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Home Front: Politix
Weasley Clark hits McCain's military credentials
2008-06-30
Gen. Weasley Wesley Clark, acting as a disreputable surrogate for Barack ObamaÂ’s campaign, invoked John McCainÂ’s military service against him in one of the more personal attacks on the Republican presidential nominee this election cycle.
For some strange reason Obama and Axelrod think they can do a reverse-Swift-Boat on John McCain. It's not going to work, and it's just going to drive the center away from them.
Clark said that McCain lacked the executive experience necessary to be president, calling him “untested and untried” on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” And in saying so, he took a few swipes at McCain’s military service. After saying, "I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. 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 added that these experiences in no way qualify McCain to be president in his view:
Being a goof-ball general doesn't qualify you to be president, either ...
“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,” Clark said.
It's hard to hold executive responsibility in preparation to be president. Being a governor is being an executive, but Bill Clinton proved it wasn't sufficient. Being a big-city mayor likewise isn't the same. There's really no one job that prepares you to be president other than the job of life. Say what you want about McCain, he's done a number of things in his life, and added together pro'ly make him ready to do the job. At least compared to someone who was a 'community organizer', lawyer, state senator, and partial-one-term US senator.
“I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”
I wonder if he says that around other military people. It was McCain's bad luck to be shot down, just as for every other fellow who was wounded or killed. You'd think a general would understand that and not impugn the sacrifice of another military person. You'd think.
Posted by:Steve White

#31  I find it interesting that BO has Clark make this comment allowing it to soak in with folks before he comes out and speaks against it making himself appear a real stand up guy, yes throwing Clark under the bus. What an A**hole.
Obama will have to have a fleet of buses with his antics.

We are so very screwed with either choice this coming election, God save us all. It'll be interesting who the VP candidates will be.
I'm usually a very positive person, but have been feeling so sulky and feeling OMG scared actually.
This has gone way beyond blood pressure medicine, with so much hanging in the balance and our future looking at these choices is so unbelievable. Bourbon helps, f*** the blood pressure medicine.
Posted by: Jan   2008-06-30 23:41  

#30  Bump bump bump,
another one under the bus...
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-06-30 23:24  

#29  Dis Clark.
Posted by: .5MT   2008-06-30 19:35  

#28  Break a leg Weasel
Posted by: .5MT   2008-06-30 19:22  

#27  Ima hear sink trap is the place to be now. Burnt ornage shag, Avarocado small appliances and 8-Track, I mean heck whater more you want?

Posted by: .5MT   2008-06-30 19:20  

#26  Darn

I'd rather Let Weasley be Weasley

then

get another person to drop out of the BO campaign
Posted by: mhw   2008-06-30 15:56  

#25  Obama said that patriotism "must, if it is to mean anything, involve the willingness to sacrifice" and sought to distance himself from Clark's remarks without mentioning them."For those like John McCain who have endured physical torment in service to our country — no further proof of such sacrifice is necessary," Obama said. "And let me also add that no one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters on both sides."

Buh bye, Wes. Back to the Wax Museum with ya...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-06-30 15:48  

#24  Clark is a twat.

Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2008-06-30 15:32  

#23  "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you"
(General Sir Mike Jackson, K-For's British commander to Wesley Clark)
Posted by: Angarong Bluetooth8939   2008-06-30 15:01  

#22  Good catch tipper. LOL.

Duck Weasley, the bus's transmission housing is aimed straight for your head...
Posted by: MarkZ   2008-06-30 14:51  

#21  The absolutely hilarious point of this incident is that ANY 'bambi supporter has the chutzpah to criticize ANYONE as being too lacking in executive experience.

Jeez Louise on a shingle 'bambi is the DEFINITION of inexperienced!!!!!!! (I looked up "inexperienced" in the OED and there was 'bambi's picture, honestly)
Posted by: AlanC   2008-06-30 13:52  

#20  Getting crowded under there.
Posted by: tu3031   2008-06-30 13:45  

#19  Looks like Clark is going to be thrown under the bus
Posted by: tipper   2008-06-30 13:02  

#18  From In from the Cold...

Contrast John McCain's conduct to that of Wesley Clark. During the 1990s, Clark and other Clinton Administration envoys envoys met with notorious Serbian leaders, including General Ratko Mladic, leader of the Bosnia Serb Army, and a wanted war criminal. By various accounts, Mladic was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Muslims and Croat civilians.

During one highly-publicized meeting Mladic and Clark, all smiles, gladly exchanged hats, and posed for photographers. It was a particularly shameful moment, one that General Clark never mentions. Making matters worse (if that's possible), the infamous "hat-swap" meeting, which occurred in 1994, was not officially authorized. "It's like cavorting with Hermann Goering" one U.S. official complained at the time.

To our knowledge, General Clark has never apologized for that meeting--or his feckless conduct. And, quite predictably, Clark's friends in the MSM have never called him on it.
Posted by: tu3031   2008-06-30 12:40  

#17  Bobby, you got to wonder about the writer. What sort of person gives their e-mail address to
Noam Chomsky?

Hell if he had my address I would get a new one and abandon the one he had!
Posted by: 3dc   2008-06-30 12:37  

#16  Trust O'Babbi to kiss this pig. Even Hilly wanted nothing to do with his weasley ass this time around.
Posted by: mojo   2008-06-30 12:20  

#15   Frankly, I wouldn't even consider Obama for mayor of a large city - he has shown me nothing that suggests executive competence.

Don't know about that, if you were one of his cronies, you would be on a nice little earner, especially if your credentials were that of former civil rights activist - a bit like being a community organiser.
Posted by: tipper   2008-06-30 11:43  

#14  BTW,

"'I wouldn't characterize anybody who fought in Vietnam as a war hero,' said Medea Benjamin"

I wouldn't spit on this pig if her ass were on fire.

