Politics Blog

Category: John McCain

Wesley Clark is right - Part Two

Gen. Clark's comment continues to make news today and I remind you that Clark's quote was not made out of the clear blue sky. In fact it was an answer to a specific question that was in effect a media manufactured "gotcha" moment. The talking heads all conveniently failed to mention Clark's earlier comment praising McCain's service as they sought to gin up a fake scandal. The Obama campaign's initial response couldn't have been more wrong and misguided. However, I'm happy to say that they corrected that quickly and campaign strategist David Axelrod put the focus back where it belonged, on the glaring policy differences between Obama and McCain on military strategy.

Meanwhile, Gen. Clark is not backing down and made this statement today, where he said in part:

"There are many important issues in this Presidential election, clearly one of the most important issues is national security and keeping the American people safe. In my opinion, protecting the American people is the most important duty of our next President. I have made comments in the past about John McCain's service and I want to reiterate them in order be crystal clear. As I have said before I honor John McCain's service as a prisoner of war and a Vietnam Veteran. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in Armed Forces as a prisoner of war. I would never dishonor the service of someone who chose to wear the uniform for our nation.

"John McCain is running his campaign on his experience and how his experience would benefit him and our nation as President. That experience shows courage and commitment to our country - but it doesn't include executive experience wrestling with national policy or go-to-war decisions. And in this area his judgment has been flawed - he not only supported going into a war we didn't have to fight in Iraq, but has time and again undervalued other, non-military elements of national power that must be used effectively to protect America But as an American and former military officer I will not back down if I believe someone doesn't have sound judgment when it comes to our nation's most critical issues."

One thing that has been sorely missing in the discussion is Gen. Clark's own credentials. He was the top 5% of his class, valedictorian at the graduation and actually commanded a large combat unit in Vietnam where he led his men into a successful counteroffensive against a Viet Cong force while he was bleeding from four AK-47 wounds.

That's my definition of a true war hero and surely gives Clark the credentials to make judgments on what constitutes relevant leadership experience. The real story here isn't Clark's statement, which was taken out of context and ginned up into a media manufactured controversy. It's that so many are willing to join McCain in trashing a real war hero like Gen. Clark for purely partisan reasons, without even stopping to consider whether what he said was true. Which is was.

But don't believe me. Listen to the war veterans who actually fought on the ground. They're fully supporting Gen. Clark. I suggest you join them and sign onto their letter.