Would Clark Get the Military Vote?

A genuine question. A retired Air Force friend with centrist/tilting right leanings contends that "Army officers don't like him...but the more troops get shot, the more appeal he [Clark] will have."

But potentially the Army officers have their reservations about Bush and Rumsfeld as well? Rumsfeld, after all, hasn't shown much respect for the army compared with the other services, and has championed a risky and miserable long-term peace-enforcement engagement for troops in Iraq, all the while insisting current numbers are enough.

My former Air Force friend writes that, "I worked for [Clark] when he was Joint Staff director J-5....He is very intense, works 20 hours a day, and can't understand why others don't. But the senior Army objections to Clark were because he was a 'political' general, not a muddy boots, knuckle-dragging moron."

Hmm. But wouldn't senior Army people have their own gripes with Bush and Rumsfeld, whose boots aren't any muddier, even if Bush's work habits are less intense?

Posted by Laura at August 26, 2003 01:14 PM