Qualified Diss [UPDATED]
With friends like this, Barack Obama doesn’t need enemies:
Retired U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, on Sunday questioned whether Sen. John McCain’s military experience qualified him to be commander-in-chief.
The McCain campaign called for Obama to condemn the remarks.
The dust-up began with Clark’s appearance Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” where moderator Bob Schieffer asked him about his interview with the Huffington Post earlier this month.
In the interview, Clark said McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, was “untested and untried.”
When Schieffer asked to explain the comment, Clark said he was referring to McCain’s experience, or lack thereof, in setting national security policies and understanding the risk involved in such matters.
“I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces, as a prisoner of war. And he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility,” said Clark, a former NATO commander who campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.
“He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn’t seen what it’s like when diplomats come in and say, I don’t know whether we’re going to be able to get this point through or not,” Clark said.
Schieffer noted that Obama did not have any of those experiences, nor had he “ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.”
“Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,” Clark said.
If this is how Obama’s four-star general feels, imagine his HUD Secretary!
Besides, I thought all you Democrats now decided you liked George H. W. Bush (41), for a Republican anyway. His plane got shot down, and he didn’t even get five years immersion training in Vietnamese culture as McCain did.
I’ve been saying that once we get past his charisma and appealing personal story (unpleasant associates aside), there’s no way this country elects someone as far to the left as Barack Obama. But I should amend that: if we do, we deserve everything we get.
UPDATE:
Do you detect a pattern?
After statements by a half-dozen high-profile Democrats and Obama surrogates, you cannot persuade me that there is not a concerted effort on the part of Obama Democrats to criticize McCain on his war record. George McGovern, Jay Rockefeller, Tom Harkin, Democratic congressional candidate Bill Gillespie, Ed Schultz, Tony McPeak, and now Clark. Way too many to be coincidence. We’re seeing a lot more derisive comments about McCain’s wartime service than we are about Obama’s race.
Links provided in the original.
And you can add John Murtha’s name to the list. Just because he hasn’t questioned McCain’s patriotism (yet), his name belongs on any list of politicians who slander soldiers.
I don’t think this is a winner for you, Dems—so Bring It On.
Brad said,
June 30, 2008 @ 8:16 am
Clark is a formr Nato Commander, those are pretty impressive qualifications. If he says McCain isn’t fit, I trust him. Who cares is McCain served in a failed war effort, doesn’t make him fit to lead a new failed war effort. I’ve known some pretty worthless war veterans in my day. My grandpa served in WWII, came home, and beat his wife and his kids, leading his kids to beat their kids. Thanks, you honored, prick veteran. Remember Yvette Davila, military training, then she shot and killed her ex & his new wife? Just being part of the military does not make one a good person, it’s a lot more complicated than that. I will not let take your word on McCain’s glorious soul, on the sole mention of his having been a POW. To me, that is worth nothing in the grand scheme of who a person truly is. I also remember McCain calling his wife a cxxt, and that’s the sort of thing my grandpa used to call his wife. Go away, McCain, make way for a new generation that isn’t too stubborn to learn new things, like how to use the internet.
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
June 30, 2008 @ 9:27 am
“Clark is a formr Nato Commander, those are pretty impressive qualifications…. I trust him…. I’ve known some pretty worthless war veterans in my day…. Just being part of the military does not make one a good person.”
The liberal mind at… uh, I was going to say “work”, but I can’t bring myself to use that word in this case. I don’t know what you call that, except addled.
Suggested slogan(?): Vote for the PDA, not the POW!
Dr Noisy said,
June 30, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
Y, Obama’s got some really impressive qualifications himself. He was a “community organizer” in Chicago. What exactly does one of those do? Here’s an example: “Hey rummy! Here’s 10 bucks. Be sure to vote for Daley tomorrow!”
But wait, Obama knows how to use the internet! Wait, so do millions of other people… maybe we ALL should be President(s)! I can do him one better; I spent years doing programming! I should be President of all the Presidents by that logic. Al Gore told us he INVENTED the internet; he should be Super President. Getting kinda silly now, just like the Obama campaign. But thanks for the laugh!
Tony said,
June 30, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
Clark also threatened to bomb a lot of small european nations b/c they would do what he and Clinton wanted. They didn’t want the US to tell them what to do. So Clark threatened to bomb them. Unfortunately for them, they folded. You don’t want to trust McCain because he’s a POW. Why should I trust Clark because he was NATO commander?
