The relevance of being shot down

By Weekly Archive On Jul 8, 2008

It’s
only July, but already we know the rules of this year’s presidential
campaign. Actually, they’re the same rules that apply every election:
You can say anything you want about the Democratic candidate, but you
have to treat the Republican candidate with kid gloves.

In
2000, for example, you could accuse Al Gore of taking bribes from
China, but you could not question George Bush’s use of cocaine. In
2004, it was fine to smear John Kerry’s war record, but forbidden to
wonder why George Bush never showed up for National Guard duty.

Here
we go again. In 2008, it’s OK to suggest, as conservative bloggers do
daily, that Barack Obama is a gay, American-hating, chain-smoking
Muslim. But not OK to suggest that just because John McCain was shot
down and spent six years in the Hanoi Hilton does not, in itself,
qualify him to be president. Unfortunately, Gen. Wesley Clark learned
that lesson the hard way.

Appearing
on CBS’s "Face the Nation," Clark began by praising
McCain’s military service, calling him a "hero" for the
courage he showed as a prisoner of war. However, Clark correctly
pointed out, donning the uniform alone does not make the wearer
presidential timber. In choosing a president, what’s important is the
judgment that a candidate has shown and his experience in making
executive decisions.

Host
Bob Schieffer persisted. Didn’t his being shot down give McCain an
advantage over Obama? Whereupon General Clark gave his now-famous
answer: "Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and
getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

Ironically,
Clark didn’t say anything John McCain hadn’t already said himself.
I’ve heard him, several times, entertain audiences with the same
self-deprecating, joke: "It doesn’t take a lot of talent to get
shot down. I was able to intercept a surface-to-air missile with my
own airplane."

But
for his comment, Clark was not only condemned by the McCain campaign,
he was thrown under the bus by his own candidate. Why? Clark did
nothing wrong. He merely told the truth.

Yes,
we honor every man and woman who wears the uniform. We especially
honor those who are shot down and taken prisoner. But that doesn’t
mean they’re all qualified to be president.

Again,
what counts is judgment. How much judgment did John McCain show when
he suggested it would be OK for American forces to remain in Iraq
another 100 years? When he opposed the latest version of the GI Bill?
When he supported the CIA’s continued use of waterboarding? When he
condemned the Supreme Court’s granting prisoners at Guantanamo Bay
the right to challenge their confinement in civilian court as "one
of the worst decisions in the history of this country." Some
former fighter pilots might have shown better judgment on those
issues. This one did not.

The
way Gen. Clark was treated was unfair. But what’s more unfair is the
double standard applied to Democratic and Republican candidates. Why
is John McCain’s military service out of bounds in 2008, when it was
considered perfectly fair to challenge John Kerry’s war credentials
in 2004, or Max Cleland’s in 2002?

And
notice this big difference. In 2004, the so-called "Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth" didn’t stop at Kerry’s readiness to be
president. They called him a phony. They questioned the very
authenticity of Kerry’s service in Vietnam and the medals he was
awarded. They suggested he was somewhere else, and never wounded. It
was all a pack of lies. Gen. Clark, by contrast, never challenged —
indeed, he praised — McCain’s service in Vietnam. He merely
questioned its relevance to the Oval Office. Big difference. Clark’s
criticism is legitimate. The Swift Boat attacks were not.

But
this is not the only double standard we’ve seen regarding the Swift
Boat veterans. To his credit, John McCain condemned their tactics in
2004. To his total discredit, he has embraced them in 2008. McCain
has named Bud Day, one of the most vitriolic Swift Boaters against
John Kerry, to his campaign "Truth Squad." And, according
to USA Today, so far McCain has accepted almost $70,000 in campaign
contributions from Swift Boat associates. Whatever moral outrage he
felt toward them four years ago disappeared once he needed them as
his own attack dogs.

Bill
Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a
new book, "Train
Wreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (and Not a Moment Too
Soon)."
You can hear "The Bill Press Show" at his Web site:
billpressshow.com. His email address is: bill@billpress.com.