June 30, 2008

6/30: Wesley Snipes

During a 6/29 appearance on "Face The Nation," Gen. Wesley Clark stirred up controversy when he seemed to downplay John McCain's Vietnam service as a qualification for the presidency.

Clark: "I certainly honor [McCain's] service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces.... He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee. ... But he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded -- that wasn't a wartime squadron. ... I don't think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president."

Conservative bloggers were outraged over Clark's comments:

• Right Wing News's McQ: "Of all the 'ex-generals' floating around out there, perhaps the most odious is Wesley Clark. Today he decided it was his place to demean John McCain's military service. ... Clark's attempt at denigrating and minimizing McCain's service aside, McCain's service is a qualification among many. Say what you will about McCain otherwise, but his service to the country was exemplary."
• Michelle Malkin: "If Gen. Wesley Clark had vice presidential aspirations, they went out the window yesterday when he opened his mouth and removed any lingering doubt about his idiocy."
• Red State's Pejman Yousefzadeh: "One searches the news report in vain for any claims that Senator [Hillary] Clinton -- who Clark initially supported -- had executive experience, commanded 'a wartime squadron' or was responsible for ordering 'the bombs to fall.' One searches in vain as well for similar observations concerning Senator [Barack] Obama. Indeed, one cannot help but wonder why Wesley Clark would make the arguments he makes about Senator McCain, given that they apply with a hundred times more force -- at least! -- to Senator Obama."
• Wake Up America's Susan Duclos: "This is one discussion Barack Obama truly does not want to have but since his surrogate has opened the door, he doesn't have much of a choice now."
• Right Wing News's William Teach: "So, Clark goes out there as an Obama surrogate and attacks McCain and his military service. But, hey, the Obama campaign is about hope and change, a new way of doing politics. I'm betting the bus runs Clark over by 4pm Monday."

Other conservative bloggers, while insisting that Clark stepped over the line, conceded that the general made some valid points regarding McCain's military service.

• Sister Toldja: "It's one thing to say that serving in the military in a war alone doesn't necessarily make one qualified to be president, but considering the hell McCain went through for 7 years as a POW at the Hanoi Hilton, attacks of this nature -- insinuating that McCain's getting shot down was the sign of a weak fighter pilot -- are below the belt, especially coming from a fellow military man."
• Outside The Beltway's James Joyner: "On one level, Clark has a point. Commanding a training squadron isn't the same as running a wartime theater. And, as I argued when John Kerry was relying too much on his Vietnam experience, ... being a war hero only goes so far in making a case for a presidential candidate. Nor is Clark 'Swift Boating' McCain; he's not questioning his wartime accomplishments. Still, at the larger level, this strikes me as a poor argument. While 'getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down' might not be sufficient qualification to be president, it's certainly more than Barack Obama ever endured. And, while Obama has experience at the community level that McCain can't match, it's a dangerous game for him to send out surrogates to minimize McCain's service."

While reaction to Clark's comments came mostly from the right side of the blogosphere, a handful of liberal bloggers used his comments to go right for McCain's jugular.

• AMERICAblog's John Aravosis: "It's not 'nice' to ask the question, but it's actually a pretty good question. Yes, we all know that John McCain was captured and tortured in Vietnam (McCain won't let you forget). A lot of people don't know, however, that McCain made a propaganda video for the enemy while he was in captivity. Putting that bit of disloyalty aside, what exactly is McCain's military experience that prepares him for being commander in chief? It's not like McCain rose to the level of general or something. He's a vet. We get it. But simply being a vet, as laudable as it is, doesn't really tell you much about someone's qualifications for being commander in chief. If McCain is going to play the 'I was tortured' card every five minutes as a justification for electing him president, then he shouldn't throw a hissy fit any time any one asks to know more about his military experience. Getting shot down, tortured, and then doing propaganda for the enemy is not command experience."
• Brilliant At Breakfast: "But is there a candidate with a bigger sense of entitlement than John McCain? In media circles, the mere mention of McCain must be accompanied by 'war hero.' But is he? Does even five years in a Hanoi prison, succumbing to torture and making a propaganda video for one's enemy captors, however understandable, make you a hero? Or are you just a victim, one deserving of understanding and empathy -- but not the presidency?"

OBAMA: Please Don't Dis' Our Unity!

In an effort to salve the wounds of a contentious primary season (particularly among Clinton's older, white, female supporters), Obama and Clinton held a joint rally in the town of Unity, NH, on 6/27. Two of her most die-hard supporters in the blogosphere had very different reactions.

