Off His Game

An ABC reporter gave John McCain the opportunity to discuss Wes Clark's comment - the ACTUAL remarks - and McCain went apeshit.

McCain became visibly angry when I asked him to explain how his Vietnam experience prepared him for the Presidency.

“Please,” he said, recoiling back in his seat in distaste at the very question.

McCain allies Sen. Lindsey Graham stepped in to rescue him. Graham expressed admiration for McCain’s stance on the treatment of detainees in US custody.

(That would be the stance that he flipped on by voting against a ban on torture in the Senate just this year.)

Another few questions like this and he's going to strangle somebody. The precedent of him hauling off at people is certainly there. And this reporter is probably going to have to fly in the back of the plane from now on.

I actually think that Wes Clark completely threw McCain off with this. The Villagers are having their little hissy fit, but this has exposed that McCain believes in his own divine right to the Presidency based entirely on his suffering and his wounds (which he's ever so "reluctant" to talk about, he mentioned in the same interview. Yeah, right.) Clark touched a nerve here by questioning the assumption that McCain's biography can stand in for his judgment or policy prescriptions. He deflated McCain's entire rationale for his candidacy. And McCain can't take it so he's acting like a WATB.

You endured a horrible imprisonment for our country years ago, and we thank and honor you for it. But let's have some actual straight talk here: you've been thanked and honored for this exact thing for decades. Lionized, feted, canonized even. Maybe the problem is that you feel entitled to nothing BUT that at this point, but... if so, you shouldn't be running for President. It's not appropriate for a democracy to give anyone that office as a gift, without the proper debate.

What you want, Mr. McCain, is to be spared scrutiny. You want the office to be given to you by acclaim, and for ANY criticism of your record to be called an act of disrespect for your military service. It's a cowardly way to approach this election -- morally bankrupt and un-American.

McCain's in quite a bit of trouble. The insiders are worried, he had to overhaul his top staff again and he's caught up in lies over his past statements about not knowing anything about the economy. This Clark story may look like a win for him, but it's consumed almost a week of his campaign, which again is message-free, rootless and unfocused, without any overarching narrative or reason to be President other than "I served." He's angry when challenged about the substance behind the bio, and it comes off ugly.