PoliticalDerby.com

This past Sunday, Wesley Clark, (General, United States Army - Retired), waded neck deep into the political swamp and started taking potshots at Senator John McCain (Captain, United States Navy – Retired) and his military service to the United States during the Vietnam War. Said Clark:

I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.

Let’s get one thing straight, Wes. McCain didn’t “ride” in a fighter plane. He flew it. In order to fly his 23rd combat mission over Vietnam he had to first be flung off a pitching carrier deck in his A-4 Skyhawk. Taking off was the easy part. Landing that single engine/single seat plane on a carrier deck is like trying to land on a postage stamp in the middle of the ocean all the while hoping to snag one of three steel arresting cables with a hook welded to the back of your plane in order to stop you from flying off the end of the carrier into the ocean.

Very few people on the earth can do this. Only Americans do it well.

Wesley Clark hasn’t backed down from his ludicrous statement that shocked even CBS’ Bob Schieffer. Well, yesterday a man who I am sorry to say represents me in the United States Senate waded up next to Clark and added his endorsing comment. Yes, I’m talking about none other than Senator Jim “The Angry Potato” Webb (D-Washington Post).

Webb really is the accidental Senator. He owes his senate seat to the Washington Post and other MSM entities for their relentless trumpeting of George Allen’s macacca gaffe. Let me be perfectly clear – Allen ran a horrible campaign and deserved to lose. Allen lost his seat more than Webb won it.

But I digress.

Webb went on MSNBC’s Countdown (which means very few people actually saw him) and let loose with this stream of nonsense:

John McCain’s my long-time friend, if that is one area that I would ask him to calm down on, it’s that, don’t be standing up and uttering your political views and implying that all the people in the military support them because they don’t, any more than when the Democrats have political issues during the Vietnam War. Let’s get the politics out of the military, take care of our military people, or have our political arguments in other areas. [Emphasis Added]

This is just plain silly. Jim Webb’s entire campaign focused on the fact that he honorably served this nation during the Vietnam War and is a highly decorated marine. For crying out loud he wore his son’s combat boots for the whole campaign cycle! Were it not for his military credentials, Jim Webb would still be writing historical fiction books. Virginia elected Webb on the strength of his military street cred. To assert otherwise is to be someplace other than reality.

This election is about who is going to serve this nation as the Commander-In-Chief of the United States Armed Forces during time of war. John McCain is right to lay his silver eagles on the table and tell the nation that he has in fact been there, done that, and has the key to the Hanoi Hilton to prove it.

Wesley Clark would discount McCain’s wartime service entirely as a qualification to be Commander-In-Chief. Jim Webb wouldn’t discount it, but would remove discussions of military issues from the presidential debate. They would do this because their candidate has no military record to speak of and no executive experience what so ever. Actually, the Obama campaign has a hard time putting together any list of accomplishments which isn’t full of holes.

So, if military street cred doesn’t count as a qualification t sit in the Big Chair, what does? I’ll let Wes Clark answer that question:

Barack is not, he is not running on the fact that he has made these national security pronouncements. He’s running on his other strengths. He’s running on the strengths of character, on the strengths of his communication skills, on the strengths of his judgment. And those are qualities that we seek in our national leadership.

Character. Judgment. Communication skills. I don’t have to look too hard to find huge flaws in Obama’s “character” and gaping chasms in his “judgment”. That leaves communication skills. I guess that means as long as Obama has 24/7 access to a speechwriter and TelePrompTer, he’ll do just fine.