• Taylor Marsh: "I was struck by Obama's facial expressions and body language while he was watching her speak. It sure looked to me like he was humbled and moved that such an incredible candidate was backing him so completely after a rough, prolonged primary battle and narrow defeat. His admiration and respect for her was obvious in his speech as well. At one point, inspired by an enthusiastic Hillary supporter in the crowd, he went off-script to say simply that 'she rocks'. Indeed she does."
• No Quarter's Rev. Amy: "And now seeing these articles and photographs of Senator Clinton and Senator Obama together, him with his hand on her back, just makes me cringe. Frankly, it makes me almost physically ill. See, I have done a lot of work in the Domestic Violence movement. And I have seen this cycle before: the man abuses, attacks, and lashes out at the woman. The woman makes excuses for, and accepts blame from, the man for his attacks. Not unlike Senator Clinton saying now that they are friends, respect each other, and support each other. I know what respect looks and feels like -- Senator Obama has shown NONE for Senator Clinton. Senator McCain has, but Obama? No. Seeing these photos of her with him now reminds me of battered women wearing sunglasses to hide the bruises, and saying, 'Oh, he didn't really mean it. It was my fault, really, I shouldn't have made him mad. He really does love me, in his own way, really! Don't be mad at him!'"

MCCAIN II: Story Full Of Hot Gas

During a fundraising tour in southern CA on 6/24, McCain was interviewed by a reporter from the Orange County Register.

Martin Wisckol: "I'd like to ask you a couple questions suggested by voters here. They're not reporter-type questions."

McCain: "Sure. It'd be a pleasure."

Wisckol: "When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?"

McCain: "Oh, I don't remember. Now there's Secret Service protection. But I've done it for many, many years. I don't recall and frankly, I don't see how it matters. I've had hundreds and hundreds of town hall meetings, many as short a time ago as yesterday. I communicate with the people and they communicate with me very effectively."

Liberal bloggers erupted with indignation (which was additionally fueled by a Newsweek expose last week that uncovered unpaid property taxes on one of the McCain's seven homes):

• DownWithTyranny: "It does matter. It matters to good hard-working people -- the ones, unlike the McCains, who pay their taxes -- who are being ruined financially by the Bush-McCain-GOP-Blue Dog economic policies that are fine for multimillionaires and terrible for everyone else."
• Atrios: "Unlike milk and similar, the price of gas is pretty much a staple of the news these days. Glance at a newspaper or flip on teevee news (local, cable, network, whatever), and you'll get the daily update of the price. This isn't just about a presidential candidate who obviously and understandably doesn't fill up his gas tank very often, it's about a presidential candidate who just isn't paying any attention to what's going on in the world."
• BooMan: "I thought John McCain was pushing a summer gas tax holiday. I guess someone just told him to propose that without informing him that gasoline is edging towards $5 a gallon. Who's the out of touch elitist now, Karl Rove?"

Carpetbagger Report's Steve Benen was a bit more forgiving, but critical nonetheless. Benen: "Substantively, a story like this one is fairly low on the priority list. ... In all candor, I'm inclined to cut McCain at least some slack on this one. McCain hasn't been in a position to pump his own gas for a while, by virtue of his candidacy. ... And while he probably should have a general sense of the price of a gallon of gas -- he couldn't say, 'About four bucks"'? -- McCain almost certainly knows that it's gone up quite a bit lately, and consumers/voters aren't happy about it. ... Whether McCain knows the price of a gallon of gas or not is trivia compared to his humiliating incoherence on energy policy. That said, voters seem to care about whether a presidential candidate is out of touch, especially in a political environment in which the word 'elitist' is being thrown around. And on this, McCain might be in trouble."

Some liberal bloggers, convinced of a media bias favoring McCain, predicted that their outrage would not be reflected in the MSM:

• Comments From Left Field's tas: "Just think: if any Democrat said this, the calls that he or she is 'elitist' and 'out of touch' would be screamed 24/7. But when McCain says it? Feh, the dude's a maverick! He could boink Monica Lewinsky on live television and the media would still kiss his feet."
• Balloon Juice's John Cole: "In the past, this is the sort of thing that has helped to put away candidates -- we all remember the silly assertion that George [H.W.] Bush was surprised by a grocery scanner or [Rudy] Giuliani didn't know the cost of a loaf of bread. While false, the story did help the Clinton team portray Bush as out of touch and unaware of what people were going through economically. The real question is whether or not the media will dump their mancrush to savage McMavericky straight talk over his lack of awareness the way they would if this were, well, anyone else. I doubt it, in fact, I bet they defend him."

Ironically, McCain's "GasGate" should probably be included among those "false" stories mentioned by Cole; any fair reading of the Register interview clearly shows that McCain was not responding to the current price of gasoline, but rather the price of gasoline at the time he last filled up his own tank. (That false impression is a prime example of how stories are often distorted in the echo chamber of the blogosphere.)

Patterico appeared to be the first blogger to point out the inaccuracy: "But McCain isn't saying he doesn't know the price of gas. He is saying that he doesn't remember the last time he pumped his own gas, and how much it cost then. ... At best, the story is that McCain doesn't remember the last time he pumped his own gas. Even that is a non-story, since nobody pumps their own gas while on the campaign trail. Someone ask Obama when he last pumped his own gas."

