This morning, the McCain campaign held a conference call to rebut Wesley Clark’s statement that John McCain’s getting “getting shot down” isn’t a qualification to become president. Sen. John Warner said that Obama displayed an “exercise of poor judgment to allow an individual like Clark … to come in and do this attack.” Col. Bud Day pointed out that when McCain was shot down, Hanoi was “most heavily defended city in the world.” At an event in Pennsylvania, McCain responded to the attack:
Obama’s spokesman says that Obama “rejects yesterday’s statement by General Clark.” During a speech today in Independence, Missouri, Obama said:
But Clark didn’t challenge McCain’s patriotism–Clark said that McCain’s experience “getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.” Andy McCarthy perfectly captured the absurdity of Obama’s statement on McCain’s patriotism: “He’s not gonna question McCain’s patriotism? What a tremendous concession! Tune in tomorrow when Obama announces he will never question whether Shaquille O’Neal is really tall.” Jim Geraghty notes that Clark is the seventh Democrat to challenge McCain’s service. Doesn’t Obama need to personally disavow Clark’s statement? Or maybe this is the kind of attack Obama had in mind when he pledged: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”
