Confirmed: Wesley Clark is an idiot
If Gen. Wesley Clark had vice presidential aspirations, they went out the window yesterday when he opened his mouth and removed any lingering doubt about his idiocy. Here’s what he said in case you missed it doing something more important than watching windbags deflate on a Sunday morning:
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a key military adviser for Barack Obama, dismissed John McCain’s war record as a qualification for readiness to be president.
Appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Clark downplayed the plane crash that led to McCain’s captivity during the Vietnam War, and said the squadron McCain commanded “wasn’t a wartime squadron.”
“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,” Clark said.
And Barack Obama’s “executive responsibility” would be…what exactly? Oh, yeah. Conducting leadership training seminars for ACORN shakedown artists!
***
More:
When asked by host Bob Schieffer how he came to describe McCain as “untested and untried,” Clark said it was “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,” adding, “He hasn’t made the calls.”
When Schieffer noted Obama has not had wartime experiences, Clark said: “Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”
Well, it beats riding in…bumper cars and pretending to be Superman.
McQ adds:
A squadron command doesn’t become “executive experience” only if the squadron is in a combat situation. It is either an executive experience or it’s not executive experience whether at war or during peace.
Does commanding NATO not count as executive experience if NATO isn’t at war? And btw, does getting fired from his NATO command negate Clark’s claim to executive experience?
…if the willingness to fight for your country, put your life on the line and suffer the brutality McCain suffered as a POW doesn’t make the cut as far as qualifications go, how far below that does a “community organizer” show up on the list of non-qualifications?
Sister Toldjah weighs in:
Didn’t McQ get the memo? Every move Obama has ever made “took courage” so obviously becoming a community organizer was an act of sheer bravery unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, and therefore ranks high on the list of qualifications people should consider when choosing a president for this country.
Yes, and don’t forget the many, many heroic, personal “sacrifices” the Obamas have made and are willing to make to move in the White House. Why, Michelle Obama gave up her job. Don’t you dare question their patriotism.
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Trackbacks
- Liberty Pundit
- Right Voices » Blog Archive » It’s That Time Of Year Again: Wesley Clark Makes A Donkey Of Himself
- Wesley Clark Throws Obama Under the Bus | Conservative247
- Obama’s surrogate attack McCain on military experience, Obama to give speech on patriotism, typical liberal BS, and more at The Liberty Preservation Alliance
- Obama Camp: Getting Shot Down in a Fighter Jet and Being Tortured for Five Years is Like No Big Deal « Gaffe Nation
- Wes Clark destroys any VP aspirations « Crush Liberalism
- Rhymes With Right
- The Unalienable Right » A new kind of politics...
- BO attacks John McCain’s military credentials | BitsBlog
- Wesley Clark:The Unhelpful Obama Surrogate « The Political Page
- The Wizard, fkap
- The Wide Awake Cafe » Obama Surrogate, Wesley Clark Attacks McCain’s Military Service
- Mr. Patriotic, Barack Obama « Axis of Right
- Obama has a Problem; His Supporters Keep Talking | The Daily Conservative
- Acephalous
- Reverse Torture Porn « The Edge of the American West
- Wes Clark Is No General David Petraeus : BigMouthFrog
- Clark Misfires (Errónea estrategia de Clark atacar a McCain) « Observatorio de Medios UIA/elecciones en EU
- The Hill’s Pundits Blog » Obama’s Clark Catastrophe
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SoonerMarine:
Have you spoken to Air Force personnel who had to work with this joker? He was the MOST inflexible person that many of these folks had to deal with in their long careers. I know a few Air Force folks who participated in the Bosnian air campaign and a lot of these folks imparted to both me and my military husband how incompetent this man was. He was abusive, he wasn’t easy to work for, and he generally made life difficult for the Air Force command who had to deal with him.
In general, this man is an example of how not to be as a general. He is not well thought of in the Air Force because of how he dealt with not only junior officers but those who were in the general ranks.
There is a reason he was removed after 3 months with NATO, make no mistake.
#89, You have it backward, they need to leave. This is my country, and I believe in the Constitution. If someone else wants a different kind of government, LET THEM LEAVE.
Sooner Marine, my husband served with him too in Bosnia and he thought he was an idiot. There is room for opinions on this but my husband thought he was the most incompetent clown around. He would abuse those junior to him (which was everybody) when he couldn’t “find” things and there were other situations he told me about.
If you believe that Obama has more experience than McCain-again everyone has an opinion on this as well. I can just tell you that those I know who served with Wesley Clark thought little of him and of that group 12/16 were also West Point alums one who like JT was in the same class had nothing nice to say about him. Yes, one doesn’t get to the rank of General or Admiral without some politicing on the side. In fact, I know a LTCDR who didn’t make CAPT in the Navy because he went to the “tailhook” convention and Pat Schroeder of CO, blocked his confirmation.
I’m glad you had a good time with him, you seem to be one of the few who did.
Thump, bump, bump – another one under the bus.
W. Clark hits the asphalt.
Thump, bump, bump – another one under the bus.
W. Clark hits the asphalt.
Why do we allow people who have retired from public life to retain the titles they had when they were serving? We often complain about the disconnect between us and “elites,” and I feel calling someone a Senator when they aren’t a Senator anymore, or General when they aren’t a General anymore, or Ambassador when they aren’t an Ambassador anymore, etc, only serves to further distance us from our political ruling class. Really, what purpose does it serve other than to continue to make them feel special? They are citizen representatives, and nothing more. When they return to private life, they return (in theory) to the status of the rest of us.
