This Q&A on “Face the Nation” on Sunday between retired Gen. Wesley Clark and host Bob Shieffer has caused quite a stir:
Much to the dismay of Democrats who took Obama at his word that he would bring a gun to the Republicans’ knife fight, less than 24 hours after Clark’s appearance on “Face the Nation,” Obama unceremoniously threw Gen. Clark under the bus.
SCHIEFFER: You went so far as to say that you thought, and these are your words, that John McCain was “untested and untried.” And I have to say I had to read that twice because you’re talking about someone who who was a prisoner of war. He was a squadron commander of the largest squadron in the Navy. He’s been on the Senate Armed Services Committee for many years. How can you say that John McCain is untested and untried?

WESLEY CLARK: Because in the matters of national security policy making, it’s a matter of understanding risk. It’s a matter of gauging your opponents, and it’s a matter of being held accountable. John McCain’s never done any of that in his official positions. 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 Armed Forces as a prisoner of war.

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 he commanded, it wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn’t seen what it’s like when diplomats come in and say, “I don’t know whether we’re going to be able to get this point through or not. You want to take the risk? How are we going to handle it? What about your reputation…” He hasn’t made those calls, Bob.

SCHIEFFER: Well, General… I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either. Nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.

WESLEY CLARK: Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification for being president.

SCHIEFFER: REALLY?

In an article about the controversy published on the CBS News website, Ben Smith, the reporter who covers the Democrats for right-leaning Politico.com, laid out a key element in the conservatives’ strategy for delivering a win for John McCain this year. “The highest voltage third rail of this presidential campaign may not be race, sex, or age,” Smith wrote, “but Senator John McCain’s military service.”

There’s no doubt Republicans want McCain’s military record to be the third rail. They want to create an atmosphere in which, no matter what the facts are, the storyline is simple: He flew fighter jets, was shot down, captured and sat in a Vietnamese POW camp for five years — and that settles it. Discussion of anything that happened before his jet hit the lake in Hanoi — or during those years in the POW camps — is off the table.

To the dismay of Democrats who took Obama at his word that he would bring a gun to the Republicans’ knife fight, less than 24 hours after Clark’s appearance on “Face the Nation,” Obama unceremoniously threw the general under the bus. Or rather, he sent a surrogate to do it. Bill Burton, a campaign underling, told the gaggle, “As he’s said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain’s service, and of course he rejects yesterday’s statement by General Clark.”

Of course.

It is hard to see this as anything other than the Obama campaign unilaterally standing down from engagement on an aspect of McCain’s bio that many people feel bears scrutiny. If so, it leaves the field wide open for Republicans to go after Obama on his patriotism. In particular, on June 12, Republican National Chairman Mike Duncan stated unequivocally that the RNC planned to attack Obama by exaggerating his ties to William Ayers, a former member of a radical anti-Vietnam War group. “I think associations are fair game,” said Duncan in C-SPAN interview. “I’d like to talk about William Ayers, who was an unrepentant underground Weatherman who was involved in bombings in this country.”

Obama, of course, was in grade school when Ayers was protesting the Vietnam War. In 1990s, when Obama announced he was running for the Illinois state senate, Ayers, a constituent in the district, hosted a campaign event for him at the request of the retiring senator who held the seat. Obama and Ayers later served on the board of a nonprofit foundation. That’s the extent of Obama’s “association” with William Ayers.

McCain’s military record bears scrutiny. He was in the bottom 1 percent of his class Annapolis. After graduation, he partied, chased women and traded on his connections — particularly the fact that his father was an admiral, just as his grandfather had been — to usurp hot assignments that should have gone to more qualified personnel. No less than five fighter jets he piloted were totaled, including the one that he was shot down in over Vietnam.

There are darker and murkier aspects to McCain’s service, as well. In his Politico.com article at the CBS News site, Ben Smith wrote: “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.”

But the idea that McCain is a war criminal did not originate on the left or the right. Perhaps Smith is unaware that in a “60 Minutes” interview in 1997, McCain himself said, “I am a war criminal. I bombed innocent women and children.”

And then there are members of the Vietnam POW/MIA community, a predominantly conservative group, who believe McCain’s deportment in the camps was less than honorable. They accuse him of collaborating with the enemy, and even of being brainwashed like the “The Manchurian Candidate.”

As for Gen. Clark, by any measure, his service record entitles him to criticize McCain. In Vietnam in 1970, Clark was shot four times by a Viet Cong guerrilla. Even so, he “shouted orders to his men, who counterattacked and defeated the Viet Cong force. Clark had injuries to his right shoulder, right hand, right hip, and right leg.” He was awarded the Silver Star for his actions that day. He also received the Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam.

In 2004, John Kerry let the right-wing lie about his record of military service, which was especially ironic considering his opponent, George Bush, had apparently been unable to complete his service during the war in the champagne unit of the Texas Air National Guard because he couldn’t pass a drug test. Largely because Kerry acquiesced and let Republicans befoul his service record, the feeble-brained Bush won a second term.

Wes Clark has refused to back down on his statements. For this, he should be applauded, not repudiated. Ceding the authority on military service to the Republicans is the opposite of “change.” It’s more of the same, and will undoubtedly produce the same results it did four years ago.