Monday, June 30, 2008
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Obama Seeks to Tamp Down on Clark Controversy ...
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
2:20 PM
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This morning, Barack Obama sought to distance himself from the Wes Clark comments, saying:
"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."
Once again, Obama proves himself to be a capable politician. Lesser opponents might have agreed with Clark. Others might simply have ignored Clark's comments, and let them fester. Instead, Obama immediately sought to deprive McCain's allies from making this an issue.
In fact, Obama seems determined to deprive his opponents the advantage of having anything for which to criticize him. We say he hasn't been to Iraq -- he goes to Iraq. We note that he says he won't wear a flag pin -- he starts wearing a flag pin. Rev. Wright becomes a problem, he gets thrown under the bus, etc. ...
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patriotism over Obama's any day of the week. Why didn't Obama sign up for the military? It's ok for everyone else to be out there serving this country, but not the likes of Obama and his best bud Ayers. Lucky for them they have people like McCain who are/were willing to serve in the military in order to give people like Obama and Ayers the right to denigrate not only the US but the people in it. |
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Kimberly,
You should try an employment agency.
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Is this going to be the entire F***ing campaign season?????
"A Barack supporter called McCain a doody-face!"
"McCain is old!!!"
"Barack won't change his middle name!!"
"Barack plays the race card!"
"McCain is unstable!"
Meanwhile on the news:
"Gas prices hit $5.00/gallon"
"The dollar is now worth 1/2 a Euro"
"Foreclosures up 316%"
"Government is passing comprehensive [fill in the blank] reform, allowing government to..." |
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Some people are just unemployable. I suspect Kimberly is just that. |
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Only an idiot would agree with what Gen. "Messy" Clark says about anyone and anything.
Obama is not an idiot. Intellectually-challenged, yes, but an idiot, no. |
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distance himself from those remarks, just as his campaign and the media insisted Hillary do when a supporter made a controversial remark. And he is smart to answer criticisms expeditiously but it can become too much of a good thing when he spends so much of his time playing defense that we end up not knowing anything positive about this guy (and I'm still waiting... yawn!) |
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The problem for Obama is that its not just Clark who has made these types of comments. I starts to look like he is privately condoning these comments so they get in the open while publicly condemning them to look good.
I certainly wouldn't argue that military service is required of a POTUS, but even a liberal should know that you don't knock honorable service when your guy's service is as a rabble rouser (community organizer). |
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Howard Dean on Military Service [Gregory S. McNeal]
I can't think of a Howard Dean quote more worthy of a commercial:
"Who would you rather have in charge of the defense of the United States of America, a group of people who never served a day overseas in their life, or a guy who served his country honorably and has three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star on the battlefields of Vietnam?"
Of course, since that quote was referring to John Kerry, Dean now needs to sing a different tune.
06/30 12:32 PM
http://tank.nationalreview.com/ |
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Clark's comments were pretty stupid no matter how you look at it and most sane people (Not Kimberly) agree. Lets look at the commander and chief experience of our various candidates:
McCain - Jet fighter pilot, commanded an air wing in peacetime, on various military and foreign affairs committees in the senate. Ran for president in the past on foreign affairs issues.
Obama - Once stayed in a Holiday Inn Express.
W. Bush - Air national guard pilot.
John Kerry - Swift Boat man, senator
Al Gore - War Photographer, Senator
Bill Clinton - War Evader
Bob Dole - Shot down in WW2, Longtime Senator
George HW Bush - Shot down in WW2, Headed CIA
Ronald Reagan - Played the war hero in movies.
In other words there are very few presidents or presidential candidates with extensive military wartime management experience. Clearly almost no-one has had McCain's experience war and military experience going back to to to Dwight Eisenhower.
On the other hand Wes Clark has extensive military experience, but it doesn't stop him from saying stupid things.
Obama has already come on the record saying this was a very stupid line. Follow sanity and common sense and agree.
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I appreciate your taking the time to put matters in the proper perspective. |
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in the military and one was serving in Iraq. I think Clark's attack on McCain will backfire and denigrating McCain is probably one of the lowest things the Obama surrogates have done for Obama. Of course Obama always sends someone else out to do his hatchet work so he can feign ignorance.
Actually, I see a trend here with Obama. He sends someone out to do his dirty work, he sees how it sits with the American public and the media and if he gets backlash from it, he distances himself and claims the surrogate doesn't talk for him and then turns the tables to try to make it all about questioning Obama on the same issues.
Does Obama really think the American public is so stupid they don't know what his tricks are by now?
BTW, the Jerusalem Post has a great article on McCain:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214492529435&pa gename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull |
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If Obama is the strong leader he says he is, then I would expect these sleazy attacks on McCain's military service by his surrogates to immediately cease.
