Clark feints

The Hamster posts an excerpt from finally-an-official-candidate Wesley Clark's "100 year vision," which included this bit about the environment:

Environmentally, it means that we must do more to protect our natural resources, enabling us to extend their economic value indefinitely in through wise policies of extracting natural resources that protect the beauty and diversity of our American ecosystems – our seacoasts, mountains, wetlands, rain forests, alpine meadows, original timberlands and open prairies. We will have to balance carefully the short term needs for commercial exploitation with longer term value of the natural gifts our country has received.

The beginning of this bit sounds like it's coming from a conservationist/resources point of view, perhaps even pointing toward an ecosystem services vision. But he quickly shifts into a typical destructive economic use versus preserving natural beauty paradigm. This probably says more about me than it does about Clark -- I want to hear candidates proposing an anthropocentric environmentalism, so I read it into the beginning of his statement. That sort of thing has been the order of the day ever since Clark's name was floated as a possible candidate. Because he's never run for elected office, it's easy for people to read the parameters of their ideal candidate onto the biographical framework Clark gives them. There will probably be some rude awakenings over the next few months, even as he gathers in support from people who hadn't taken much notice of his hypothetical candidacy.