Maybe we should take a cue from the muslims, and from now on, whenever anyone mentions John McCain's name, they should always follow it with a phrase like, "may God's blessings and peace be upon him." Clearly McCain's military record is now considered so sacrosanct that we should only discuss it in the most worshipful whisper. Maybe we should not even use his proper name, but a la "The Prophet," we should only mention him as "The Maverick" (may God's blessings and peace be upon him).

Sometimes I just want to kick a beltway air bag in the ass, for all of the bullshit "character issues" they foist on our people in the name of political journalism. Anyone who actually watched the interview with Clarke would have seen that the phrase about "riding around in a fighter plane" was simply a verbatim re-statement of the question that Bob Schieffer had just put to Clarke. Those were Schieffer's words, to which Clarke responded with the perfectly reasonable answer that, no, being shot down in a fighter plane does not, in and of itself, qualify one to be president. But heck, if crashes are the highest qualification for office in this country, too bad Evel Knievel (May God rest his soul and shower blessings upon him) is no longer around to lead our people.

Let's be honest: John McCain finished at the bottom of his Annapolis class and got out of the military because he wasn't going to be promoted beyond the rank of Captain. Clarke, in contrast, was valedictorian of his class at West Point and reached the rank of General. Clarke was shot to pieces during his Vietnam service and, as Kaplan mentions, was awarded the Silver Star. So I'd have to say that Clarke has earned the right to question McCain much, much more than any of the blowhards in the mainstream press have earned the right to question Clarke.

What do they call the one who graduates last in his class at medical school - Doctor!!

What matters is that John McCain qualified for, completed the rigorous requirements for and graduated from the US Naval Academy. That is a distinguishing mark not a whole lot of folks can say.

Does that qualify him to President, no. No more than being a former fighter pilot does. But it should qualify him to compete. Without his loyalty, patriotism, or intelligence being questioned.

So instead of attempting to denegrade that accomplishment, how about some reasoned discourse on just what does qualify him to be President.

And the same for Senator Obama.

I mostly agree with you, but I absolutely didn't think that Clarke was denigrating McCain's military experience, or McCain as a person. He merely said that being shot down and being a POW does not automatically qualify a person to be president. I think that a lot of McCain partisans are trying to read something into the "incident" that wasn't there, simply for the sake of scoring political points.