The knives sure are out for retired Gen. Wesley Clark.
In case you missed it: Interviewed by CBS' Bob Schieffer on Sunday's Face the Nation, Clark said that for all the national security experience John McCain claims, he never held a position of command during wartime. "I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war," Clark said. "He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces as a prisoner of war. He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee and he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn't held executive responsibility." Clark then continued, "But he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in Air -- in the Navy that he commanded, it wasn't a wartime squadron. 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. Do you want to take the risk? What about your reputation? How do we handle it publicly?' He hasn't made those calls, Bob."
Then came this:
SCHIEFFER: I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences, either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down. I mean --CLARK: Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.
From the response of McCain's defenders in the press, you'd think Clark had claimed that John McCain was never really in Vietnam at all. CNN's Rick Sanchez described it with an incredulous expression as "dissing, some might say Swiftboating, John McCain's military record." ABC's Rick Klein accused Clark of "calling into question, in surprisingly sharp language, Sen. John McCain's military record." Over at the Wall Street Journal, Gerald Seib and Sara Murray were aghast: "The one certainty of the 2008 campaign, it might have seemed, was that Sen. John McCain would be acknowledged all around as a war hero for his service in Vietnam -- but apparently not."
Of course, they were just wrong: Clark didn't call McCain's record into question; he didn't say McCain wasn't a hero, and he sure as hell didn't "Swiftboat" McCain. Not only was he responding directly to Schieffer's question, using Schieffer's words, but he explicitly honored McCain's service. Those key pieces of context were left out of the reports that all three networks broadcast the next day, as well as many of the reports in newspapers and on television that followed. In The New York Times, Jeff Zeleny not only removed the context, but he simply repeated the McCain campaign's outrageously disingenuous charge that Clark was "impugning Mr. McCain's heroism."
But to understand why the press is reacting with such outrage, you have to understand what they've been saying about McCain for the last decade.
There's a myth out there that the McCain campaign and the media have cooperated to create. It says that John McCain is reluctant to exploit his Vietnam POW story for political advantage, so modest and full of integrity is he. We've seen this repeated again and again, not just by McCain and his supporters but by reporters who ought to know better.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
From the first time he ran for Congress in 1982 up to the present day, McCain has made his POW story the centerpiece of his entire political career. The key moment of that 1982 campaign was when he responded to his opponent's (absolutely true) accusation that McCain was a carpetbagger by saying, "As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi." At every point since, it has been the deft use of this tool that has brought McCain renewed attention or won him a key victory.
McCain has every right to talk about Vietnam all he wants -- it's his story, and no serious person has ever disputed the details. But don't tell us he's reluctant to use it, because he isn't. He talks about it to voters, he talks about it to contributors, he talks about it to reporters, he talks about it with seriousness, he jokes about it, and his campaign makes every attempt it can to remind people of what happened to him in Vietnam.
As I said, there's nothing wrong with that. But what happened with Gen. Clark reveals the McCain Rules, as he and the press would have us understand them. Here's how things are supposed to work: It's fine for the McCain campaign to run ads touting his time as a POW, create web videos touting his time as a POW, have him mention his time as a POW in speeches, and have him bring it up in debates (remember "I was tied up at the time"?). In other words, it's fine to have John McCain's entire presidential run be presented through the filter of his POW experience. Should, however, someone even ask the question of whether the fact that McCain was a POW really qualifies him to be president, that would be a deeply offensive affront to all that is right and good, and must not be tolerated. Talk about having it both ways.
Let's keep in mind that no one seems to have argued with Clark on the merits of his claim. No one responded by saying, "General Clark is wrong -- in fact, McCain's POW experience does qualify him to be president." I suppose one could make that argument, but I haven't seen anyone actually make it. Instead, what they have said is that Clark was out of bounds to even raise the issue. To even assert that McCain's Vietnam experience isn't in and of itself a qualification for the Oval Office is such an unforgivable transgression that its merits don't need to be addressed.
There is, however, one person who wouldn't disagree with Clark's statement that being a POW doesn't qualify you for the presidency. When asked by the National Journal in 2003, "Do you think that military service inherently makes somebody better equipped to be commander-in-chief?" this politician answered, "Absolutely not. History shows that some of our greatest leaders have had little or no military experience. ... I have advised [a presidential candidate] that I'd be very careful about how much you talk about that, because you don't want it to sound self-serving." The person who said that was John McCain, and the presidential candidate he was talking about was John Kerry.
For years, we've watched as reporters have dropped the fact that McCain was a POW into their stories, apropos of nothing, as if it were merely part of his name... John McCain, who was a POW in Vietnam, visited a farm to discuss the dairy industry. I kid, but it seems that any criticism of McCain's character is greeted with "But he was a POW!" When Howard Dean called McCain an "opportunist" back in April, Chris Wallace of Fox News indignantly asked Sen. John Kerry, "Do you think John McCain was an opportunist when he refused to take early release from a North Vietnamese prison camp?" Just last week, The Washington Post's Richard Cohen wrote that though McCain has flip-flopped on immigration, taxes, and a host of other issues, it's really OK, because "we know his bottom line. As his North Vietnamese captors found out, there is only so far he will go, and then his pride or his sense of honor takes over."
So when Gen. Clark, or anyone else, says that the fact that McCain suffered as a POW forty years ago is really neither here nor there when it comes to what the next president will be faced with, it's no surprise that McCain's fanboys in the media react with such high dudgeon. After all, to suggest that the POW story is only one piece of McCain's biography, and not the be-all-end-all on which the next president should be chosen, is as much an indictment of the press as it is of McCain.