While many bloggers corrected their posts, several stood by their charges of cultural cluelessness:

• Cole: "Patterico unearths a piece from June 18th in which McCain clearly knew gas was over four dollars a gallon. So why didn't he just say this in the OC Register interview?"
• Joyner: "It stands to reason, then, that McCain knew the price at the time of the interview. It would seem, then, that he's guilty merely of giving an irritated and dismissive answer to what he perceived as a 'gotcha' question rather than being out of touch."
• Andrew Sullivan: "Update: I misread the quote. ... He was being asked how much it used to cost. So his answer isn't so dumb -- just the prickly attitude to the populist question."
• Matthew Yglesias: "John McCain doesn't know how to use a computer. John McCain doesn't know when he last pumped gas or what it cost. John McCain owns seven homes and forgot to pay taxes on one of them for the past four years. But at least he's not an elitist like Barack Obama. He earned his money the old-fashioned way -- marrying an heiress."

Obama II: Get Off My Backlash!

While liberal bloggers continue to fulminate over Obama's recent shift to the political center, an air of resignation seems to have set in.

• Open Left's Mike Lux: "In the last week, Barack Obama has handed progressives a string of stinging rebukes. First, he all but capitulated on the issue of retroactive immunity for lawbreaking telecom companies by endorsing the FISA 'compromise.' Next came his disagreement with the Supreme Court ruling that the death penalty shouldn't be imposed for rape. And then his flip on the heels of the Supreme Court ruling allowing the sale of handguns in DC. ... The harsh reality is, Barack Obama can and will tack towards the center on issues that are important to progressives during the general election. We can argue until we're blue in the face that this is not a smart thing to do, ... but Obama will do what he wants to do. Unless we are willing to actively work against him, we have no leverage."
• HuffPo's Jason Rosenbaum: "For most of us, given the alternative of four more years of deadlocked government and a stubborn, hyper-aggressive President McCain, [opposing Obama] is not an acceptable option. I see occasional commenters writing about not lifting a finger to help Obama now that he's screwed us on FISA or other issues, but I don't think very many of us in the progressive movement are there. Am I bummed, am I pissed that Obama and most of our Democratic leaders caved in on FISA? Absolutely, and there's nothing wrong with saying so. But am I going to 'hold Obama accountable' for this action? Well, no, frankly."

The bloggers at First Read ruminated on the political risk to Obama: "Going back to the RNC labeling Obama a 'typical politician,' it's worth remembering that Clinton tried this, too. The problem with trying to use this line with Obama is that the historical nature of his candidacy makes it harder for the voter to think the word 'typical' when they see him. ... That said, Obama continues to fuel this line of attack by making conventional decisions like ducking the town hall idea, flipping on campaign finance, trying to straddle the fence on guns, etc. And unlike McCain, Obama doesn't have years of good will with his brand; he only really has about 18 months. McCain has made a lot of subtle shifts away from his so-called maverick independent streak. But because his brand was cemented over years, he's been given more of a benefit of the doubt with the public. Obama's brand reservoir isn't as deep, and he should be much more sensitive to this collecting narrative that he isn't what he claims."

The Stump's Noam Scheiber doesn't perceive any risk at all: "There seems to be a lot of hand-wringing this morning about whether the sum total of Obama's recent pronouncements and maneuvering ... is turning him into a typical Washington pol and undercutting his appeal. [But] I don't think there's a real political risk for Obama here. ... Obama has such a strong tail-wind behind him that he'll win if 'typical pol' is the worst thing you can call him. ... The only way he loses, I think, is if voters get the impression he's somehow un-American, un-patriotic, out of the political mainstream, or unable to keep them safe. To the extent that it draws attention from these insinuations, the 'typical pol' charge may even help him somewhat. Thanks to his race, his eloquence, and his relative youth, Obama's just never going to come across as completely typical. In some sense the bigger risk is not being typical enough."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Cyber-Cheating?

The Atlantic's Ross Douthat: "Is there any similarity between 'having an actual affair' and having sex with a prostitute while you're married? I think most people would answer yes. Then consider: Is there any similarity between having sex with a prostitute while you're married and paying to watch a prostitute perform sexual acts for your voyeuristic gratification? Again, I think a lot of people would say yes: There's a distinction, obviously, but I don't think all that many spouses would be inclined to forgive their husbands (or wives) if they explained that they only liked to watch the prostitute they'd hired. And hard-core porn, in turn, is nothing more than an indirect way of paying someone to fulfill the same sort of voyeuristic fantasies: It's prostitution in all but name, filtered through middlemen, magazine editors, and high-speed internet connections. Is it as grave a betrayal as cheating on your spouse with a co-worker? Not at all. But is it on a moral continuum with adultery? I don't think it's insane to say yes."

LEST WE FORGET: Raining On Their Love Parade

The Plank's Michelle Cottle: "Not to rain on anyone's grand reconciliation, but someone in the Obama camp should have seen to it that today's public love-in got stuck with a better label than Unity Day. Ick. So cheesy. Makes the party sound like a bunch of hand-holdling, kumbaya-singing peaceniks -- hardly the image the Dems need to be fostering. Next thing you know both camps will wind up out into the woods on one of those ghastly trust-building retreats where everyone swings from trees and falls backward into each other's arms. I personally would have preferred something more along the lines of Reluctantly-joining-forces-to-kick-the-GOP's-ass Day, but I realize that truth in advertising has its limitations."

Posted by Chris Bodenner at June 30, 2008 01:09 PM