Wesley Clark Speaks, and Blogtopia Explodes

He impugned the relevance of John McCain’s military experience to a McCain presidency:

Let’s first give the snippet that you’re going to be seeing crawl across the screen and on the lips of every Republican strategist tomorrow:

“I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”

Now, let’s add one sentence of context:

CLARK: 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. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that 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 this publicly? He hasn’t made those calls, Bob.

SCHIEFFER: Can I just interrupt you? I have to say, Barack Obama hasn’t had any of these experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.

CLARK: I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.

Barack Obama grabs the latest chance to move to the right:

“As he’s said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain’s service, and of course he rejects yesterday’s statement by General Clark,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

But that doesn’t mean there’s anything that needs rejecting:

Politics is politics, to be sure, and the Obama campaign presumably needed to quiet this controversy down quick. So be it. But there’s nothing to reject in Clark’s remarks. He not only failed to say anything untrue, he didn’t even say anything controversial. John McCain would be the first to tell you that getting shot down doesn’t prepare you for the presidency. When folks ask him about his war heroism, he’s even got a stock reply: “It doesn’t take a great deal of effort to get shot down,” he laughs. But it does take a lot of effort to constantly remind the media and the voters that you’re a WAR HERO. Which is why the McCain campaign is gearing up against Clark’s comments. Whether it’s relevant to McCain’s fitness for office or not, his war heroism is central to his chances in this election. In that, Clark simply answered the wrong question. Getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is not a qualification to become president. The McCain campaign, however, is hoping that it’s a sufficient qualification to be elected president.

This is not swiftboating:

So a televised wingnut hollered that McCain was being swift-boated by Gen. Clark. Hello? Clark didn’t make unsupportable claims that McCain is lying about his war record or that he had behaved dishonorably in the service, as the swifties did to Kerry. He’s saying that being a fighter pilot and then a POW doesn’t qualify someone to be President.

Dear wingnuts: This is a simple statement of fact.

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