OUTRAGE! - Obama Surrogate Impugns McCain's Military Service! McCain Responds With..Ya know...Kinda Thinkin' It's, Ya Know, Not True And Sort Of Not The Point Anyway, Ya Know?

Sphere: Related Content

When I first heard retired General and active moonbat Wesley Clark's verbal assault on John McCain on Sunday's Face The Nation (the meat of which is quoted, below) I thought it was a tawdry little performance by a tawdry little man.

Because in the matters of national security policy making, it’s a matter of understanding risk, it’s a matter of gauging your opponents and it’s a matter of being held accountable. John McCain’s never done any of that in his official positions. I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands of millions of others in the armed forces as a prisoner of war. He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee and he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn’t seen what it’s like when diplomats come in and say, `I don’t know whether we’re going to be able to get this point through or not. Do you want to take the risk? What about your reputation? How do we handle it publicly?

Now, I'll admit I've got a bit of a temper and if he'd said things like about me, especially if I'd spent five years being beaten up in a variety of huts in Vietnam, I'd probably respond with a certain amount of...animation, shall we say. John McCain is reported to have a temper that makes mine seem dainty by comparison, so for one brief moment I thought that his response might be to rip into Clark. But then I remembered that Clark is a Democrat; you know, the bad guys and that made me think McCain would say, oh, something like this:




ZZZZZ Oh, sorry. I drifted off for a minute.

In the past I've hyperventilated a good deal about John McCain's apostasy from conservative orthodoxy and how this has annoyed (nice bit of understatement, eh?) conservatives. But policy differences aren't the only reason the Right has less than warm feeling for McCain; it is a matter of attitude and style as well. For some reason known only to him McCain goes into his "Let's have a respectful discussion" routine when confronted with Democrats who are slapping him around. He tends to be a bit more combative when Republicans thwart him, however:

 

This is pretty typical of McCain. He seems to save all his real anger for fellow Republicans but when it comes to levelling fire at Dems it all seems terribly perfunctory. In answer to conservatives complaints about granting tax credits to "guest workers" he suggests that those who object are the sort of folks who want have people ride "in the back of the bus". I can't say that I can recall him saying anything like that about Dems who are pro-abortion, for example.

It is this proclivity of his to kick his own and the lack of respect that he seems to have that has led a lot of people to believe the story about McCain considering the VP slot on the Kerry ticket in 2004. He just seems happier around Democrats. Like somebody very profound and wise once said: He's just not that into us. And it shows.

Nocomme1 also posts at The Patriot Room and Flopping Aces

AllahPundit at Hot Air has a different take