Schieffer: You heard what Sen. Lieberman said. He said that Barack Obama is simply more ready to be President than Barack Obama.
Clark: Well, I think Joe has it exactly backwards.
In the midst of all of the to-do about Wesley Clark’s comments, the most entertaining part of the exchange has been lost. I have to say that I share Ezra Klein’s view of this pseudo-controversy. More dangerous for the Obama campaign is the announced plan to go touring foreign countries during the summer for reasons I laid out before.
What I thought was lost in this discussion was the subtext of Gen. Clark’s comments. That is, getting shot down in service of America’s imperial-interventionism is not the same as ordering “bombs to fall” as a wartime commander implementing America’s imperial-interventionist agenda. In this case, Clark has far more experience than either McCain or Obama. After all, Clark oversaw America’s last successful imperialist intervention. So, who better to judge. In this light, his comments make perfect sense. However, the discussion always has to turn into an effort to stifle any civilian questioning of any form of military service. If you can’t question the military, then you can’t question militarism–even though they are not always the same thing. No one has the sort of W.J. Bryan gall to ask “Shall the people or the military rule?”