John McCain is a campaign manager's nightmare, spouting endless bloopers and gaffes which make one wonder if Arizonans keep electing this guy because the sun has fried their brains. For example, he insisted yesterday that he still would have voted for invading Iraq even knowing what we have learned over the last five years - no WMDs, no 9/11 connection, no Al Qaeda connection, massive quagmire, etc.
With McCain demonstrating every time he opens his mouth why he shouldn't be president, his handlers needed a distraction badly. And they got one.
Sunday morning on CBS' Face the Nation, retired general Wesley Clark said quite reasonably that McCain's military service and time as a POW during the Vietnam War do not by themselves qualify him to be president, no matter how often he says it. The candidate's surrogates got down on their knees, thanked Jesus for the deus ex televisia, and got out the long knives, howling that Clark somehow "insulted" or "denigrated" McCain's service.
This is, of course, a total lie. Clark didn't say anything even approaching that, only how McCain can't get away with relentlessly flogging his military service as reason #1 why he should be elected. "I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war," he said on Sunday. "He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in 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."
When host Bob Schieffer mentioned that Barack Obama had never served in the military, Clark came back with "Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be President."
Simple and straightforward, and so naturally the GOP pounced on it via Fox News and other propaganda outlets. Obama cringed and criticized Clark's comments, dismaying supporters who were looking forward to a candidate who fights back against manufactured Republican outrage rather than caving in. Naturally, that was not enough for the GOP jihadists, who demanded that Clark be jettisoned from the campaign altogether.
Obama should fight this, and fight it hard. If he gives in now, he will give the GOP carte blanche to go after him on every ridiculous distraction between now and Election Day. The Republicans know they're in deep trouble, so that gives them every incentive to fight dirty. Obama should not surrender to their darkest instincts.
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