And how can he say McCain isn’t fit? Did he talk to the man? Look at his service record? In fact, he didn’t say McCain wasn’t fit. But it’s okay, because you’re part of my generation. We’re young, and stupid, The difference is, I know it. I don’t understand why you make fun of McCain?
You don’t know the man. You have no idea what he is. You just know your grandpa was a bastard. I don’t know. How is it, people can preach about peace and the love revolution and forgiveness, and turn around and be so vile with the slogans, “I hated Bush before it was cool.”
How is it cool to hate anybody? For any reason? I don’t understand how people can be so incredibly nasty to each other. I mean, I do, I just wonder why there’s no respect anymore, if there ever was. I don’t care if you think a man’s policy ideas are stupid. I just don’t understand how you can show such disrespect to him as a person.
How is that setting a foundation for peace? Or love? Or forgiveness? Or change? I don’t mind debate, in fact, I enjoy it. But it’s not debate. It’s circular and staw man resoning (those are logical fallacies). It’s libel.
Americans during elections are such a sad people.
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
June 30, 2008 @ 2:03 pm
Tony,
I completely agree with you about the tone of the debate. What you read on this board is just a reflection of what you hear on the streets, in restaurants, in homes across the country. It is so sad.
- Aggie
Chris said,
June 30, 2008 @ 9:26 pm
He said that he admires McCain’s commitment and courage just as much if not more so than any other veteran.
He points out that getting shot down (no, not those other times he crashed) doesn’t have anything to do with any strategic ability to keep America safer.
And by the by, so you can call one honored American veteran a coward and a liar without anything to back it up 4 years ago, but criticizing the executive experience of another while respecting his courage is a no no?
I look a republican in they eyes and tell him the sky is blue. He screams at me that the sky is indeed purple and that I’m a traitor for saying otherwise. I need some of what the Right smokes. But then I’m not a pot smoking liberal like you’d all like to believe. What a complicated world it is. Or isn’t. Which is it?
Gary said,
June 30, 2008 @ 9:34 pm
The rest of the world doesn’t enjoy it either.
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
June 30, 2008 @ 9:43 pm
Chris,
Just for the record, John Kerry testified in front of the Senate that US troops had committed all sorts of atrocities in Viet Nam. Look it up; you can find the transcript. During the 2004 campaign, he stated more than once that he had “exaggerated” and that the stuff he described hadn’t happened. Now, either he saw soldiers cutting off head and ears or he did not. Not a hell of a lot of nuance there. And, one way or another, he lied. Either he lied when he was testifying before the Senate or he lied in his campaign. He cannot have it both ways.
Secondly, the wacky Left, who was all behind the Great War Hero John Kerry, is now actually talking about McCain and war crimes in the same sentence. That is the level of respect that they have for his service to this country during the Viet Nam War and for his 5 1/2 years in a POW camp where he was tortured. Kerry’s 16 weeks in Viet Nam was heroic but McCain’s experiences were something to be criticized and possibly prosecuted. That is truly nauseating.
The Democrats can go down that path. I hope that they do. I believe that Obama will probably win, but if they persist in this kind of stuff, they will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. So, here’s hoping -
- Aggie
Chris said,
June 30, 2008 @ 9:51 pm
We were talking about Clarke and Kerry, which you did. As for the lefties, and they are the real wacky ones that give the rest of us a bad name, mentioning war crimes, collusion, or anything of that nature should be dropped off via airlift into Iran. Because that’s just garbage, and both sides can agree on that.
Neither candidate should have his patriotism questioned. This isn’t the era of McCarthy.
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
June 30, 2008 @ 10:06 pm
The “real wacky ones” are the ones that brought Obama out, so to speak. William Ayers, who allowed himself to be photographed walking on the American flat on September 12, 2001, for chrissakes, held the very first fund-raiser for Obama’s Senate campaign. The same Wm. Ayers who, with his wife, Bernadette Dorn, was involved in the Weather Underground and doesn’t deny committing a crime in which a police officer was killed. He had 9 children. Nine children. (Am I permitted to question his patriotism?) That is Obama’s choice for political support. Reverend Wright was, until just a few short weeks ago, his “spiritual adviser”. Moveon.org has promoted the Obama campaign from the beginning and raised millions. They are also responsible for the General Betray Us ad. The nut jobs at the Daily Kos adore him. His wife wasn’t proud of this country until she saw her husband soar during the primaries. There are way, way, way too many nutty leftists. So it isn’t true that both sides can agree that the comments about McCain and his military service are “just garbage”. Unfortunately, Obama’s hard-core base believes that and more. They are into conspiracy theories regarding 9/11. They think the government infected the black community with AIDS. It is embarrassing, really.
