Cross Clark Off Veep List

If you’re attempting to read between the lines of Barrack Obama’s rebuke of General Wesley Clark’s critique of John McCain’s military service preparing him for the Presidency, consider this: Clark’s comments and Obama’s required response in essence removes Clark’s name from those currently being considered for the VP nod.
The idea of Obama being asked to defend the comments of a VP choice running up to the election would just not fly. While General Clark was looking like a long shot anyway, the corner Obama finds himself painted into pretty musch seals the deal.
Clark provided some attractive features too: a General, former Pesidential candidate and a supporter of Hillary Clinton.
Obama’s defense of McCain’s service is both consistent with his position throughout the campaign and his only realistic course. Joining with Clark’s assessment would have dropped Obama squarely into the category of ‘flip-flopper’; and the worst possible kind at that. In a country hyper-sensitive of military service and the place it holds in our national self esteem, a non-veteran attacking or so much as analyzing the military service of a veteran is well outside our collective comfort zone. I suspect that the McCain camp is praying to bronze statues of Ronald Reagan and the alleged soul of Karl Rove that Obama makes such a mistake.
Apparently one has to have served on a swift boat in Vietnam to effectively criticize the military service of another. Wesley Clark is a retired General. A General! The swift boat clowns who steered John Kerry’s campaign into the rocks in 2004 delivered the dry cleaning to Generals like Clark. If anyone has a place to critique the preparation that combat service provides, it’s this guy.
Of course the fact of the matter is; Clark is right. McCain’s service alone; or the service of any other soldier does not prepare him for the world’s highest office. Clearly, McCain’s time in the US Senate has better prepared him for the job. But the issue and the opportunity here is that military service and the military as a whole is a sensitive and agitating issue with right leaning voters and the Republicans recognize it.
Expect the McCain camp to keep this alive over the next couple days, generically tying “the Democrats” (rather than General Clark) to this issue. In the end, Clark’s service could be the neutralizer with this issue and everything military. None of us have rank on the guy including Captain McCain.

More Here: