Dear Friends:

This e-mail has two purposes -- to relay to you information about the Wesley Clark campaign coming to Charlottesville tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 22), and to encourage you to join me in supporting Wes Clark for President.

TOMORROW:

Tomorrow, one of the two Race for America vehicles from the Clark campaign will be making a stop in Charlottesville. Two RV's with senior Clark campaign staffers will be "racing" each other, one driving from Little Rock to South Carolina, the other from Washington, D.C., to New Hampshire by way of Virginia (yes, we merit a detour!).

The team coming to Charlottesville will be piloted by the founders of DraftWesleyClark.com (one of the two major draft movements that led to Clark's candidacy), John Hlinko and Josh Margulies, whose task is to pass out 2004 Clark Bars in each state they visit—and more importantly, to raise awareness of Gen. Clark's candidacy and his stand on the issues. They'll also have Clark stuff to distribute, and chances to enter a contest to be on a conference call with Wes Clark (and maybe also to win a dinner in the White House with President and Mrs. Clark).
The Northern Team RV is scheduled to arrive at about 10 a.m. on Water Street near 2nd St SE; the Clark crew will be there for about an hour. John and Josh are planning to give a campaign speech around 10:30. (Precise parking spot is not guaranteed, but it should be hard to miss the caravan.)

If you are a Clark supporter, please come down to lend support.

WHY I SUPPORT WES CLARK:

1. Foreign Policy Credentials. I read his book, Winning Modern Wars. I agree with everything he said about multi-national responses to world problems. He is the only candidate with direct experience in dealing with the leaders of foreign nations. As NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, he met with, and negotiated with, leaders of virtually all of the countries who should be, but now are not, our allies. The job of SACEUR is not just a matter of ordering armies around -- he dealt with heads of state and with foreign ministers, negotiating with them over their contributions of resources to the war effort in Kosovo and Bosnia, and dealing with their concerns about how the war was being conducted. And he brought some measure of peace to Kosovo, using a combination of bombing and diplomacy to force Milosevic to the table to end ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo, without losing a single American life. I would LOVE to see him debate George Bush on foreign policy.

2. Support of Affirmative Action. Wes Clark was one of the co-signers of a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the recent Michigan affirmative action cases, arguing from his military experience that affirmative action works, and that it is important that the U.S. Supreme Court allow it to continue. This brief was regarded by the majority votes as vital to their decision. What I find particularly interesting is that he didn't have to do this. Others could have filed the brief without his signature. But he felt it was important enough that he volunteered to do it.

3. He Can Win. As I look at the Electoral College, for a Democrat to win, he or she will have to win all of the states that Al Gore won in 2000 (including the ones that were Gore's closest wins in 2000 -- Minnesota, Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin), PLUS either:

a. Florida, or
b. Two of the following: West Virginia, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Missouri, and Tennessee.

While I have a great deal of respect for the other Democratic candidates, I think Wes Clark has the best chance of getting 270 Electoral Votes.

4. I am Comfortable with His Other Positions. I don't agree with him on everything, but I agree with him on most important things. On health care, he sees the flaws in the Bush plan; he opposes it, but he doesn't have a vote. If the plan passes, and if he is elected President, he will work to fix it. On the environment, his first priority will be to enforce the laws on the books instead of rolling back the Clean Air Act regulations as Bush has done. He favors an energy plan that focuses on conservation rather than drilling. I could go on, but I would invite you to go to his website, www.clark04.com , to check him out for yourself.

Please come to the Mall tomorrow morning to meet with Clark supporters. If you are already a Clark supporter, let me know -- I am accumulating names and numbers.

I hope to see you tomorrow morning!

Lloyd Snook (electronic mail, November 21, 2003)