment because he was so smart. He's had an incredibly productive and very fulfilling life, including a great marriage and child. He's running for president from a sincere desire to save this country from the nightmare being perpetrated on it by you know who.

[Jerseycoa]

4. His father

was a Democrat in Chicago. When he died, Clark's mother took him to Arkansas to live. She remarried. They were never well off.

More:

A graduate of Chicago-Kent School of Law, Ben Kanne served as an assistant city prosecutor, attorney for the Chicago Sanitary District, and then, for 17 years, as assistant corporation counsel, which was a senior position in the city's legal department. Notably, the Chicago Bar Record says that Kanne was "very active in local Democratic politics, and at the time of his death was secretary of the Fourth Ward Democratic Organization."

Ben Kanne was a delegate at the 1932 Democratic National Convention and -- unlike his son -- appears to have been a lifelong party stalwart. Kanne was also a member of a reform synagogue called the KAM Temple and a member of the Jewish War Veterans. (Kanne was in the Naval Reserve but did not see combat.)

Boston Globe

[billbuckhead]

6. Whooooooooa, Clark's biological father was a Democratic politican!

I didn't know that! Learn something every day. I heard Clark was a factory workers son. <http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Clark>

[Jerseycoa]

7. From that Wikipedia Link

People always ask about this:

"From 1997, he was head of the U.S. European Command (CINCEUR), responsible for about 109,000 U.S. troops and all U.S. military activities in 89 countries and territories of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. As Supreme Allied Commander (SACEUR) he also had overall command of NATO military forces in Europe and led approximately 60,000 troops from 37 NATO and other nations in Bosnia-Herzegovina."

How many troops he governed, uh, oversaw.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

8. and Dean came from a New England Republican Family.

Odd.

[RandomUser]

10. His mother was a struggling single mother bank secretary

His birth father was a high-ranking Democratic Party activist in Chicago. After he died when Wes was almost 4, his mother relocated them to her hometown of Little Rock, working as a bank secretary to support the two of them.

Traumatized by his father's death, Wes had a speech impediment until the age of 7.

Eventually, a few years later, she remarried. Clark's stepfather was a recovering alcoholic bank manager, who didn't really provide for them well. So his mother had to work to support them. Clark said they were the poorest family in the richest neighborhood. So he had to compensate by working doubly hard academically, shooting for Westpoint and then the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford.


Here's some background about his childhood:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45166-2003Oct18?language=printer
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/clark/articles/2003/11/16/boy_from_little_rock_chooses_military_path/

[MoonRiver]

12. Wow, Clark has had an amazing life.

Reading those links just made me admire and support him more. He's the absolute antithesis of AWOL, pampered, spoiled brat, dim bulb *.

GOOOOOOO, GENERAL CLARK!!! :kick:

P.S. I know I'll be flamed by Deaniacs for posting this PERSONAL endorsement of Clark. :eyes:

[Bombtrack]

3. No, didn't you here, he's a MILITARIST

that's the big abstract fear-mongering word his opponents are throwing out. I guess we should be afraid that Dean is a state governmentist and the other serious candidates are congressists

[Zero Division]

18. I wouldn't be suprised if the anti-Clarkies think he's been a

"Militarist" since he was 5. Then again, they may also believe that "Rosemary's Baby" is the story of his birth.

[madrchsod]

5. one of the better songs

ever written ...

[DUreader]

9. Lennon endorses Clark?

?

[billbuckhead]

11. There's a picture floating around of John Kerry and John Lennon.

I wished John Lennon had a chance to endorse one of the 2004Dems.

[Cleita]

13. Smart people in my experience don't wave it in front of

everyone, but they can educate without being condescending and arrogant.

[Cleita]

14. Smart people in my experience don't wave it in front of

everyone, but they can educate without being condescending and arrogant.

[Donna Zen]

15. A Clark story

Clark tells the story of trying to get an appointment to West Point, and being turned down by the Arkansas senators. Afterall, without the proper pull he didn't have much of a chance. One senator said: Boy, your too young (16) your too small (134 lb) and your not smart enough (one B).

The part of the story Clark doesn't tell is that after being turned down, he learned of one congressional opening that was awarded by testing. Clark came in first.

It is hard to say what this campaign and election will bring, what is assured is the joy that would reign among historians with a Clark victory.

[billbuckhead]

16. A lot of USA's economic problems can be blamed on Harvard MBA's

Stock value is more important than industrial competence or honest bookeeping.

I wonder if Clark became an economic major was because of his humble background?

[MoonRiver]

17. Huh? Maybe he was interested in the subject and/or good in it.

Btw, he went to West Point, not Harvard. :hi:

[Aidoneus]

19. if by "working class hero"..

you mean "more or less a servant of a section of the ruling class interests", then yes, he is.

[Lefty48197]

20. Working Class Heroes are all fuking dead

I think John Lennon wrote that.