[Please see the Notes and links at the bottom of the post, after the jump.]
If Wes Clark was tired he sure didn't let it show. He'd been on the hustings for months, stumping for Democratic candidates the length and breadth of the country. Two days before, he'd been in Milano. Yet here he was, sizzling — full of energy, full of warmth and good humor, ready for the eager handshake and face-to-face encounter with members of the record-setting crowd who'd come to hear him deliver the keynote speech at the Santa Barbara Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.
For many of the nearly 500 people at the dinner, the Wes Clark they heard and saw was a revelation. Some knew him only from the so-called "debates" of the 2004 presidential primary season, whose very format gave him scant latitude in which to express his knowledge and passion. (As for his regular appearances on Fox News, well, I doubt that among Democratic partisans anyone but Clark's devoted cadre of volunteers and active supporters would know to tune in.) But I had experienced the "Wes effect"; I had been privileged to hear him in person before — at DePauw University in 2003, in Keene, N.H. at a townhall meeting in 2004, and at various informal Los Angeles gatherings since — so I knew he would charm the pants off the audience and deliver a speech that would rouse us to a standing ovation.
Which, of course, is exactly what he did.
Mr. President?
Anyone who knows me knows that Wes Clark has been one of my heroes since his nightly sit-downs at Aaron Brown's CNN anchor desk during the early stages of the Iraq war. Friends who watched with me (we called it our "sacred hour," reassuring moments of sanity in a world gone mad) thought that we'd invented the idea that this man should be president. When Wes intimated that he was giving it some thought — it was on Meet the Press, mid-June 2003 — I discovered the Draft Clark movement and leapt onto the bandwagon. I've been riding it ever since.
There is active speculation that Wes will run again in 2008. He gracefully deflects the question whenever he's asked by saying "I haven't said I won't." I asked him how Gert (his splendid wife, whose flight from Little Rock was delayed, and who was therefore unable to come — to my keen disappointment) felt about his re-entering the fray. "She hates it," he said simply. "Why wouldn't she?" I replied, thinking how political campaigns take a terrible toll on spouses. Wes is deeply devoted to Gert. One can imagine that her feelings in the matter will be a major factor in his decision.
However, there is something in his intensity when he talks about high office that says he believes he is the right man for the job at this moment in our history. The belief doesn't seem to emanate from an excess of ego, but rather from a clear-headed assessment of what the country needs and what he brings to the table. He is a strategic thinker, a cerebral pragmatist. 
He is deeply schooled in history and economics, seasoned in diplomacy, equally at home in matters of foreign and domestic policy. Dedication and brilliance bore him from first in his class at West Point to a Rhodes Scholarship to the pinnacle of active command in the United States Army. He is the intellectual as man of action. He is, in a word, a leader. Which is why, if I read him correctly, he is primed for the top job only.
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
He is also a charmer who engages easily with people and gives the person he's talking to his full attention. (I did catch him multi-tasking a couple of times with his Blackberry, but he was waiting for word of Gert's safe arrival in Los Angeles, and once he got it he was all ours.) He "worked the room" to great effect, both at the dinner itself and at a reception beforehand for our major donors and other honored guests. He bantered, got serious, listened intently, focused on what was said to him and on what he said in return. He seems to take genuine pleasure in the give-and-take. There is nothing intimidating in his manner 
— perhaps surprising to newcomers to the "Wes effect," given what we assume about a general, all that gold on his cap, the panoply of ribbons on his chest. But we also don't expect generals, even retired generals, to have "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and "Blowin' in the Wind" on their iPods.
But Wes does! And he wants RJ Eskow on it too, along with Peter, Paul and Mary and Bob Dylan. RJ writes anti-war songs and sang several for us; Wes followed the lyrics closely while RJ was singing "I Wish More Christians Loved Jesus" and "Gunplay," and several times murmured "This is fantastic!" Later he requested that RJ make him a recording. "I want that man working for me," he said.