I’ll make an exception for ex-Presidents, but that’s it.
Sorry if this is off-topic, but it’s been burning me up for a while now.
If the media had any credibility at all, they’d report the real reason why Wesley Clark was relieved of command (and they know why). If the media reported why, Clark would disappear far faster from the Obama campaign than the wrong Reverend Wright. Hugh Shelter’s later language is the give away. It was not over Clark’s implied threat to take over the airport the Russians announced they would land at; Clark is more reckless than that.
Ha ha. Yup, there was no war in the mid-1990’s therefore you get no executive credit! The formula is simple.
BTW, who’s gonna tell all our current squadron commanders that they aren’t getting any executive experience?
Terrig, emjem24, AlohaGuy and nhpatriot. Appreciate your comments. I can only repeat what I said above. I served with this man on a daily basis for an extended period of time observing him in periods of intense pressure and also in leisure time. He is neither incompetent or a fool. Despite this I disagreed with him on most important points. Because of that deep philosophical disagreement it’s hard not to jump on the bash Clark bandwagon. But, while I deplore his political stance since his retirement, I won’t say things, or be silent while things are said, that from personal experience I do not believe to be true.
I never said that he was an easy man to work for. He’s not. He is a demanding task master and is as hard on his staff as he is on himself. He’s just not abusive about it. In smaller groups he can be personable, but he’s not a hail fellow, well met type of guy. He can come off as cold and impersonal. (and elitist) I certainly did not have a “good time” with him. I owe him nothing and we don’t exchange Christmas cards. There are several general officers, current and retired, that I could go on and on about with personal criticisms. Gen Clark just does not happen to be among them. Now if you want to talk about Gert Clark, that’s a whole nother story. But, I won’t go there.
Rush had a field day today comparing Clark’s statements about the military qualifications of Kerry in 2004, and the analogous statements about McCain today.
It is amazing that he could say that Kerry’s contrived “rice in the butt” wounds were in any way comparable to 5.5 years of torture in the Hanoi Hilton, or that Kerry’s experience qualified him to be president, while McCain’s did not.
Even Bob Schieffer was sputtering in disbelief on that one.
Not exactly the brightest bulb on the tree.
Obama replied, no one should impune anyone’s patriotism. Lovely. Clever. He’s allying himself with John McCain. Basically saying, treat us the same, even if we’re not the same. This is like his first black church appearance after he quit Wright’s church. After listening to “blame whitey” for 20 years, what’s the first speech he gives? He says black men need to spend more time with their children. He makes expert political calculations when his bacon gets close to the fire. A grand opportunist. Watch him do it again and again before the election. He’s good. No doubt about that.
And I don’t know anything about Wesley Clark, but I was a bit weirded out by his picture on the cover of the gay mag The Advocate.
SoonerMarine said:
But he sure did do a good job tanking his chances for VP.
Un-real.
One thing no one can question is McCain’s wartime experience. ‘Rode in a plane’?
“…riding in a fighter plane…” RIDING in a fighter plane??!
General Clark must posess a certain amount of intelligence and knowledge of the military to have obtained his rank. It is tremendously disheartening to hear him make statements like this one…
My dad retired from the Navy after almost 30 years of service and many remarkable achievements. He would whole-heartedly agree with you, matty. When he retired, he left his rank behind with his medals and his flight log. While I understand the use of old titles for news commentators (to clarify why they are qualified to speak to a particular issue), I’m not sure they are commonly used in the civilian world.
Wasn’t Clark removed by Bill Clinton for dropping bombs on the wrong people while hiding under his desk ?
SoonerMarine
Well said. Your experience is part of the puzzle. It does not invalidate other anecdotal evidence that the man was a poor manager or leader before other people. Obviously we are talking about shades and gradations as well as a weakness to succumb to his worse instincts that may have grown over time. One reason that intelligent and hard working people, and I believe that Clark had those basic gifts, need to be careful not to act like a horse’s ass is that doing so deprives the society of the benefit of what they can contribute. In other words Clark screwed up first by getting a reputation as excessively manipulative and political (among an admittedly highly competitive group of officers) and second when in a combat leadership role in Bosnia and it cost him his job and made him ineligible for elective office. His frantic efforts to keep inserting himself into the public debate only compounds the problem. There is a reason that most retired senior officers sit on boards and play golf. Being a public person is with rare exceptions frowned upon as contrary to a warrior’s code in a democracy.
Although the MSM insists that Obama condemned Clark, Obama did nothing of the kind. In his Missouri speech, Obama never once mentioned Clark by name. And Obama refused to acknowledge that McCain was tortured in North VietNam. Instead, Obama said only that McCain suffered “physical torment”. Obama is a former editor in chief of the Harvard Law Review. He does not choose words by accident. When he used the word torment instead of torture, Obama had two motives. First he did not want to upset Jane Fonda, who then and now, denied that North VietNam tortured anyone. And second, he will not acknowledge any act of bravery by McCain. Obama believes that anti war demonstrators are the ultimate sign of bravery.
Let’s give General Clark some slack, after the precision surgical strike on the Chinese Embassy, there have been no recorded instances of a Chinese Embassy attacking anyone.