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Monday, June 30, 2008
Wes Clark’s “insult” to John McCain
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Oh brother.
Wesley Clark, a retired four-star Army general and Obama supporter, is being attacked for statements made on “Face the Nation” Sunday regarding Sen. John McCain. (See the video here.)
“I certainly honor (McCain’s) service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces as a prisoner of war,” Clark said in his opening remarks.
Clark then went to dispute McCain’s claim of extensive experience with strategic issues, noting that in his political and military careers McCain had never handled major executive responsibility and had little experience in decision-making roles.
“Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down,” host Bob Schieffer said.
“I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,” Clark responded.
Ohmigod, can you believe he said such a thing!!!
As an objective statement of fact, Clark is of course correct. As proof, consider the case of the late James Stockdale.
Stockdale, like McCain, was a Navy aviator shot down over Vietnam and imprisoned in the Hanoi Hilton. Like McCain, he was a brave man — in Stockdale’s case a Medal of Honor winner — who later rose to admiral. He served his nation with great courage and distinction.
In 1992, however, Stockdale was named by Ross Perot as his running mate on the Reform Party ticket. And on the campaign trail, the brave and honorable admiral quickly proved himself to be in way over his head as a candidate for national office, as he himself later acknowledged.
Riding in a fighter jet and getting shot down did not qualify Stockdale to be president.
Back in 1999, by the way, Stockdale wrote a piece for the New York Times to address rumors then being spread by some in the Republican presidential primary that McCain’s time in the Hanoi Hilton had somehow warped his personality.
“I am not surprised by reports that Senator John McCain’s political enemies have been spreading rumors that his famous temper is a sign of a broader “instability” caused by his imprisonment in Vietnam,” Stockdale wrote. “In fact, a few weeks ago I received a call from an old friend who is also close to the George W. Bush campaign soliciting comments on Mr. McCain’s ‘weaknesses.’ As I told that caller, I think John McCain is solid as a rock.”
I should also note that many of the Republicans claiming to be so shocked and appalled were probably giggling with glee when GOP delegates to the 2004 convention wore fake Purple Hearts to make fun of John Kerry’s war wounds.
Meanwhile, what are we going to do to salvage the situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan? What do we do next in Iraq? How can we address our longterm economic challenges? How can we adjust faster to $4 gasoline?
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McCain up 10 in Georgia?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rasmussen Reports has posted results of its most recent Georgia poll, showing McCain up by 10 points over Obama, 53-43 percent. That’s a stark contrast with the recent Insider Advantage poll showing the two roughly equal in Georgia.
In other state polls, Rasmussen tends to report higher numbers for McCain than other pollsters produce. That doesn’t mean they’re wrong — in Georgia’s case, their numbers feel about right — but it’s a difference worth noting.
They also polled the Ga. Senate race, giving Chambliss a safe lead. Among Democrats, Jim Martin does best against Chambliss. Perhaps the most noteworthy result among the Democratic candidates is that Vernon Jones has a combined 60 percent unfavorable rating (somewhat unfavorable plus very unfavorable) and only a 27 percent combined favorable rating.
Part of that is surely due to the fact that he’s the only black candidate in the race. That does still matter in Georgia. But part of it’s also because he’s the only Vernon Jones in the race.
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“Soon it’s gonna rain …” — NOT!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The most frustrating thing about a drought like this one is the waiting.
You know it has to end … someday. You know the rain will come back … someday. You just don’t know when someday is going to come.
So you wait, because there’s not much you can do to hurry a drought along.
Lawsuits can be like that too. The states of Florida, Georgia and Alabama, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, are embroiled in a tangle of lawsuits over the water resources shared among the states. Someday, a final resolution of those suits could clear the way for sane management of Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River and wipe away uncertainties concerning Atlanta’s future water supplies.
Someday, but not today or tomorrow, of course. Because once judges and lawyers get involved, there’s not much to be done to hurry things along. You just have to …
Wait.
But in this case, we do have other options. Our dispute with our neighboring states is a human problem, not a meteorological phenomenon. And as a human problem, it has a human solution. We just have to find it.
But so far, I don’t see that happening. Negotiations have failed, mediation has failed, and leaders in Congress and at the state level appear to have resigned themselves to muddling through this mess, leaving our situation unsettled for who knows how long.
Nobody seems to have a vision of where we want to be in another three years, along with a clear plan for getting there. The only proposal on the table at the moment is that loopy idea of the Georgia Legislature to slice us off a piece of water-rich Tennessee. At a time when Georgia is trying to cast itself as a voice of reason and compromise in the water wars, that’s more than a little off message.
In Florida, however, Democrats U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson at least have the germ of an idea. They have introduced legislation in Congress calling for a $1.2 million study of the Appalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system by the National Research Council. Florida officials apparently believe such a study would validate their claims that the water consumption of metro Atlanta is doing serious damage to downstream users.
However, at least some metro Atlanta officials also like the idea of an NRC study, because they believe it would validate their own claim that Florida’s problems are being caused by the drought, not by growth in metro Atlanta or excessive water consumption.
“We have always asserted that there is ample water available to meet the needs of all of the basin users if we base decisions on facts rather than political posturing,” says Chick Krautler, director of the Atlanta Regional Commission. “… A balanced inquiry that develops a comprehensive, shared fact base amongst all stakeholders is the first step toward decisions we all can live with.”
This all sounds intriguing: We have two parties that are very far apart in their understandings of the issues dividing them, with each side so confident in the virtue of its position that it is eager to have an outside body of experts come along to validate its opinion.
Sounds like we have a deal. As Krautler says, that may indeed be a “first step toward decisions we all can live with.”
In their legislation, Nelson and Boyd ask the National Research Council to “conduct a comprehensive study of the water management, needs and conservation” of the ACF basin, requesting that it report its findings within two years.
Georgia’s congressional delegation ought to sign onto that bill as co-sponsors and get it passed into law as quickly as possible. In two years — we hope — the current drought will have ended, easing some of the heightened passions now blocking honest discussion. By then, an objective, conclusive scientific report could also give politicians in Georgia, Alabama and Florida the cover they might think they need to make compromises.
Let’s stop waiting and do something.
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