March 31, 2006
Listen To Wes Clark...Seriously
Too many people handicapping the Dem field aren't paying attention to Ret. Gen. Wes Clark. The guy has a monster travel schedule on behalf of other Dems. He's still the to-go talking head for Democratic national security events. He's doing the party's national radio address this Saturday.
And now his podcast is right now the most popular political podcast in the nation.
The third installment of Clark's audiotaped thoughts ranks ahead of Sean Hannity . It's more listened-to than Sen. Barack Obama's audio doodlings. Than ex-Sen. John Edwards's podcast, too.
Through a spokesman, Clark tells us: "I am proud to be a part of the podcast evolution and pleased so many people care about being involved to the future of country by engaging in this medium."
Posted at 10:05 AM
Comments
I'm sceptical of that podcast data point because of the nature of Clark's support base. It -- not so much his primary voters, but certainly his energised activist/donor base -- always had a severe demographic skew towards exactly the sort of people who disproportionately do things like own iPods and listen to podcasts.
Not that he's not a potential contender -- although one does wonder, with Hillary presumably vacuuming up the Clinton donors, where he's going to get his money this time -- but the idea that statistics on the internet tell you anything about anything other than the internet is exactly the sort of mistake so many people made with Howard Dean, me included.
schwa | 03.31.06 10:31 AM
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The only folks who don't take Clark seriously are those who don't want attention called to him because of what he represents; An American Patriot at his finest!
The Gop certainly don't want him mentioned as a potential '08 contender (he rivals McCain in the Defense area, as it was Clark and not McCain, who led the last war America won without a single U.S. Casualty just six short years ago, all the while having his hands tied behind his back by the Republican Pentagon appointed by a defense timid Bill Clinton [due to GOP Draft Dodger name calling & Somalia]--which makes Gen. Clark much more relevant in the area of national security than McCain's personal POW heroics from over 30 years ago).
Sadly, many Democrats still don't quite "get" how serious of an issue National Security is during these times, because they have been repeatily told by the media that this is not a winning issue for Democrats, which is hogwash.
I noticed that the recent Bush's "press" conference was moved up by the White House specifically because "they" wanted to drown out the Democrat's roll out of their National Security Plan which featured Gen. Clark front and center. And sure enough, the Dem's announcement was not televised live on the cable networks, and instead we were treated to 1.5 hours of Bush repeating his same old lines. Don't take my word for it, just read the WAPO!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html
"Indeed, Bush's event had originally been scheduled for 1:20 p.m. yesterday. But Tuesday afternoon, the White House suddenly moved it up to 12:50. The Democratic press conference was scheduled to start at 1. Bush finally wrapped up his talk at 2:22. Anyone know when the Democrats stopped talking? Anybody see anyone in the audience giving him hand signals?"
The GOP just don't know how to deal with the type of threat the General presents to their National Security Trump Card (and swiftboating smear tactics are getting old), and with most of the Corporate media's cooperation would much prefer to see to it that this Democratic 4 star General would finally just simply fade away.
Juliette | 03.31.06 03:28 PM
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"a severe demographic skew towards exactly the sort of people who disproportionately do things like own iPods and listen to podcasts."
As a point of information, you don't have to own an iPod to subscribe to a podcast, you only have to download the free iTunes software and listen to it on any computer. (iTunes is available for Macs or PC's) You just have to own a computer....
Clark is doggedly and forcefully delivering the Democratic message and helping candidates in the 06 elections (the last ClarkCast was an interview between Clark and Nick Lampson -- who's running against Tom Delay).
It's one measure of his effectiveness to carry that message when his first efforts outstrip all other political 'podcasts' in just a short time period. Remarkable, really.
TexasKat | 03.31.06 04:01 PM
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True about Clark's web-base, after all the web drafted him, but then again the net is growing. What bothers me about the reference to big money, which I agree with, is the unfortunate political landscape in which the nomination is bought instead of earned. The best government money can buy...is that what we want?
Where I disagree is the comparison between Dean and Clark. While to two men agree on many policies, there is a vast difference in their resumes. I would think that in the non-net world, Clark would be the best at attracting those cross-over votes. No amount of money will ever buy those votes for Hillary--not one red state turning blue.
DonnaZ | 03.31.06 04:25 PM
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schwa is probably correct about internet 'skew,' but we've got to start SOMEWHERE if we're going to try to evaluate candidates in light of msm failure to do its job.
EllenG | 03.31.06 04:39 PM
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podcast data point? demographically skewed base? would you care to elaborate?
Ironically everyone I know who listens to Clark these days listens simply because they have finally found someone who will give them the straight goods.
It's long overdue for party power players to wake up. On issues both foreign and domestic, Wes Clark is the best spokesman we have, bar none!
er, what is an iPod?
hmc | 03.31.06 05:36 PM
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Ummm... actually, I'd bet many (if not most) of the Clark base are downloading ClarkCasts directly from the WesPAC website. The rankings above are based solely on those who use iTunes for podcast alerts--unnecessary for those of us who visit securingamerica.com regularly.
Now, I'll grant you that Clark has an "extended" support base who may use the iTunes software. But from what I'm reading in the leftish side of the blogoshere, people are downloading the ClarkCasts because they are interesting. The last one was an interview with Nick Lampson, who is challenging Tom DeLay down in Texas. That's a race that all of us are following, no matter who we like for 2008.
Jai | 03.31.06 06:04 PM
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