In the words of Chris Matthews, General Wesley Kanne Clark just gave "a hell of a speech." If I had at all forgotten why I joined the Draft Clark movement over a year ago, my memory has been restored.

Wes Clark, the 4-Star General turned Democratic Presidential contender, gave a riveting speech this evening that fired up the Fleet Center and rallied "the troops" around the nation. It was a classic Clark speech that evoked the immense patriotism that Democrats share with the rest of Americans (even if people like Sean Hannity will say they're unpatriotic).

Speaking about the Democrats' defense credentials and John Kerry's patriotism, Clark proclaimed that anyone who says that one party has a monopoly over defending America is committing "fraud on the American people." What's more, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "repetition does not turn a lie into the truth."

During the speech, General Clark stopped to honor the troops with a long moment of silence--a truly moving point in the convention. Building up once again, he turned his deft rhetoric against Republicans who would call Democrats unpatriotic for questioning the President's leadership.

"That flag is ours, and nobody, nobody, nobody is going to take it away from us!"

Clark also reminded people that Democrats are a party that has always been strong on defense. He told the delegates that John Kerry will join "the great pantheon of Democrats who have defended America," such as Woodrow Wilson during the First World War, FDR and Harry Truman during World War II, JFK during the Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Bill Clinton, who stopped the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. "Democrats are leaders, and Democrats are fighters!"

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While people rightfully credit Howard Dean with reinvigorating the Democratic Party, too few give Wesley Clark his just due for once again allowing Democrats to be strong on defense. What is more, Clark's constant embrace of the flag (a tactic he deftly used during tonight's speech) helped remind us that we are all Americans.

When the annals of this campaign are written in the months and years to come, I hope that historians will recognize the service Wes Clark provided to the Democratic Party. I cannot tell you how many people I met in the Draft Clark movement, and later when it became Clark for President, who had not participated in Democratic politics before, and the countless who had not voted previously. Though his detractors might say that he was merely a vanity candidate--a tool of the Clintons--and no more than a modern day Alexander Haig, I strongly disagree.

Wes Clark was an extremely positive force within the Democratic Party who changed the nature of the campaign--and thus the party--for the better. He made it OK for a Democrat to embrace the flag, to honor the veterans in the audience, and to attack the President on National Security (yes, some Democrats had done this before, but none had done so with the same credibility as a former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO).

I believe it would strongly behoove John Kerry to utilize Clark in the Midwest, and especially in rural areas (remember, he won the Oklahoma primary on the basis of his rural support, even edging out John Edwards), and I hope that General Wesley Clark remains a part of Democratic politics in the years to come.