And I hear you when you say that it makes it tough for the rest of you.
- Aggie
Chris said,
July 1, 2008 @ 1:11 am
Political party doesn’t determine craziness. The fact that the person’s crazy to begin with does. They’re on both sides.
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
July 1, 2008 @ 6:02 am
Chris,
Sometimes, the sky is purple. It is now as I write, at daybreak. What does this prove? Nothing, except that our assumptions—yours and mine—are not always shared. The other day I ran someone off for trying to bring Abraham Lincoln into a discussion of Barack Obama’s experience (or lack thereof). I have the same attitude toward John Kerry’s service in Vietnam (and afterwards, frankly) when discussing John McCain’s. Not sure you want to go there.
But, really, I’m not sure why the Left wants to go there—which was the point of this piece. It’s either a suicide mission, or they have something else in mind (possibly both). To point out that McCain is a leader of men, that he has put his life on the line for his country (and suffered for it), and that he emerged from the forge a broken yet stronger man—all of that is a loser for Obama who… well, didn’t.
So they’re trying to discount it. There’s the baby-killer charge (Harkin et al), there’s the mentally unstable charge (I forget who this was), and now the war-hero-shmore-hero charge. And all very calculated: Clark, an early and avowed Obama supporter, obviously went on Face the Nation with this talking point in his pocket.
I like our political system, and appreciate bare knuckle politics. But if you lead with a wild haymaker like this, you’d better land it. If you don’t, God help you on the counterpunch.
Chris said,
July 1, 2008 @ 10:50 am
You have a military commander/wounded veteran making a strategic critique concerning the foreign policy ability of another wounded veteran (who’s command experience extends only to a brief time as a squadron commander) as it relates to military experience. A critique he’s made since before Obama showed up on the national scene. He made no reference or slight towards Johnny Boy’s courage or dedication.
Where’s the problem?
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
July 1, 2008 @ 12:41 pm
Where’s the problem? I don’t know, maybe in the hypocrisy. Do you recall the 2004 Democratic convention. John Kerry saluting before the television cameras? Reporting for Duty!!! The same John Kerry who lied in his testimony to the Senate, libeled his fellow soldiers, and admitted as much. He was a “war hero” according to the Democrats.
John McCain, on the other hand, has served admirably, both in the military and in the Senate for many years. He has a record. He does stuff. He truly does work across the aisle, including with Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold. He doesn’t just vote “present” in order to be all things to all people, to hide either his true beliefs or lack thereof. Yes, You Can Be All Things To All People.. but can you do it all of the time?
I hope not.
- Aggie
Chris said,
July 1, 2008 @ 1:22 pm
I hate not knowing sometimes whether or not my post will ever show up if it’s over a paragraph.
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
July 1, 2008 @ 1:28 pm
All comments are moderated (held until Aggie or I approve them), no matter the length. It’s only a question of when we get around to them. But we never edit them for content.
Chris said,
July 1, 2008 @ 1:34 pm
I see. Please excuse my liberal use of the submit button.
Chris said,
July 1, 2008 @ 1:35 pm
No pun intended.
Chris said,
July 1, 2008 @ 3:19 pm
We’ll still disagree, but this gentleman espouses my view much more completely and deftly than I consider myself able to.
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/attacking_mccains_military_rec.php
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
July 1, 2008 @ 5:12 pm
What executive experience has Obama had? Chicago activist?
- Aggie
Chris said,
July 2, 2008 @ 6:18 pm
Well I don’t think he has more executive experience than McCain. Sorry to take the righteous wind out of your sails.
But I do like how you take a talk about What is and isn’t McCain’s experience and twist into “So you’re saying your candidate has more? What did he do?”.
Obama is irrelevant when it comes to determining what is and isn’t McCain’s executive experience. Vice versa is true also.
That’s the whole point we Obama crazies have: because a candidate has and edge doesn’t mean said candidate (or newsman interviewing Clark for that matter) can represent whatever he wants as executive experience.