The Left Hits McCain's War Record

Matt Lewis | June 30, 2008 9:50 AM

Are they "swift boating" McCain?

It started with Jay Rockefeller, who essentially accused McCain of being an "Air Pirate." Then, this weekend, Wes Clark

made his idiotic remarks. Is there an effort to undermine McCain's heroic image? You bet your life!

... Following are a couple quotes from Ben Smith's post that further illustrate how the left is targeting McCain's war record:

... "Getting shot down, tortured, and then doing propaganda for the enemy is not command experience," Aravosis wrote in the blog post, entitled "Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?"

... "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."

A few things to note:

1. This further highlights how Obama and his supporters are not engaging in a "new" type of politics. This is the same old attack-style politics where one side tries to undermine and destroy the reputation of the other side. And the fact that several prominent Obama surrogates have "gone there" leads me to believe this is an organized effort to undermine McCain's strength (while Obama keeps his hands clean). It occurs to me that Obama is in Independence, MO today to talk about patriotism. Is it patriotic to attack a former P.O.W.?

2. The left are the ones who are not willing to move on from the Vietnam war. These comments show they are still ~~fighting~~ protesting the war. Only people with no class whatsoever would attack the military service of a former P.O.W. -- but then, again, these are the same people who spat into the faces of our service men when they returned home.

3. This illustrates how out-of-touch the left still is regarding military service. This is the last thing Obama needs, but the truth is that -- sooner or later -- people reveal their true feelings. The left loathes the military.