Wes Clark: ‘I’d never diss McCain’s service, but …’
WASHINGTON _ John McCain’s POW years and deep military roots are a key selling point for his presidential candidacy. At the Republican National Convention this summer, expect the GOP to frame McCain as an American hero, and rightly so.
So when somebody seems to disparage McCain’s military record – even if it’s a four-star general talking – expect the McCain camp to call in the cavalry
That was the case this morning, when McCain loyalists came to the Arizona senator’s defense after retired Gen. Wesley Clark’s latest remarks to the effect that McCain’s background does not add up to being chief executive material.
“Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,” Clark, a decorated soldier himself and a former NATO commander, said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation.”
Clark, who ran for the Democrats’ presidential nomination four years ago, refused to back off last night, saying that he “would never, never diss someone’s service.” He added: “I have said this about John McCain’s qualifications for a long time.”
That’s true about Clark saying similar things before, but this time they struck a chord given the McCain campaign’s furious efforts to draw distinctions between their candidate and Obama.
Obama, for his part, distanced himself from Clark’s statements, sounding his refrain about respecting McCain’s service.
This morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close ally of McCain’s, was among those taking Clark – and Obama – to task. “No matter how he sugarcoats it, (Clark) is trying to question John’s service … I just don’t think it’s going to sit well with the American voter.”
McCain adviser Orson Swindle, a fellow POW, asserted that McCain’s Navy experience commanding a squadron of fighter pilots showed the senator’s management skills.
“Gen. Clark ought to be ashamed of himself, talking about a fellow serviceman,” he said. “Gen. Clark’s ethics and his integrity are impugned and violated, even if they exist, in this criticism of John McCain.”
What a creep Wesley Clark is - and I love Schieffer called his bluff and asked him what the heck Obama has done? He looked shocked that a fellow Democrat would challenge him. Clark bombed and killed thousands of innocent civilians in Kosovo. Funny Mr. Peace never talks about that.