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Wesley Clark 'moving on'
2008-07-07
Nearly a week after his controversial “Face the Nation" appearance last Sunday, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark is taking a break from the presidential campaign — but many Democratic insiders think he has already been crossed off the list of Barack Obama's potential running mates. Sunday morning on CBS News, Clark argued that John McCain's military experience — and his years as a prisoner of war — in no way qualified him to be president. Following his appearance, one prominent liberal blog, apparently seeing the genie as out of the bottle, launched into a considerably harsher attacks on McCain's service headlined “Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?" “On a scale of 1 to 10, Clark's words were a 10 in terms of unhelpfulness," said one Democrat who has helped manage past presidential campaigns. At first, Clark moved aggressively to defend his remarks, scheduling additional press appearances and even updating his Facebook status to “Wes Clark knows that John McCain is largely untested and untried when it comes to matters of national security." But now Clark is looking to put the remarks behind him. The former NATO supreme allied commander and 2004 Democratic primary candidate is “moving on," said a close aide, who added that Clark can now “devote his time to the business affairs which pay the bills." The aide nonetheless revisited the remarks, saying that Clark was “asking tough questions and moving beyond sacred cows" and that Clark was “not auditioning for a post in anyone's administration." He added that Clark “doesn't need anyone's permission to stand up for this country or to challenge John McCain's fitness to be commander in chief." Presidential campaigns have been re-litigating the Vietnam War since, well, the Vietnam War, in which Clark served as an infantry commander while McCain was a Navy fighter pilot. Both were men molded by the baby boomer culture wars, and both the grunt and the flyboy returned to a nation in upheaval over the war and social changes. Obama's campaign has sought to transcend those culture wars, which have long been a losing issue for Democrats. McCain seized on the Clark comment to draw Obama into that same losing fight. “It's up to Sen. Obama now to not only repudiate him but to cut him loose," McCain told reporters aboard his plane en route to Colombia. Obama, however, has not gone that far. He said Monday it was “very clear" Clark's “remarks don't reflect my beliefs." He took a less tough approach Tuesday, calling the remarks “inartful," a word the candidate has often employed to step back from gaffes. His reluctance to go further may stem in part from Clark's support on the party's left, which dates back to his 2004 presidential run. MoveOn launched a petition Tuesday demanding the media “stop distorting Gen. Clark's words." Clark has perhaps the most impressive defense credentials and highest name recognition of any of Obama's supporters. Tad Devine, chief strategist for John Kerry's 2004 presidential run, says that Obama needs "credentialing" from Democrats like Clark with national security credentials to establish that "he has the capacity, understanding and judgment to be president," Devine added that “Obama is handling this perfectly" by distancing himself from Clark's comments but warned that “to cut Clark loose [would be] ridiculous." The strategist's view that “there is some context to be considered" is shared by many Democrats. The row began Sunday when Clark sat down with CBS's Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation" and defended his earlier claim that that McCain was “untested and untried" by first stating that “I certainly honor his service" and “he was a hero to me." However, he then argued that McCain “hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in Air — in the Navy that he commanded, it 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 —'" Schieffer interjected: “I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences, either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down. I mean — " To which Clark jumped in to reply, “Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president." And thus was born a political hurricane. The McCain campaign promptly denounced Clark and used the remarks to paint Obama as a practitioner of the same old politics. “The comment was offensive on its face," said Danny Diaz, the Republican National Committee communications pit bull. “It was certainly an opportunity to highlight the fact that Sen. Obama claims to represent a new level of politics but, thus far, hasn't followed through on that." While Clark has served as a part-time national security surrogate for Obama, the campaign adviser insisted, “It's not a wink and a nod with this campaign." “We could have gotten through the primary process a lot sooner and perhaps more bloodier if we played by those conventional tactics," the Obama adviser said. But Democrats were hardly pleased to have to make that point. Democratic strategist Jim Jordan emphasized that Clark's comments were “fair" insofar as they were intended to question whether McCain would be “an effective president." “But Gen. Clark's remarks were both clumsy and badly timed and, really, a gift to McCain," Jordan continued. Republicans take a different view, pointing to critiques of McCain's military record from other surrogates — including the remarks of Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) that having "dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet," McCain doesn't “care about the lives of people" — to argue that the Obama campaign has purposefully engaged in this line of attack, whatever apologies are later offered. Devine, who's been on the other end of a debate over war credentials, having defended Kerry from attacks on his military service from the 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, dismisses as "preposterous" any comparison between those attacks and Clark's comment, since Clark's remark was offhand and not part of an organized advertising offensive bent on the “distortion of John Kerry's record." Perhaps because Kerry, whose first instinct was to respond immediately to those attacks — and is widely considered to have been damaged by them — was convinced to do otherwise, Clark aggressively defended his comments. Now that the fallout is clear, he's moving away from them, though still not apologizing. “Obviously I wish we hadn't had the big brouhaha about this," Clark said, choosing to begin a Tuesday CNN interview with contrition. “It has taken away from the message of the man that I'm supporting to be president."
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