ah! Very gratifying to see Progressive Bulldog using his generally well-supported logic with bold print accent against someone other than myself.

Clark's secondary point--after back-patting a fellow patriot, to question how this experience qualifies one for president of the U.S. is of course right on. It's an entirely fair question to ask, and does not in any way belittle the service of McCain.

BUT, since McCain and the media seem to be trying to spin it that way, I have two analogies, each accenting why McCain's war-time experience--and particularly what he did not learn from that experience, make him in fact ill-suited for the job: (1) Isn't a man who argues the opposite of Clark's point--that 'I am qualified to be president BECAUSE I was a POW in Nam'--like saying 'I am qualified to be an automobile safety expert because of my terrible motor vehicle accident? and my favorite (2) the fact that what life lessons McCain got out of his POW/Nam experience appears to be 'we just should have bombed more and stayed longer' EXACTLY like the old distinction between ignorance and stupidity? Not only is McCain willing to touch a hot stove, but it's like he was shoved into a hot oven and held captive, then released, and yet STILL wants to touch that damn hot stove.