Clark's McCain Put-down

You and I can only guess at the tactical political calculations of presidential campaigns.

So we just shake our heads and wonder at the attempt by Gen. Wesley Clark, an Obama supporter, to brush off Sen. McCain’s military experience as mere by-play. As Jake Tapper quotes,

“He hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn’t a wartime squadron,” said Clark, who did command NATO allied forces during the war in Kosovo.



And the corker: “Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,” Clark added.

You have to assume that remarks like that were poll tested by the Obama campaign and run by focus groups. Unless. Unless the Obama campaign is just an amateur operation that just shoots from the hip.

(This is not impossible. The only campaign I served on was a very amateur operation, as it was bound to be when it ran mostly on volunteers.)

But let us assume there are adults at the Obama campaign. They must think that they have to take down McCain’s advantage as a combat veteran with actual service in the military. It is true, of course, that service in the military does not immediately transfer to “national security” experience. But we know that McCain has made national security a key concern as a United States Senator. You are really taking a big risk to try impeach his credentials as a serious actor on national security.

So I reckon that the Obama folks reckon they are toast unless they can take McCain out on national security. That means that they are looking at polls and focus group results with negative results on Obama’d electability that you and I can only guess at.

But hey, with the help of the mainstream media, maybe they can do it!

Or maybe, given the fact of evil right-wing swift-boating extremist bloggers, they can’t.