Clark defends his McCain comments; Why?

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the latest installment of Al Gore "claiming" that he "invented the Internet." (Which he never said) - and it's General Wesley Clark's comments on Face the Nation on Sunday. The media firestorm that has been generated by Wesley Clark's comments (see video clip above) on Face the Nation this past weekend are amazing (but not at all surprising). It's yet another pseudo scandal - taking media time and coverage away from the issues that matter to voters most in their everyday lives. The media is now doing exactly the opposite of what it did to John Kerry in 2004. When Kerry was criticized for his military service in '04, it was said by many (and everyone on State TV Faux News) that it was "fair game" because he was running on his war record.

Now that McCain is doing everything but shooting campaign commercials inside the Hanoi Hilton, it's all supposed to be off limits. Wrong. I'm tired of writing it over and over (and I'm not going to any longer, even though society makes people feel like they have to), but I'll repeat it one more time - no one questions John McCain's patriotism, or his service to his country. But, that doesn't make his foreign policy positions bullet proof, especially when he advocates continued war in the Middle East, and he advocates torture of terrorism suspects.

What's more, the phrase that has the media in full-blown fury was given to him by Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer, but that part is conveniently cut off during the endless replays on cable news. Give me a friggin' break.

What's more, Clark is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT - getting shot down in a plane doesn't make you qualified to be president. What's even more astonishing is Schieffer's response: "REALLY?!?!?"

This is hardly even worth spending more time on, but Clark sure is - he appeared on Dan Abrams' show last night to explain himself, and to try to douse the media firestorm that's erupted because someone dared to criticize the media's darling candidate, John McCain...

Clark's comments above are totally, absolutely unnecessary. I was happy to at least hear Clark mention that the words were given to him by Schieffer, although Clark doesn't mention him by name. Clark should have been much more forceful on that point, however.