Barack Obama is the Democratic candidate for President. Wes Clark doesn't represent the campaign, and he isn't running for anything, despite being anointed by his devout circle of believers in the race for national savior.
The significance of this observation is this: Obama doesn't want to be talking about Wes Clark -- Obama wants to be talking about what changes he will bring and what good he will do for the country, and how John McCain is just more of the same. Like any sensible candidate, he has distanced himself from an impolitic remark made by a "surrogate" that isn't even associated with the campaign.
For some reason, quite a number of folks -- I can't believe they're all in the Wes Clark Admiration Society, since there just aren't that many members -- seem to think that it's important for Obama to defend Wes Clark's comments. I'm sure there are a number of Wes Clark fans who are trying to save their hero's falling star, and cling a bit longer to their fantasy of Clark as Obama's running mate. As for the rest, I think they're probably motivated by more complex feelings that have more to do with wanting to fight every battle. Whatever their motives might be, the number of pro-Clark diaries suggest some people think it's mighty important for Obama to defend Clark's comments, rather than repudiate them.
Honestly, I can't think of anything less important. How many days in this campaign should Obama devote to defending Wes Clark? I think the obvious answer is none. Zip. Zilch. It wouldn't matter what the issue is. This isn't a campaign about Wes Clark. The focus needs to be on Obama and McCain, and to contrast them. Wes Clark has become a distraction, so Obama had to distance himself from Clark's remarks. It' couldn't be any simpler than that.
It really doesn't even have anything to do with the substance of Clark's comments. It isn't an argument that Obama wanted to have. The fact that the argument is thrust up on him by Clark's careless repartee with a reporter doesn't make it any more welcome. In fact, it makes it less welcome, because it is about Clark, not Obama. Though some Kossacks want to make it about Obama, and those in McCain's camp definitely want to make it about Obama, it should be obvious that this isn't a fight the Obama campaign wants to have.
It would have been better if Clark hadn't put his foot in his mouth while trying to be clever with Schieffer, but there's no reason why Obama should have to defend those remarks. Because McCain's supporters want to link it to Obama's campaign, Obama was faced with the choice of having to support the remark or repudiate it. He did the only sensible thing. He doesn't need to lose votes from folks who might have found Clark's comment to be tacky or even offensive. More to the point, he didn't want this to continue into multiple news cycles.
Those calling on Obama to rush to Clark's defense are deeply misguided. The sooner people stop talking about Wes Clark, the sooner the focus returns to Obama. He had a plan for a series of speeches this week. Today's speech on the meaning of patriotism was lost in the ether, drowned out by the internet/cable noise machine that was stuck on the Clark controversy. In order to move on to the things they want to talk about, the Obama campaign had to repudiate Clark's comment.
It really isn't about the substance of Clark's comments -- whether or not they were fair. They were a sideshow -- an unwanted distraction from Obama's message. Perhaps you agree with what Clark had to say. However, that really doesn't matter. It's irrelevant, since the attention the remark is getting just gets in the way of Obama's message. Frankly, so does the substance of the remark.
Obama has been trying to wage this campaign on a higher, substantive level, but too many of his supporters keep dragging it down to the other candidates' levels. If you really support Obama, stop trying to be his campaign manager and remake his image into something else. He's already got a damn good campaign staff. He really doesn't need your campaign advice, and ignoring outsiders' unsolicited advice has been working awfully well for him.
The GOP wants to use Clark's comments to suggest Obama is playing dirty pool. Obama needed to cut that argument off at the knees. The only way to do that was to move past the controversy, not wade deeper into it and give credence to the GOP claims.
There may come a day when John McCain actually argues that his experience being shot down and being a POW qualifies him to be President. If that day comes, we can have this argument. Until and unless that day comes, John McCain is the only candidate that gains from continued discussion of Clark's comments. So, let's stop talking about it.