Paul Waldman of Media Matters Action Network is the author or coauthor of four books on politics and media, including his most recent work, Free Ride: John McCain and the Media, coauthored with David Brock.
Democrats and the media fill the airways with "blah blah blah,..McCain...hero...we honor his service...BUT......"
I haven't heard ONE PERSON--not even OBAMA!!!!--comment on what Clark said with a similar phrase.
Wesley Clark served our country for 30 years--and is, himself, a badly wounded war hero.
Why doesn't anyone ever say it? Why doesn't anyone ever call the Republicans out on the completely DISrespectful way they criticize Clark????
I'm so tired of conservatives and how they've intimidated Democrats and the media. Still!!! It's unbelievable, really.
Obama / Clark '08 -- that's still my favorite ticket.
If you pay attention, you will notice that it isn't always important to "honor service and heroisim", only if the serviceman in question is also conservative.
After all, Jeremiah Wright is a Marine, like Jack Murtha, and we won't even start talking about the treatment John Kerry received. You never hear any complaints about tarnishing their service record (ask Max Cleeland, smeared as a coward by KARL ROVE, of all people), or doubting their commitment to our country. The fact that this inconsistency is NEVER noted by the media, just signals their complicit nature and should also dispel that tired old saw about the "liberal media".
Honor EVERYONE's service or NO ONES!!! As it is now, we only honor their service if they also joined the GOP after they were done. This is unacceptable and needs to be fought against, by ALL members of BOTH parties, as intelectually dishonest AND DEMEANING to ALL who served, no matter what party they joined after their service.
Lets leave Senator McCain's POW time alone, and get with the things he really wrong about.
'
No such curriculum is offered where HRC or BHO graduated from, making them the only ones who are not qualified to be C-I-C by any criteria, other than their imaginations.
I think the point is that his military experiences don't, in themselves, give him the knowledge, judgment, and leadership skills needed for the Presidency.
He also seems to feel being a POW makes him a military and foreign policy expert. It doesn't.
Clark had a good point--to question the way McCain uses his military service 30 years ago in his argument that he's more qualified to be President.
Unfortunately, the Republicans successfully swiftboated Clark--and, as usual, the Democrats (including unfortunately Obama himself) let it happen.
He is right. The service is honorable but it does not mean McCain has the policies or temperament to be president.
As for swiftboating if that is what they call swiftboating they are a bunch of drama queens. To see swiftboating they need to look at what Bush and Rove were saying about McCain when McCain was running against G.W. Then McCain was a treasonous wingnut whose service had not been honorable. Then he was a Manchurian Candidate who had brainwashed by his captors.
The press didn't really make that big a fuss over them saying all those awful things about McCain but they seem to be losing their lunch over a GENERAL having the nerve to say that just being a POW may not give you any better skills to be PRESIDENT.
The press pick and choose their moments of indignation.
I was watching Face the Nation this Sunday and cheered Clark's remarks. It is about time that someone has spoken up and started putting McSame's military service in the proper context. Clark was very complimentary of McSame’s service and only responded to Scheiffer’s rather accusatorial question about Obama not being a pilot and being shot down.
McSame doesn't have the temperament and judgment to be President in great part because of his military service. He was clearly heroic in his resistance to torture but outside of that he was mediocre at best both as a West Point Cadet and naval officer. More important though is that his Vietnam experience as a prisoner of war has clouded his judgment of the history of that war and military conflict, in general. While this mental framework is understandable, it does not make him a good choice for Commander in Chief. In addition, the rest of his policies as well as his obvious age and temper make him an undesirable candidate for President.
.
He has become just another despicable, lying political hack instead of someone who has served with honor. His refusal to support the recent GI Bill and the bill to outlaw water boarding as well as his lies about and continued support for the occupation of Iraq are just some of the ways he has disgraced himself with consequences for the soldiers he purports to honor. He has very low ratings by just about every veteran’s organization
The military tradition is self control and discipline. Clark knows McCain's real active duty history before and after the POW years and he never touched it. McCain was a loose cannon before he got shot down in the Navy, and he has been a loose cannon since. Republican senator Thad Cochrane is on tape today describing an incident in which McCain physically attacked a foreign diplomat while the two senators were on a diplomatic mission. That is more high school than white house.
Mr Waldman points out McCain's advice to Kerry. And follows with accurate characterizations how McCain campaigned on his POW legend and dined out for 35 years on it. McCain is one of those people whose heroism while based in fact has taken on an aspect that, as Mr Waldman notes, is forbidding. Why is that? Where was that consideration for three time purple heart awardee, John Kerry? Maybe it's time for a closer look at the McCain legend?
Mr Waldeman dials in the media accurately as well. Particularly disgusting are Mika Brzenski and Chris Matthews. One expects hacks like Reilly and O'Hannity and the other jingos at Fox to lie and dissemble about what Clark said, but MSNBC lying about Clark? Russert bought out just in time to avoid being part of that humiliation.
Anyways, thanks, Mr Waldeman for supporting the truth.
THAT BEING IN A FIGHTER PLANE AND OR A POW IS NOT A
QUALIFICATION TO BE PRESIDENT.
ONE THING IS BEING IN THE ARMY
THE OTHER THING IS QUALIFICATION FOR PRESIDENT
THEY ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. DUH!
Thank you, General Clark, for having the nerve to say that the emperor has no clothes!
Paul, this is in the middle of your piece but I think it should be the lead. This is the real issue. The press and flak are always pouncing on the peripheral and yanking it to the center. They are great at talking about the things that don't matter to the detriment of understanding. When you call them on it, don't re-enforce their dodge by making the dodge your topic but state clearly at the beginning what the topic should be. If such corrections are made often enough, maybe they will get the hint.