Why Wesley Clark's getting tarred

It's been really ridiculous the way the right wing has responded to Wesley Clark's comments. To summarize, he basically said that John McCain's military service, and being taken prisoner of war, does not qualify as foreign policy expertise or executive command experience. Both these statements are unquestionably true. Foreign policy experience is political. It has little to do with piloting jet planes, as difficult and dangerous as that job might be.

Clark is being attacked for something he DIDN'T say. Republicans are claiming that the general "attacked" McCain's military service. No, he did not attack it. He simply said that people should feel free to admire it, but not misconstrue it as something it is not. In effect, the (feigned) outrage amounts to this: you are not allowed to say that John McCain's military service is NOT something, if that something is good. You can't say "John McCain's military experience is NOT as tasty as chocolate ice cream," even though that's probably true. That would be an "attack." If I were to say, for instance, that John McCain's military service does not necessarily make him the most handsome man in the country, that would be an attack. Or, if I were to say that John McCain's time as a prisoner of war doesn't necessarily mean he has an enormous penis, and that experience doesn't really have any relationship to the size of his penis, or his sexual prowess in any respect whatsoever, that would be an attack. However, if I said John McCain's military service means he's the just the bestest damned awesome ass kicker who ever laid boot to butt, then I just might be a redneck...sorry, I mean, then I'm a Patriot.

In any event, what's going on here, I think, is that the right sees a guy who could be a great surrogate, or VP candidate, for Obama, and they see a chance to discredit him. I've long thought that Clark would be an ideal Obama VP, actually--good command of military topics, real executive experience (unlike McCain, he commanded others as head of NATO in Bosnia), southerner, smart--Rhodes scholar, close to the Clintons, and an early and intelligent opponent of the Iraq war. The right wants to make sure Obama doesn't have access to those strengths. I still think Obama should pick him. At least consider it. Never mind all this sound and fury.