Military Service and Patriotism and the Truth

Interesting news cycle in the Presidential campaign. First, Obama's surrogate former General Wesley Clark, a failed presidential contender himself, questions John McCain's military record in Swift Boat fashion on Face the Nation. After the host questioned Obama's absence of a military record Gen. Clark basically said that getting shot down in an airplane does not qualify one to be Commander and Chief and said that McCain had no (military) executive experience.

I've heard the buzz over this and other comments in the last 24 hours. While it is true that getting shot down in an airplane, getting captured, tortured and refusing to being sent home do not qualify one to be Commander and Chief I somehow think that Clark and his fellow democrats are missing something in their critique and republicans missing something in their response. McCain grew up in a military family. His father was an admiral. McCain also attended the US Naval Academy and graduated from that institution. So we know that McCain, dispite his reported poor class ranking at Anapolis, is far more qualified to be Commander and Chief then Bill "I lothe the military" Clinton, George "MIA from National Guard Duty" Bush, Hillary "I married a Commander and Chief" Clinton and Barak "I've got nothing" Obama because none of the above have/had anything close on their resume before their quest for the White House.

This is simply more tactical politics as usual. Someone rates highly in an area and the Sun Tsu thing is to do is to make the strength a weakness. We saw it with Bush on Terrorism and Iraq and now it's going to rear it's ugly head yet again. The only thing is that they're trying to take down a true hero, not a counter culture hero like John Kerry, down and that should upset each and every American Patriot.

And that's my segway into Obama's Partiotism speach yesterday. The timing couldn't be better considering the dust storm that his campaign kicked up the previous day by attacking McCain. One has to question the integrity of Obama and his minions after the attack on McCain. Is it patriotic to attack the military qualifications of a genuine war hero? Is it dignified and proper to question his record? Yet, the attack went unpunished even after Obama said that he'll stand for no one questioning the Patriotism of his opponents. Well, if you throw down the gauntlet how about following through on it? Is this how an Obama Presidency would work - talk harshly and carry no stick? Then you see the scripted 'this has no place' comments later on as if the whole production was scripted from the beginning.

Now let's talk about Obama and Patriotism. Did we get another "Ask not..." speach from the person who is compared to Kennedy? No. Did we get something that reveals they type of Patriotism that we should all practice on into the future. No. We got a whiney speach about Obama and his journey. Great for him, maybe it's cathartic and will help him to stay out of therapy but where's the leadership in that? Where's the unifying theme? Where's the rallying cry? Where's the part that makes us all, including Mrs. Obama, proud to be Americans? Still waiting.

Obama's campaign at this stage is nothing more than a B-School exercise and that's not being fair to business schools. Talking about leadership does not make one a leader. Talking about change does not make change happen. Providing us with a biography and personal views about Patriotism does not give use anything to be Patroitic about. Please wake me up when Obama begins to talk about the tangible because Obama doesn't have the chops to take the theoritical aspects of America and top the founding fathers. And the lack of the practical tells me that he doesn't have the experience or capacity for a promotion so quickly after winning a Senate seat from a carpetbagging Alan Keys (good man but not an Illini).