There is still time to settle accounts with many of the Vietnam era traitors, though probably not Kennedy (we know about), Chomsky (age 78), or Cronkite(90).

In ten years, maybe less, the power of the media-industrial complex and its stereotyped 60s cultural paradigm will have declined to the point at which real action is possible.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2008-06-30 11:03  

#13  AC - did you overlook this little nugget?

Noam Chomsky, the linguist and activist, said in an email that he thought Americans should question the relevance of McCain's torture in an unjust war to his campaign.

"The questions could scarcely even be understood within the reigning intellectual and moral culture—though I don't doubt that much of the population would understand," Chomsky said.

You're right, Choms - very few people do understand you.
Posted by: Bobby   2008-06-30 10:56  

#12  Dragging out a disgraced general and bringing Vietnam shambling out if its grave is not a winning strategy.

Please keep it up, assholes.

And John McCain, shut the fuck up lest you say things you shouldn't.
Posted by: DarthVader   2008-06-30 10:53  

#11  The media/left is really cranking up their cherished Vietnam myth on behalf of Obama:
Some on left target McCain's war record

But farther to the left—and among some of McCain's conservative enemies as well—harsher attacks are circulating. Critics have accused McCain of war crimes for bombing targets in Hanoi in the 1960s.


Then there is this classic invocation of the Myth:
The newsletter CounterPunch published this April an article by Doug Valentine headed "Meet the Real John McCain: North Vietnam's Go-To Collaborator."

Valentine suggested McCain contemplated suicide—something the candidate has written about, and attributed in part to his guilt at not withstanding torture—because he was a "war criminal" whose bombs fell on civilians.


Finally, some undiluted Radio Hanoi propaganda from that period:
"I wouldn't characterize anybody who fought in Vietnam as a war hero," said Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the theatrical anti-war group Code Pink. "In 23 bombing sorties, there must have been civilians that were killed and there's no heroism to that."

"Anyone who can't look back and admit how wrong it was to be in Vietnam and be killing civilians deserves to be challenged," she said, though she stressed that her group is more focused on McCain's present support for the war in Iraq than on his past.



Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2008-06-30 09:54  

#10  Frankly, I wouldn't even consider Obama for mayor of a large city - he has shown me nothing that suggests executive competence.

Which at least qualifies him for New Orleans doesn't it? How would the locals be able to tell the difference?

Mr. Clark demonstrates the problem of our systems, their ability to be played and gamed in the climb up the executive ladder. It's damn hard to discern managers from leaders in peacetime. When something other than peacetime is involved, the reluctance of adjusting the system to identify leaders and to ruthlessly sack all others from positions of leadership responsibility is a chronic organizational shortcoming.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-06-30 09:02  

#9  So when was Wes thawed out and reanimated?
Posted by: tu3031   2008-06-30 08:52  

#8  The best thing you can do with Dems is let them talk all they want. Digging a hole, let them do the work.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-06-30 08:52  

#7  One more thing...

If what McCain went through as a unit commander, and as a combat pilot and a POW isnt good enough, then where the hell does it leave Obama, who has never held a REAL job?

I hope the weasel is ready to join the body count under the Obama bus, because that's where he is going to be thrown. Getting crowded down there.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-06-30 08:50  

#6  FYI: His other nickname was "Wesley Crusher" in reference to his annoyance factor. You guys figure it out.

Posted by: OldSpook   2008-06-30 08:47  

#5  He is responsible for our mess in the Balskans, the crappy ops there, etc.

I know people who served under this jerk.

They didn't call him "Weasel-y" for nothing.

And any vet that would attack a brother in this fashion is showing just the kind of Buddy F'er he was in the service.

Dishonest, untrustworthy, arrogant and ignorant are all terms that come to mind when you mention this asshat to me.

What a scumbag.

On top of that Clark is such a f-up that he got fired by CLINTON! This guy was relieved for INCOMPETENCE, and yet Obama the idiot uses him for a military advisor.

What morons and a-holes they both are.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-06-30 08:36  

#4  Clark is a disgusting POS
Posted by: Frank G   2008-06-30 05:53  

#3  Yea, from Weasley, that'd stick.

/s
Posted by: Spike Uniter   2008-06-30 02:43  

#2  I've never landed a jet - at night - during a rainstorm - onto the deck of an air craft carrier underway. I probably can't imagine the actual complexity and pucker-factor involved in doing that. But - if I need someone to handle serious responsibilities in a crisis (or handle an in-flight malfunction that threatens my commercial airliner) - I think I'll take the decorated naval carrier pilot over the "community organizer."

There are certainly experience profiles that could beat John McCain's in terms of executive experience. George H.W. Bush probably had about the best conceivable resume. But - Obamaa's resume is utterly embarrassing in its astonishingly thin content with respect to anything even remotely approaching relevant experience for running the world's lone Superpower.

I loathe General Clark (despite sharing the same undergraduate Alma Mater), but I would put his experience profile light years ahead of Obama.

Frankly, I wouldn't even consider Obama for mayor of a large city - he has shown me nothing that suggests executive competence.

I relish the thought of the election coming down to comparing the relevant leadership and executive experience of the two candidates. Hussein isn't even in the same ballpark.

Posted by: Lone Ranger   2008-06-30 00:37  

#1  Uh - so I guess being a mumbling, misinformed, cowardly, inexperienced part-term senator with no executive experience and an SUV full of bizarre and distasteful mentors/friends/allies prepares you to be prez? Does the Lion of Pristina Airport realize what the obvious logical implication is here for his own pathetic candidate? So long as McCain stomps the twink from Chicago and then avoids causing too much damage in his own right, this election could be even funnier than the last one.
Posted by: Verlaine   2008-06-30 00:25  

00:00