IS IT IMPIOUS TO QUESTION MCCAIN'S QUALIFICATIONS?

Wesley Clark, who given his extraordinarily gallant service in Vietnam has himself a claim comparable to McCain’s to being a war hero, dared question whether McCain’s military service qualified him to be President. The reactions have been silly all around. It may be that Obama had to accept the feature of the situation created by the media that evidently makes it impious to question the bearing of McCain’s military qualifications on his candidacy for President. Nevertheless, it was perfectly irrelevant for Obama to thunder that military service, McCain’s included, deserved unquestioning respect. Clark was not questioning the respect; he was questioning the relevance. Honorable as it was, McCain’s military service does not qualify him for every office: not for being Secretary of Agriculture, not for being head of the National Park Service, not for being President. McCain adopted a pose of sanctimonious long-suffering in the face of Clark’s remarks, a reaction as irrelevant as Obama’s. McCain’s long service on the Senate Armed Services Committee is much more relevant than his military service to making the strategic decisions that a President has to make. Unfortunately, his record with regard to these decisions is not convincing: He was a cheerleader at the outset for the war in Iraq; and he has, I believe, never appreciated the folly of getting involved in Iraq before the war in Afghanistan was settled, with the Taliban destroyed and bin Laden captured.