Thursday, July 03, 2008

Clark v McCain

Wes Clark pointed out that John McCain's military experience isn't, by itself, an automatic qualifier for President. I've watched Clark both saying it originally and then standing up for what he said, and his point is valid. He rightfully praises McCain's service, his suffering as a POW, and his sacrifices, and I honor McCain for these things as well, but I agree with Clark.

Military service doesn't necessarily qualify a person for President. It gives a helpful understanding of the military that someone who hasn't served won't have, and I'd prefer our President to have military service, but it's not a deal breaker. More relevant is what specific experiences in service does a person have, and how do they relate to holding office.

Anyway, I've read a couple of opinions that Clark is bugged by McCain because Clark was a grunt in Vietnam while McCain was a flyboy. Here's one such opinion. I don't know what's motivating Clark, but I'll tell ya, that feeling does exist. In fact, I've seen the mini-poster below hanging in lots of Army offices and cubicles and it always makes me laugh. (Click to enlarge)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes - Yes - Yes, as a former ground-pounder I'll attest that Gen. Clark is smack on target - we resented the pilots, their five minutes in/out, their ease at getting rank - and even the warm bed that they had every night.

Anonymous said...

http://johntreed.com/McCain.html

Here's a long criticism of McCain and his using his service to promote his political career. Click my name to read it.

h/t Geoff

Anonymous said...

It reminds of when my aunt was telling me about my cousin (we both joined around the same time, he AF, me Army) getting ready to graduate from Air Force basic and how they had this huge end of training 5 mile run.

I was like, "yeah, we do that at least two times a week in the 3rd ID" (gotta love Monday and Friday PT). Of course, we were put to shame by the 1st/75th Rangers from Hunter Army Airfield who went to the same PLDC as us.

And you LI guys can talk all the smack you want. Us mech folks just choose to ride sometimes instead of walking everywhere.