Joe Scarborough: ...MSNBC analyst General Wesley Clark. He's a supporter of Hillary Clinton. General-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hello, Joe.
Joe Scarborough: -Well, I talked to you the morning after Wisconsin. The Clinton campaign seemed to be in disarray. Everything seemed to go wrong. Looks like the shoe's on the other foot, now. Barack Obama can't win a big contest, but Hillary Clinton's campaign is on fire. What's happening?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think, you know, Hillary's character comes through. She's very strong. She's very smart. She connects with people. Boy, she's tough. She resilient. She's got stick-to-it-ive-ness. I think that's what American want in a President. And, you know, she's taken all- she's taken everything thrown at her from the beginning. It's been a negative campaign, and not of her volition. It's been a, sort of, name-calling and labeling and accusations, and she's weathered it all, just like she and her husband have for 25 or 30 years in American politics.
Andrea Mitchell: What about the New York-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And-
Andrea Mitchell: -Times editorial today?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -we may not like that side of politics, but that's part of politics. She's got all the solutions, and she brings people together. I think she'll be a great President.
Andrea Mitchell: General, Andrea Mitchell here. The-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hi, Andrea.
Andrea Mitchell: -New York Times today took a different tack on that. They editorialized against her, blasting Hillary Clinton's so-called negative campaign, saying, quote, "Voters are getting tired of it. It is demeaning the political process, and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity for which she is mostly responsible does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her Party and the 2008 election." How do you figure her own hometown paper, which has endorsed her candidacy going against her this, this hard.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I, I can't imagine, because I have a lot of respect for the New York Times. But the truth is, if you look at the negativity, the negativity in this campaign started in Philadelphia in a debate back in November, where every question was asked of Hillary, and they were all asked in a negative tone. It was so bad that Saturday Night Live even made fun of it.
Andrea Mitchell: Nah. I was, I was-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hillary has-
Andrea Mitchell: I was there.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -stayed with this.
Andrea Mitchell: I beg to differ, but-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I was there. I saw it, and I watched the body language. I watched who was defending and who was attacking, Andrea. And the truth is that, that the debate, the last debate in Philadelphia the negativity was not brought out by Hillary Clinton. There were tough questions asked by George Stephanopoulis and Charlie Gibson, and they were the questions that are all over the internet, questions about patriotism and associations and intent and these questions are, they're there in American politics. They influence the General Election, and if they influence the- You know, as Hillary said, you've got to pick somebody who could win the General Election. And I think she's the best candidate to win it. I think she'll be a great President.
Joe Scarborough: General, let me ask you a policy question. Hillary Clinton in the ABC debate last week talked about extending the nuclear umbrella of protection to Israel, possibly Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., a lot of other Gulf states. Does that concern you?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think that this is- could be part of a, a new initiative that's been long-sought in the Gulf, to create a security architecture for those states, and it, it, it's not going to be a unilateral declaration. It's going to be preceded by dialog and discussion. Hillary has said she wants to talk to even the nations that oppose us in there. What we have to establish is a new way of doing business in that region in which force isn't the arbiter. We've got to get nations talking to each other, working with each other, solving disputes through peaceful arbitration. We know these mechanisms. We used them in our, in our 40-year challenge with the Soviet Union. They kept us from war. And I think that Hillary is taking the first steps to explain a broader approach to a strategic architecture in the Gulf.
Joe Scarborough: Alright. General Wesley Clark, Hillary Clinton supporter, thank you so much for being with us.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you. It's good to be with you.
Joe Scarborough: Great talking to you again.