Wes Clark got a fresh defender against the silly, overblown attacks on his rather inarguable point that serving in the military, even being a military hero, is, in and of itself, not a qualification to be president of the United States. If it were, Clark could be president. Yesterday, Charlie Rangel, who served in the infantry during the Korean war, stepped up:
Rangel, on Fox News, said that McCain's service in Vietnam was "admirable"
"And we should spend the rest of our lives thanking people for doing that," Rangel said. "It doesn't have any connection at all in being a good senator, as being a good president."
... Rangel went onto say that his own four years of military service didn't make him a better congressman.
"I could have done so many things in life that probably could have been more productive in terms of being able to resolve legislative and other type of things," he said. "I think my training in law school better prepared me to be a lawmaker than getting shot in Korea, as I did in 1950. But I think that people who serve should be treated differently. I think people put their lives in harm's way."
Duh...
Meanwhile, the same nutball right wingers who made an industry out of attacking John Kerry's service and promoting the sleazy "Swiftboat Veterans for Truth" are now pretending to be just outraged ... OUTRAGED! at fictitious attacks on John McCain's service ... did I mention they used to hate John McCain, too? Of course, the winger mind will tell you that the big difference is, that Kerry deserved the attacks, because he's a Democrat and opposed the Vietnam War, while McCain doesn't deserve to be questioned, because, even though they hate his guts, he's a Republican, and favors not just the wars we're in, but even more wars ... bigger wars ... against even more "Islamists..." and therefore they support him ... or at least they oppose those who oppose his election ... you get the idea...
And then, like a bright light in the wilderness, along comes a lone, sane conservative, who cuts through the winger hysterics to make, at long last, a salient point that states the obvious, but needs to be said:
On a news show on Sunday, General Wesley Clark was asked a direct question about the war record of John McCain. Clark replied that he didn’t think being shot down and living in a prison camp qualified someone for Presidency.
Guess what? He’s right! It doesn’t! In no way did he demean the service record of McCain. In no way did he question his patriotism. He said something that was a bit insensitive and it sounded a bit mean. But it wasn’t wrong.
On come the rhetorical battles of the news shows. Either Clark must drop out his political activity and crawl into the same whole as Jeremiah Wright, Clark is a dastardly, evil man for impugning a man that paid such a heavy toll for his country and Obama must step up and once again apologize for someone else .... Or ... Clark, of course, is the "true patriot" for his dissent, blah, blah, blah.
How about this, Wright, I mean, Clark was factually correct. John McCain’s war record, although admirable on so many levels, in no way qualifies him to be President, just like Bob Dole. However, what he said was a bit insensitive and in actuality PART of what makes McCain the type of individual that would make a great leader is his war record.
<%
dim done
done = request.form("done")
if done = "" then
done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