If they continue, one of two things:
Obama is telling others to attack McCain's military record, so he can turn around and condemn the attacks in a phoney attempt to look like a non-partisan saint...or...
Obama is a lousy leader. If he isn't tough enough to reign in his own party, he is useless as a commander in chief.
We'll see. |
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He did the right thing by saying Wesley Clark was wrong. I just hope that this is the very last time, because having someone from his party or even his campaign disparage McCain's military service and then having Obama come in and say it's wrong 1 times in 5 is getting a bit tiresome. Well, at least by doing so he negated a popular liberal argument today: that Clark was only saying that McCain's military service alone doesn't qualify him to be president. |
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I have to say in this case I will not blame Obama. Clark did not bring these statements forward. He was asked this by the commentator, who seemed prepared for the answer.
I actually do not think there is any formal attempt by Obama or his minions to criticize McCain on his military record. First of all McCain has not even run on his military leadership skills. He has used his military record as a test of character which Obama agrees with. Denigrating a prisoner of war's character is kind've sick. If they would have allowed me to go home early I would've been halfway out the door.
In the case of John Kerry I felt that most of the swift boat veterans stories about his service were pretty stupid, but the accusation that stuck did not need to be made by the swift boaters. That is that after Kerry got back he denounced his service and denigrated his fellow soldiers, than thirty years later was proud of his service. I thought that his ra ra "Here to serve" patriotic rhetoric was in very poor taste, but I didn't need swift boaters to tell me that. |
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4-STAR Gen. Wesley Clark is RIGHT to point out that despite John McCain's former P.O.W. status, it is more important to have good judgment and to be level and cool-headed in order to lead a country.
4-Star General Wesley Clark was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he earned a Masters Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. During 34 years of service in the United States Army, Wesley Clark rose to the rank of FOUR-STAR General as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.
In his final military command, General Clark commanded Operation Allied Force, NATO's first major combat action, which saved 1.5 million Albanians from ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, and he was responsible for the peacekeeping operation in Bosnia.
In previous duty, General Clark was the Commander-in-Chief, US Southern Command, where he was responsible for all US military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. And from April 1994 through June 1996, he was the Director of Strategic Plans and Policy, J-5, in the Joint Staff, where he helped negotiate the end to the war in Bosnia. His previous assignments include a wide variety of command and staff positions, including Command of the 1st Cavalry Division.
General Clark's awards and honors include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, The State Department Distinguished Service Award; the US Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal;(five awards), The US Army Distinguished Service Medal(two awards), The Silver Star, the Bronze Star (two awards), the Purple Heart, and Honorary Knighthoods from the British and Dutch governments.
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Wesley Clark is rapidly becoming a political pariah, just like Bill Clinton...He harms any campaign that he comes in contact with. I hope he keeps spewing off at the mouth! He & Bill Clinton can't control their tongues. Wesley Clark is a poor represention of how to conduct oneself after his or her (military)service is completed. To denigrate John McCain the way he did speaks volumes about the man. For some years now, it seems as though he has had an axe to grind, and will stoop to a level that makes me embarassed to even know that he ever put on a military uniform on...Shame on you, you are a disgrace to the United States of America. |
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One chapter of this compilation of (mostly modern) military blunders is on how a rash Wesley Clark, as NATO commander, almost brought on war with Russia by ordering the seizure of Pristina airport during the Kosovo campaign. He, we, were saved by his British subordinate who refused to follow such a foolish order
http://www.tomfolio.com/bookdetailssu.asp?b=34643&m=220
This is the man who, as NATO shifted from war-fighting mode into peacekeeping mode, ordered his ground commander to deploy a helicopter assault team to block a surprise Russian advance into Kosovo's major airfield — an order his British subordinate answered with a terse and chilling rejoinder: "I'm not going to start World War III for you." After both men appealed to their national commanders — a practice permitted under NATO's vague and unwieldy war-fighting conventions — cooler heads in Washington and London agreed with Clark's subordinate, concluding that NATO's unity was more important than Kosovo's airport. A humiliated Clark was forced to rescind his order. Two months later, he was unceremoniously replaced as Supreme Allied Commander-Europe (SACEUR). The turn of events stunned Clark: "I never saw myself as a 55-year-old retired general," he later said.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-dowd082103.as p" target="_blank">http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-dowd082103.as p
Some NATO air commanders, especially the American ones, blamed Clark for compromising with NATO's political leaders too much on targets early in the war, thus lengthening the campaign. After weeks of trying to corner and back channel Clinton and the Joint Chiefs into launching a ground war, Clark was virtually quarantined from the war council. "I rue the day I made him SACEUR," Defense Secretary Bill Cohen is reported to have said
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-dowd082103.as p" target="_blank">http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-dowd082103.as p |
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