By FOXNews.com
Published: 07-02-08
John McCain said Tuesday that Barack Obama should cut ties with retired Gen. Wesley Clark who caused a stir over the weekend when he dismissed McCain’s military service as a qualification for the presidency.
Clark is a national security adviser and high-profile surrogate for Obama. On Sunday Clark — who was also NATO commander under President Clinton — said of McCain: “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”
He stood by his remarks Tuesday though he stressed that Obama had nothing to do with them. Obama later downplayed the issue saying he doesn’t think the comment keeps voters “up at night.”
But McCain told reporters on his campaign plane Tuesday evening that “I think it is up to Senator Obama now to not only repudiate him but to cut him loose.”
The challenge is sure to keep alive the widespread conflict over the Clark comments.
After two days of angry responses and denunciations on both sides Clark tried to clarify that while he respects McCain’s military service he believes Obama has better judgment — without having served in the military — to be president.
“As a retired serviceman someone who came home from Vietnam on a stretcher someone who spent 38 years in uniform someone who’s worked his way up through the ranks of the United States Armed Forces I would never discredit anyone who chose to wear the uniform. I fully respect John McCain and his service and I’ve said so repeatedly” Clark told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“My point is that there’s a difference in preparing yourself for the highest office in the land. … John McCain as a young officer demonstrated courage and character. But the service as president is about judgment. And the experience that he had as a fighter pilot isn’t the same as having been at the highest levels of the military” he said adding that Obama had nothing to do with his remarks.
Asked if he owed McCain an apology Clark responded: “I want to say first that Senator Obama had nothing to do with this. … I’m very sorry that this has distracted from the message of patriotism that Senator Obama wants to put out. But I want to make very clear that as a Democrat and as a former Army officer I fully respect Senator McCain and all others who have served.”
Obama talking to reporters in Zanesville Ohio didn’t address Clark’s latest comments but sought to minimize their impact and said they were not in the same league as the coordinated effort in 2004 by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who sought to sully Sen. John Kerry’s military record.
“I don’t think that General Clark you know had the same intent as the Swift Boat ads that we saw four years ago. I don’t. I reject that analogy” Obama said.
“But what I’ve said repeatedly is that Sen. McCain deserves the most the utmost honor and respect for his service to our country” he said.
Obama denied that his remarks Monday — where he said “no one should ever devalue that (military) service especially for the sake of a political campaign and that goes for supporters on both sides” — were in response to Clark’s comments Sunday; Obama said the line was in a speech draft he wrote two months ago.
On a follow-up question Obama said he’d rather be talking about issues like poverty Iraq and Iran “But the fact that somebody on a cable show or on a news show like General Clark said something that was inartful about Senator McCain I don’t think is probably the thing that is keeping Ohioans up at night.”
Clark first made the remarks Sunday morning during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” He has since appeared on several other broadcasts trying to revise and extend his remarks and tamp down the dispute they stirred.
The dispute has preoccupied both candidates and their supporters and on Monday threw off track Obama’s message of patriotism. Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Obama rejects Clark’s comments.
Obama himself said “no one should ever devalue” military service including McCain’s “especially for the sake of a political campaign and that goes for supporters on both sides.”
McCain who was captured by North Vietnamese soldiers after his plane was shot down in 1968 called the comments “unnecessary.”
On Tuesday McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Clark’s words don’t amount to an apology and Obama’s campaign aides “are either encouraging or tolerating his attacks.”
“The Obama campaign even said they were ‘glad’ that Gen. Clark ‘clarified’ a comment they supposedly repudiated. If this kind of wink-and-nod game is how Barack Obama wants to run his campaign then fine. But spare us the empty talk of ‘new politics’ and raising the dialogue in this country. We just wonder: Will Barack Obama’s actions ever match his words?” Rogers said according to a statement.
McCain’s campaign announced Monday night it was rolling out a “Truth Squad” to combat any false reports on his military service record and Tuesday morning the campaign held a phone conference with McCain backers Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and retired Marine Lt. Col. Orson Swindle.
Graham pointed to McCain’s fighting former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over Iraq policy his position in pushing the troop surge in Iraq and other policy stances such as condemning torture as examples of how McCain has drawn on his military experience.
“Senator McCain has walked in the shoes of the military. …. His military experience is extraordinary” Graham said. He said Obama “needs to come out one way or the other and say ‘knock it off. You’re not going to be a part of this campaign if he keeps saying these things … or agree with him” Graham said.
Swindle who was also a former prisoner of war in Vietnam said Clark “ought to be ashamed of himself” and suggested Obama’s handling of the issue shows “he can’t even lead his surrogates. He’s not going to do a good job of being commander in chief.”
He disputed the idea the McCain is hinging his qualifications to be president on his experience as a POW.
But several left-wing blogs have defended Clark and suggested that McCain is a war criminal for bombing Hanoi during the Vietnam War.
In a message sent out by MoveOn.org via e-mail on Tuesday antiwar activist Jon Stoltz an Iraq war veteran said that Clark “spoke honestly and bluntly about what it takes to be Commander in Chief. He said that while Senator John McCain’s service made him a hero to millions including Clark himself McCain’s experience doesn’t trump the poor judgment that he’s shown on some of the most important issues in recent years.
“What General Clark said was right but the media has been in an uproar-twisting his words and accusing him of saying things he didn’t say” Stoltz said.
