Linkmeister

Clark - McCain brouhaha

This has been all over the news today. Yesterday on "Face the Nation" former General Wes Clark said of Senator McCain, "I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

In a sane world, that would be patently obvious. Suffering in the Hanoi Hilton for five-and-a-half years is awful, but it's not relevant to one's leadership skills.

Ah, but our illustrious media jumped on that statement, saying Clark had somehow disrespected McCain. Hard to see how, but then they make the big bucks, so I'm surely wrong.

Funny, though: the Columbia Journalism Review agrees with me.

It’s crucially important that we have a political debate in this country that’s at least sophisticated enough to be able to handle the following rather basic idea: Arguing that a person’s record of military service is not a qualification for the presidency does not constitute “attacking” their military credentials; nor can it be described as invoking their military service against them, or as denying their record of war heroism.

That’s not a very high bar for sophistication. But right now it’s one the press isn’t capable of clearing.

It hasn't been capable of clearing that bar for quite some time.

Update: General Clark appeared on MSNBC this evening and stood by his remarks.

Posted by Linkmeister at June 30, 2008 01:20 PM | TrackBack