The Anti-Poverty Candidate - Democratic Underground

CarolNYC

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Sat Apr-21-07 10:08 PM
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The Anti-Poverty Candidate

I liked this piece from a blog post entitled The Anti-Poverty Candidate:

People who know me intimately know that I’m pretty passionate about ending poverty. I’ll get teary-eyed when I spit out sad statistics, curse efforts that increase poverty, curse when common sense solutions are ignored, and ask most politicians I meet pointed questions on poverty.......

.....I have met Wes Clark. And, yes, I asked him one of my impassioned and pointed questions on poverty. What really surprised me was that he skipped the talk about what poverty is like–sparing me details that I’m quite aware of–and jumped right into the meat of possible solutions. I’m not one to be overly impressed with famous politicians–after all, I am a couple minute walk from more than one Nobel Laureate–but I was struck by his candor and his depth of knowledge on practical solutions. We talked about community and neighborhood based financial planning programs, microcredit, fair trade policy and national cultural impediments. A far cry from “we can do better”. That he was willing to discuss some of the hurdles in addressing this issue demonstrated that he knows what he’s talking about.

I won’t enumerate or elaborate the solutions discussed right now–I’ll save that for after he announces–but I just want to mention that as a person who cares very deeply about reducing poverty, Wes Clark is my clear choice as the anti-poverty candidate. Not platitudes, but practical solutions. Not just hope, but tangible solutions.

http://un2g.ooeoyi.com/The-Anti-Poverty-Candidate/

Reminds of an interview I saw not too long after Wes announced he was running in 2003. Some military guy was being interviewed about Wes jumping into the race. He was obviously not a Democrat as he refused to even say the word in the interview. He kept referring to "that other party" and such but he knew Wes from his time in the military and he said that, much as he may disagree with him on things such as the war, he did have to say that folks shouldn't be worried about Wes not having enough experience or knowledge about certain issues. He said if Wes didn't know enough about an issue, he'd educate himself on it. And if there was a problem to be solved, he'd sure enough find a way to solve it.

That's Wes, a problem-solver. Wouldn't it be great to have a guy like that in the White House? I really do hope he does decide to join the race this time around.

And I have no idea idea how much Clark pays for his haircuts but I do know that a couple of years back, when he needed new luggage for some European trip he had to make, he went shopping for it with Gert in the mall in Arkansas. A Clarkie who was working there for the Christmas season, I think it was, saw him there and spoke to them. I wouldn't mind having a President who knew what it was like to shop for his own luggage at the local mall either. :)