Incredible…..incredibly stupid that is:
Feminist icon Gloria Steinem took to the stump on Hillary Clinton’s behalf here last night and quickly proved that she has lost none of her taste for provocation.
“Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience.
McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five-and-a-half years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, “I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.”
Disregarding the disgusting nature of her attack on his experience as a POW lets look at her argument. That being the fact that someone’s military experience is not a qualification to be Commander in Chief.
Fair enough.
But being the wife of a President does give someone qualification? Is she for real? Hillary’s experience as First Lady and her few years in the senate do NOT make her more qualified then someone with military combat experience AND 24 years in the Senate.
Really no reason to bring up Obama since he has no qualifications to be President anyway, other then the one bill he was able to get passed.
Then we have Wesley Clark saying McCain doesn’t have the “right” kind of experience:
In the national security business, the question is, do you have — when you have served in uniform, do you really have the relevant experience for making the decisions at the top that have to be made? Everybody admires John McCain’s service as a fighter pilot, his courage as a prisoner of war. There’s no issue there. He’s a great man and an honorable man. But having served as a fighter pilot — and I know my experience as a company commander in Vietnam — that doesn’t prepare you to be commander-in-chief in terms of dealing with the national strategic issues that are involved. It may give you a feeling for what the troops are going through in the process, but it doesn’t give you the experience first hand of the national strategic issues.
If you look at what Hillary Clinton has done during her time as the First Lady of the United States, her travel to 80 countries, her representing the U.S. abroad, plus her years in the Senate, I think she’s the most experienced and capable person in the race, not only for representing am abroad, but for dealing with the tough issues of national security.
You can’t make this stuff up. McCain responded:
Wes Clark should be ashamed of himself. John McCain’s 24 years in the US Senate, serving as Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and leadership on every major national security issue over the last two decades has prepared him to lead as commander in chief from day one.
If this is how they are going to go about attacking McCain then Hillary’s minions really aren’t that smart after all.
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That’s a dishonest comparison. As McCain responded, his 24 years in the U.S. Senate belies that. A more accurate representation would be to challenge McCain’s war years (which includes honorable, meaningful service after his POW years), to what Hillary Clinton was doing around the same time period:
Wes Clark for VP – Thanks! KLA/Kosovo. (Shakes head)
How can this man wake up in the morning… much less show his face and speak?
Wes wants to be VP. He might still get it regardless of the nominee. Dems need someone to counter McCain’s natsec issues. A lot will revolve on who John chooses.
Don’t anyone take this as an insult to McCain, but being kept some place against ones will doesn’t in itself make one a hero. I say again it’s not like he could do much about it, except try to escape. There is something here that McCain is not proud of, after saying all that he still is an American that served his country, and for that he should be praised.
“Don’t anyone take this as an insult to McCain, but being kept some place against ones will doesn’t in itself make one a hero. ” Compared to the actions of the 2004 Democrat presidential candidate in assuring victory for the people who held John McCain prisoner, John McCain is a super hero.
“Don’t anyone take this as an insult to McCain, but being kept some place against ones will doesn’t in itself make one a hero.” Do you even know John McCain’s story? After being repeatedly tortured (and by tortured, I mean REAL torture with real pain and debilitating injuries to this day), he was offered the opportunity to be released. He TURNED THEM DOWN unless his fellow prisoners were released as well. That is heroic in anyone’s book. And that’s not even getting into his service both before and AFTER his POW experience, which took major surgeries and physical therapy just to qualify for. Read about it sometime.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a John McCain stooge by any means. He was about my 4th choice for nominee, but this line of argument is poorly conceived.
For either Hillary or Obama to make an argument that McCain is not qualified on military issues is similar to McCain arguing that these two are not qualified to destroy the United States. In both cases one side isn’t pefect, but certainly incomparable in qualifications to the other.
Well, I’ve always wondered about how we can argue with one hand that “Congress is a big part of the problem” while elevating Congressional experience with the other.
If you get right down to it, what solid “national security experience” do any of the candidates (of either party) have to their credit?
This totally pisses me off!
Whatever your political opinion of John McCain is that is seperate from John McCain’s service to his Country in the Armed Forces.
John McCain is a Hero who has given Gloria the “Bitch” Steinam the Freedom to express her sefullilling crud!
That’s crosses the line when Gloria start’s in on McCain’s Service Record and I hope the Bitch fries in hell!
Formerly- Again I mean no disrespect, but who’s word for that do we have. He stayed so others could go. I say if true I will formally say I,m sorry. Please show me the proof from someone other than McCain. I realize I’m not making friends with this argument and I’m not too happy about that. My Oldest brother was also a prisoner in Viet Nam, but he never came back, and no explanation was ever given, other that he died in captivity.
I’ll retire from this blog now that I’ve said my piece, I will continue to read but will no longer comment.
Perhaps Senator Clinton was just taking a page from then Presidential candidate Geroge W. Bush. Weren’t the Bush team spreading stories that John McCain was unstable because of his imprisonment in North Vietnam? I also believe that, in the South Carolina primary, they were soreading rumours that he had fathered a child there.
But, of course, Conservatives did not complain too loudly about that, since it served the interests of Geroge W. Bush.
Just a quick look at Wikipedia provides these references: Timberg, An American Odyssey, p. 209. Harriman’s September 13, 1968 cable said: “At tea break Le Duc Tho mentioned that DRV had intended to release Admiral McCain’s son as one of the three pilots freed recently, but he had refused.” and: Nowicki, Dan & Muller, Bill. “John McCain Report: Prisoner of War” , The Arizona Republic, 2007-03-01 (http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/mccain/articles/0301mccainbio-chapter3.html) in which it is reported “McCain’s account was corroborated by a cable from Averell Harriman, who was President Johnson’s envoy to the Paris peace talks. Harriman had tea with a Vietnamese official, who mentioned that McCain had refused early release.”
This would have, of course, been well before McCain returned to make any claims of being offered and refusing release. I’m no historian, but I’m convinced. I would not be surprised to find out there is further corroborating evidence as well.
jainphx, As one of those who did return from Vietnam, I should like to offer my condolences on your brother’s death.
For those who have an interest, the Feb edition of the VFW magazine has, IMO, an outstanding article on ongoing efforts to obtain more info on MIAs
“For as many MIAs still unaccounted for today, there are a similar number of families just like Taylor’s seeking answers. Tasked with fulfilling that mission is the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Hawaii and the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) in Washington, D.C.”
Jainphx,
I didnt mean anything towards you with my comment I was just commenting on this post.
I hope you didnt think I was mad at you, I’m just mad at Gloria.
As an add-on to my earlier post, I personally do believe John McCain when he says that he refused early release.