General Wesley Clark's candidacy is still a work in progress. In his debut debate on September 25th, the Man from NATO said he needed more time to hammer out policies on healthcare, trade and social security. But what if he had been asked about his favorite song? (When journalist Farai Chideya posed that seemingly trivial question in the previous debate, the replies turned out to be far more interesting than expected.)
Would Clark have had a clear and resolute answer? Maybe. After all, he quotes Bob Dylan's Blowin' In the Wind toward the end of his memoir, Waging Modern War, and writes affectionately about the protest music (Peter, Paul and Mary, Trini Lopez and Dylan) that he used to love to listen to as a young man. Of course, Clark could play it safe and select a traditional military fave: Garryowen (the song of the seventh cavalry and the most famous fighting song in the US Army), or the Theme from Superman or Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Wonder.
But, it's much better to answer from the heart than to have your expert advisers focus group the question to death before coming up with the politically correct answer. So I hope the general will stick with Dylan, although he may want to opt for Don't Think Twice, It's All Right over Desolation Row, Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence or You Ain't Goin' Nowhere.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
General Wesley Clark’s candidacy is still a work in progress. In his debut debate on September 25th, the Man from NATO said he needed more time to hammer out policies on healthcare, trade and social security. But what if he had been asked about his favorite song? (When journalist Farai Chideya posed that seemingly trivial question in the previous debate, the replies turned out to be far more interesting than expected.)
Would Clark have had a clear and resolute answer? Maybe. After all, he quotes Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ In the Wind toward the end of his memoir, Waging Modern War, and writes affectionately about the protest music (Peter, Paul and Mary, Trini Lopez and Dylan) that he used to love to listen to as a young man. Of course, Clark could play it safe and select a traditional military fave: Garryowen (the song of the seventh cavalry and the most famous fighting song in the US Army), or the Theme from Superman or Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Wonder.
But, it’s much better to answer from the heart than to have your expert advisers focus group the question to death before coming up with the politically correct answer. So I hope the general will stick with Dylan, although he may want to opt for Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right over Desolation Row, Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence or You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.
Katrina vanden HeuvelTwitterKatrina vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. She served as editor of the magazine from 1995 to 2019.