theseminal.com — Clark is right. The media has, by its own admission, given McCain a pass on national security issues. As Clark and Obama consistently say (and I certainly agree), McCain's service is worthy of respect. But there is a difference between being respectful and being sycophantic. The media has chosen the latter route with McCain.
Jul 1, 2008 View in Crawl 4
angusmJul 1, 2008
The thing that almost no one dares come out and say is that whether you served in the military or fought in combat probably doesn't matter a rat's ass when deciding whether you should be running the country.Yes, it's not unreasonable to assume that someone who has worn the uniform might have greater than average physical courage or dedication to their country than someone who stayed home. If they saw combat, then they may have learned some hard lessons about life that you don't learn any other way. If they were officers, you might assume they know something about leadership. (Just in passing, I should add that most of the officers I've ever met were f**k-ups who I wouldn't trust to run a garage sale: for real down-to-earth getting-things-done savvy, I'd pick a senior sergeant every time).But actually running a country requires much more than that. Diplomacy, extensive knowledge of foreign and domestic affairs, and of law and economics, a king-size intelligence to make sense of it all, personal integrity, broad-mindedness, moral more than physical courage, and people-management skills that go beyond simply giving orders would all come higher on the list than a crisp uniform and a row of medals. A priori, I'd think that the State Department probably has more people who have what it really takes than the armed services.Unfortunately, military service is one of our national sacred cows, and we're still obliged to play at least lip service to it in politics (although it seems we can also ignore it when convenient: of our four most recent presidents, GW Bush and Reagan fought the enemy from the safety of the US, while Clinton avoided service entirely; only Bush sr had a distinguished military record).
poprocksandsodaJul 2, 2008
When was McCain a General? I thought he retired a Captain. Am I missing something here in your logic? You must love military rule ... perhaps you should move to Cuba or Myanmar.
kdx200riderJul 2, 2008
Clark must be looking for a position should BHO win the election. Of course BHO doesn't want to challenge anyone's patriotism, he doesn't want it to become an issue, an issue that will cast him in a very bad light.
cedelsonJul 2, 2008
"Clark must be looking for a position should BHO win the election. Of course BHO doesn't want to challenge anyone's patriotism, he doesn't want it to become an issue, an issue that will cast him in a very bad light."thanks for the McCarthy-esque turn. no one has challenged McCain's patriotism, and your suggestion that Obama's patriotism is lacking, for some unspecified reason, lowers the discussion
wonderwormJul 2, 2008
The Real McCain. For starters, he graduated almost last in his class of 89 people (84th), which means he's stupid and almost failed and is one of the dumbest kids in school. Idiots make great presidents right, I mean just look at what Bush did to our country? He was a crappy barely C student who almost failed out of college and bankrupted a few oil companies before Daddy finally gave him a baseball team and picked him to be Governor. Oh and did I mention that the only reason he became a pilot was because his daddy was admiral who appointed his son a flyer over all the other cadets even though his son couldn't fly worth beans and was an idiot. It's no wonder he personally destroyed 5 multimillion dollar planes in his short flying career by flying into telephone lines and all sorts of other dumb mistakes. McCain and his low IQ mind was also rumored to be subjected to experimental KGB mind control techniques while he was captured and who knows why he vehemently blocked other POW families to search for their loved ones in Vietnam while he was in the senate and voted just this year to block benefits for veterans, all while he has received 59,000 yearly in disability compensation yearly from the taxpayers for 29 years! Even though he's worth over 300 million and get's paid a quarter mil to be a senator he still collects this MASSIVE disability check while blocking other truly disabled vets from getting a measly $900 bucks a month or being able to go to college after risking their lives defending our country. Did I mention that he cheated on his loyal 1st wife and screamed in public calling his current wife a "C-U-N-T!" What an genuine A$$hole!!!!!!!!!