Outside The Beltway Blog: Democrats Attack McCain’s Military Experience By James Joyner

Supporters of Hillary Clinton, apparently forgetting that she’s probably not going to get the nomination, yesterday moved on to the general election campaign and trotted out a new line of attack: John McCain doesn’t have the right experience to be commander-in-chief.

The opening salvo came from, of all people, Gloria Steinem. And she did it in Texas.

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem took to the stump on Hillary Clinton’s behalf here last night and quickly proved that she has lost none of her taste for provocation.

From the stage, the 73-year-old seemed to denigrate the importance of John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In an interview with the Observer afterward, she suggested that Barack Obama benefits—and Clinton suffers—because Americans view racism more seriously than sexism.

Steinem also told the crowd that one reason to back Clinton was because “she actually enjoys conflict.” And she claimed that if Clinton’s experience as First Lady were taken seriously in relation to her White House bid, people might “finally admit that, say, being a secretary is the best way to learn your boss’s job and take it over.”

Steinem raised McCain’s Vietnam imprisonment as she sought to highlight an alleged gender-based media bias against Clinton. “Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience. McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five-and-a-half years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, “I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.”

Steinem’s broader argument was that the media and the political world are too admiring of militarism in all its guises. “I am so grateful that she [Clinton] hasn’t been trained to kill anybody. And she probably didn’t even play war games as a kid. It’s a great relief from Bush in his jump suit and from Kerry saluting.”

To the Observer, Steinem insisted that “from George Washington to Jack Kennedy and PT-109 we have behaved as if killing people is a qualification for ruling people.”

We could reasonably dismiss this talk as the raving of a lunatic, I suppose. The Clinton campaign quickly distanced themselves from the remarks, although without actually rejecting their premise:

UPDATE: The Clinton campaign sends over the following statement from Howard Wolfson: “Senator Clinton has repeatedly praised Senator McCain’s courage and service to our country. These comments certainly do not represent her thinking in any way. Senator Clinton intends to have a respectful debate with Senator McCain on the issues.”

Unfortunately, former NATO commander Wes Clark, a much more respectable Clinton surrogate on these issues, echoed the same theme in a blogger conference call. Byron York provides the transcript:

In the national security business, the question is, do you have — when you have served in uniform, do you really have the relevant experience for making the decisions at the top that have to be made? Everybody admires John McCain’s service as a fighter pilot, his courage as a prisoner of war. There’s no issue there. He’s a great man and an honorable man. But having served as a fighter pilot — and I know my experience as a company commander in Vietnam — that doesn’t prepare you to be commander-in-chief in terms of dealing with the national strategic issues that are involved. It may give you a feeling for what the troops are going through in the process, but it doesn’t give you the experience first hand of the national strategic issues.

If you look at what Hillary Clinton has done during her time as the First Lady of the United States, her travel to 80 countries, her representing the U.S. abroad, plus her years in the Senate, I think she’s the most experienced and capable person in the race, not only for representing am abroad, but for dealing with the tough issues of national security.

York also quotes Admiral William Owens, former vice chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, following Clark’s remarks with, “I would just say that I agree with Wes on that.”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

democrat fear: McCain dominates donkey homepage - from StandUpForMcCain.com

From one of the McCain Victory08 Bloggers:


See for yourself. You don't place bets in the other party's primary unless you're scared of losing to someone specific in November.

The Democratic Party, afraid of John McCain.

Elsewhere, the Dems are trying to raise money(democrats.org/100years) by showing a clip of McCain at a rally where he says we may need to have a presence in Iraq for a hundred years. They act like it's some secret quote they found. But McCain supporters are not hiding McCain's positions from anyone. In fact, we think that the policies and principles implied when McCain makes such are positions that will win the support of the American people in Nov '08.

Here's the video:

McCainVictory08 blog With Both Hands has a Democrat fundraising letter that speaks of this video like it's some secret footage every McCain backer wants to hide. In fact, McCain doubled-down on this position during his victory speech in New Hampshire:

"The work that we face in our time is
great, but our opportunities greater still. In a time of war, and the terrible
sacrifices it entails, the promise of a better future is not always clear. But I
promise you, my friends, we face no enemy, no matter how cruel; and no
challenge, no matter how daunting, greater than the courage, patriotism and
determination of Americans. We are the makers of history, not its victims. And
as we confront this enemy, the people privileged to serve in public office
should not evade our mutual responsibility to defeat them because we are more
concerned with personal or partisan ambition.

Whatever the differences
between us, so much more should unite us. And nothing should unite us more
closely than the imperative of defeating an enemy who despises us, our values
and modernity itself. We must all pull together in this critical hour and
proclaim that the history of the world will not be determined by this
unpardonable foe, but by the aspirations, ideals, faith and courage of free
people. In this great, historic task, we will never surrender. They
will."

Meanwhile, the Dems want to pull out of Iraq, abandon freedom-loving Iraqis to the new Saddam Hussein or al-Qaeda spinoff and claim that Obama is the new JFK. Here's what JFK said in his inaugural speech:

"We dare not forget today that we are
the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and
place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new
generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by
a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness
or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always
been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the
world.

Let every nation know, whether it
wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the
success of liberty.

We dare not tempt them with
weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain
beyond doubt that they will never be employed."

Somehow I doubt JFK's promises were as empty as Barack Obama's. Whenever I hear Obama speak, I think, "Good speech, pretty obvious, positive stuff." It's what courageous men and women are fighting for in Iraq.

The mantle of acting on the principles laid out here by John F. Kennedy in his 1960 inaugural, in a speech dominated by foreign policy, is held not by Barack Obama, who wants to abandon the Iraqis' struggle for freedom, but by John McCain.

Posted by StandUpforMcCain on January 10, 2008 5:22 PM