Letters to the Editor
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Honorable military service is not to be examined, right?
Somebody get John Kerry on the line.
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He's pulling a bush!
It's just like when bush gets angry if you question his conducting of the war in Iraq. Oh no! you better not question his war record, if you do, you're [insensitive/unpatriotic]!
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To be fair...
Isn't McCain always pretty much "visibly angry"?
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Obama's Experience ?
McCain has every right to get angry about a dumb-assed remark by a former second rate general who's last command he was relieved of.Of course he spoke for Obama; he's a left wing loony democrat isn't he? Obama is the one that has absolutely no experience at leading anything.The only thing Obama has done is to get elected in Illinois as a do nothing second banana senator.
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Yes, exactly
No one's supposed to ask. McCain is a war hero, and a Republican. That automatically qualifies him to be President. Anyone who questions this hates America. Kerry is a war hero too, but he's a Democrat, and so not only did his war heroism not qualify him to be President in 2004, he's probably not even a real war hero either, because he's a Democrat. Anyone who loves America can figure this out.
Clark is a war hero, but he's also a Democrat, and furthermore he questioned whether or not Republican war hero McCain's war heroism qualifies McCain to be President. Wesley Clark hates America. As a retired general, he knows perfectly well that all Republican war heroes are qualified to be President, and in fact all Republicans are war heroes whether or not they ever actually went to war. Just look at the noted war hero G.W. Bush. He's a Republican, and a war hero, and clearly he was qualified to be President! Meanwhile, poor deluded Clark gave up his war hero status when he questioned a Republican's war heroism. You'd think he would have known better, being a retired four-star general.
So to sum things up: Republicans are all qualified to be President, and if there's a picture somewhere of them in a uniform, they're war heroes, and thus even more qualified to be President. Democrats cannot be war heroes, even if they have medals, because they're Democrats, and because they're not war heroes, they're not qualified to be President.
Hope this clears things up!
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No, no one is supposed to ask why
Because the truth of the matter is that, for whatever combination of reasons, McCain never became a "great leader" of the military in the generally understood sense of the term -- and certainly not in any sort of way that would transfer itself to being a "great leader" of civil government.
He wants everyone to pretend that the time he spent in the military makes him Eisenhower, but it doesn't, and as soon as people stop blindly following his self-constructed narrative, then they'll realize that.
That's why nobody's allowed to breathe around his house of cards.
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Yeah...
"That sounds about right."
Except for the fact that Obama didn't say it, and Clark is not part of his campaign, the entire framing is a bad for Obama/good for McCain, with a little caveat that maybe his base can set aside the man-crush for a few seconds to ponder whether he actually is qualified to be President.
An exchange yesterday between Don Gonyea and Robert Siegel on NPR was nearly identical re Obama and McCain going overseas. The kicker: Obama going to Europe could alienate him from middle American voters, while McCain going to Colombia makes him look diplomatic.
And this is freaking NPR...
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Memo to McCain: it's a campaign, not a garden party.
Sheesh. Talk about thin-skinned -- what is this guy doing campaigning for POTUS if nobody is allowed to challenge his credentials? Must we pull up the fainting couch for his benefit? I mean, look at everything they put Hillary through in the primaries, and now you're telling me that this swaggering military guy is too emotionally fragile to respond to a question about the very qualification he's been holding out front and center?
This is a campaign. You present your qualifications, and the other guy challenges them. If you can't take it, you don't belong here.
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keep asking
He'll have to answer or show that temper of his,eventually.
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Why?
Re: "Why would McCain appear on national television and say something he knows to be false?"
Exactly.
No one is supposed to ask John McCain "why". Or "how". Or "when". Or anything else for that matter.
Just do as you are told, ask no questions that are not pre-screened and permitted.
That has been the White House model for every one of George W. Bush's Q&A sessions and John McCain, running to be Bush III, is just continuing the tradition.
The real question is whether or not John McCain's "Base' (the media) will be as obedient as they have been to George W. Bush to John McCain.
Perhaps it will take a few more McCain family barbecues to do it.
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McCain....
This is one of those points in life where one can say, "if you have to ask, you would not understand...."Liberal, moderate or conservative, how many of you even served? All that served will know of which I speak.....the others of you that saw fit not to serve, yet are critical of veterans' service, are not fit to be answered. 'Nuff said.....just ask Hussein Obama...oops...Barack Hussein Obama, author of Audacity of Hope and Dreams of My Father, where he truly showed himself to be what he is. Elite and apt to shift to the Muslims if the political winds shift in an ugly direction.....
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Wesley Clark is doing Obama a big favor, whether Obama appreciates it or not.
(I am beginning to think Obama appreciates it but just want deniability for this particular attack.)
McCain's big pitch is that he is more experienced and more patriotic than Obama. It is true that comparatively Obama has substantially less experience than McCain. However, if McCain's claims to experience can be weakened, Obama gains. If McCain loses his temper, Obama gains.
Remember how Hillary was attacked on her "35 years of experience" and how anything she accomplished as first lady was denigrated. (Ignoring the fact that she did accomplish some things as first lady.) Her campaign didn't do a good job of defending her on this issue, perhaps because such experience is complex and nuanced. By cutting Hillary's experience, the Obama campaign leveled the playing field.
Now they must do the same thing with McCain. Unless McCain can explain how and why his military experience equips him to be a better President then it just becomes another shallow meme. Clark is going after brand McCain. He has chosen a tough mission. It will be interesting to see what he actually achieves, but it is in line with Obama's recent speech on patriotism and his talking points on redefining the meaning of patriotism.
I have found Obama quite uninspiring and his 180 degree turns have only increased my skepticism about him, but I am in agreement that service and patriotism needs to be redefined. It isn't just macho bravery. I look forward to a more gender-neutral definition of patriotism where you don't have to go to war, be shot at, or be tortured to be a patriot.