So sometime in January 2004, NR editor Rich Lowry called up the then-freelancing yours truly and offered the assignment of writing a profile on retired general Wesley Clark for the magazine.
I jumped on the chance, relentlessly harangued every potential source I could, talked to every former colleague of Clark that I could, bought and read Clark’s autobiography, etc.
Unfortunately, before the piece could find a home in the pages of the magazine, Clark’s campaign imploded. He was an also-ran, old news; the piece was bumped to NRO – always a fine outlet, but there’s something to be said for an article deemed worthy of killing trees.
One of my favorite paragraphs:
Interviews with a wide variety of current and retired military officials reveal that Clark was disliked by only three groups: Those whom ranked above him in the chain of command whom he ignored, his peers at the same rank whom he lied to, and those serving beneath him whom he micromanaged. Other than that, everyone liked him.
Anyway – today, the word on the lefty blogs is Clark is running again.
So, Rich, you want that profile now?
Anyway – one of the reasons I’m quite pleased with that article is that it persuaded a favorite lefty friend that not only did she not want Clark to be president, she didn’t want him near anyone she cared about.