" . . . there were people with tears in their eyes"
For me the most touching moment of the evening came when Frank Kelly, once a mainstay of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions and before that, among other things, a speechwriter for Harry Truman, presented to Wes a signed copy of his Truman memoir. Frank is one of Santa Barbara's treasures, and there was the symmetry of greatness in the exchange. (That's me, Zelig-like, looking on.)
There was someone I most particularly wanted to hear Wes and to speak with Wes personally. He's chair of the California Democratic Party Veterans' Caucus, and he had not been a Clark supporter the last time around. Unfortunately, he was recovering from an operation and unable to attend; but his family was there. The other day he e-mailed me to say how truly sorry he was to have missed it; his wife and daughters told him that at the end of Wes' speech, "there were people with tears in their eyes."
Notes and links
• Ethan Stewart, in our alternative weekly, The Independent, gets it almost right. He's just a tad too snarky for my taste, and perhaps not as mindful of detail as a reporter should be. He says that Warren Hall was "awash in blue balloons." Ethan, um, there were no balloons.
• The Santa Barbara News-Press did not cover the event. They are undergoing a complete staffing meltdown as a result of firings and mass resignations. It's high drama. However, I did manage to get published a Letter to the Editor:
It's a pity that the News-Press did not cover the second annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner last Friday, October 27, at the Earl Warren Showgrounds. Many people have expressed surprise and disappointment that there was no mention of it in the paper.Your reporter would have seen 470 Democrats — a record number for a political fundraiser, we're told — dining on grilled salmon and steak, standing with reverence as soprano Carol Ann Manzi sang "America, the Beautiful," and listening to Los Angeles blogger Brad Friedman's rundown on the signs and signals of possible election fraud and voting machine failure across the country.
But most of all your reporter would have heard the keynote speaker, four-star General Wes Clark (Ret.) hold the audience in thrall as he spoke with passion and eloquence on military, diplomatic, economic and social strategies for national security. His speech was rich in information, with fine-tuned historical references that put his remarks in the larger context of America's past and future. He graciously took questions from the audience, which in turn gave him a standing ovation.
A host of city and county elected officials and candidates were in attendance. Our Congresswoman Lois Capps offered piquant remarks, and Hannah-Beth Jackson was full of energy and enthusiasm in her role as Mistress of Ceremonies.
It was a memorable evening, and of particular importance as we head toward Election Day — the proceeds of the dinner go to the Democratic Service Club to aid its GOTV efforts.
We hope you will be there next year.
Sincerely,
Ellen Dana Nagler
Barbie Deutsch
Co-Chairs, Jefferson-Jackson Dinner
• RJ Eskow's lyrics are here. His writings at The Huffington Post are here, supplemented by his writings at Night Light.
• Adam Nagler, my #1 son, created the Clark/Obama "Nantucket" button to give out to friends when he vacationed there last summer. "ACK" are Nantucket's call letters. The colors are self-explanatory. Adam presented Wes with the button, which led to some interesting observations later about Obama and Adam's proposed ticket. I will talk about that another day.
• Frank K. Kelly's Truman and the Human Family is available through Amazon. Click here for more information on the book and how to purchase it. (It is out of print, but used copies are available from various booksellers.)
• The audio of Wes' speech (approximately 35 minutes)
About our Jefferson-Jackson Dinner
The proceeds of the dinner go to the Democratic Service Club, a grassroots organization that maintains our Democratic HQ and coordinates the "boots on the ground" GOTV efforts at election time. They do their job extremely well. The California average of registered voters who actually voted in the election was a sickly 45%. Santa Barbara's turnout was 66%.
Until last year we didn't have a J-J Dinner, nor indeed a formal Democratic HQ. At pretty much the same time that the DSC undertook to find space and keep it going year-round as a place where our diverse Democratic organizations can meet and work on a regular basis, Barbie Deutsch and I set up our BE for Change PAC — whose aim was to support grassroots activism in the community.
Jefferson-Jackson Dinners are a fixture around the country, usually put on by the state party, or sometimes a county-wide subset of the party apparatus. Given the total ossification of the California Democratic Party and the lassitude of our county's Central Committee, we'd never had one here. Barbie and I saw the opportunity — and took it.
