"Kerry says McCain lacks judgement" - CNN
Last week I wanted more from Wes Clark. This week I want less from Kerry, for 2 reasons:
- Clark has more credibility - he served a president that had no military experience and they turned the Balkan's religious war into soccer clashes.
- Kerry is a blast from an ignomonious past. Kerry's military experience is as old as McCain's and less heroic - and he's tainted.
Without doubt, McCain's military judgement should be put into question. The question is, who is the best surrogate for that role? Clark or Webb can stay on message and still stay fresh - I have yet to hear either use tired old lines like 'Bush's 3rd term'.
As evidence of the verbal mastery, Clark's 'getting shot down' response wasn't overly sensitive, but it is a convincing and memorable argument. Furthermore, Clark is more a military than political figure, so he has the liberty of digging hard while being dispassionately analytical. Voters expect our Generals to be tough.
Voters also expect politicians to be vindicative, and they can only expect Kerry to be dreaming of sweet revenge on his '04 treatment.
Kerry had a chance to harmonize with Wes Clark, and the following is a Kerry shoulda-coulda statement:
'Questioning and analysis is what good Generals do, and in Wes Clark's comments on leadership and judgment we can see why General Clark was able to succeed in the religous civil war in the Balkans. The criticism of Clark also shows why we aren't succeeding in Iraq, because Bush and McCain are inflexible and looking for the slightest success as proof that we should 'stay the course'. That's the vision you get with rose colored glasses.
McCain's judgment is 180 degrees from generals like Clark, Zinni, and Sanchez, and also the thousands of sergeants and enlisted who see the war instead of seeing reports. The soliders patrol alleys and rooftops, they don't walk through cherry-picked markets on photo op patrol and convince themselves they're winning because it's real quiet. Yeah, real quiet with the choppers overhead and a 100 hustling soldiers to creat a photo op buffer.
America and it's soldiers want out of Iraq. It's high time we question the qualifications of men like McCain who want us to stay, as Barack Obama has been doing so long before it was fashionable.'