A few weeks ago Gen. Wesley Clark spoke to the Huffington Post. He had this to say about Sen. John McCain:

The truth is that, in national security terms, he’s largely untested and untried. He’s never been responsible for policy formulation. He’s never had leadership in a crisis, or in anything larger than his own element on an aircraft carrier or [in managing] his own congressional staff. It’s not clear that this is going to be the strong suit that he thinks it is.

He essentially asked “where does McCain get this reputation as a foreign policy expert? From his time as a POW? Though his service is certainly honorable, how exactly does it equal foreign policy expertise?”

A week later, he was on MSNBC and was asked to defend his comments. The Carpetbagger Report has the video and the following commentary:

First, notice the incredulity from the on-air “journalists.” The notion that McCain lacks credibility on national security issues is completely foreign to them because, well, he’s John McCain.

The other people on the show seemed genuinely surprised, as though Gen. Clark had just claimed the Earth was flat, even though they could offer no examples of where McCain’s alleged “foreign policy” experience comes from.

Sen. Obama, on the other hand, has been on Senate committees for Foreign Relations and Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs and is Chairman of the Senate’s subcommittee on European Affairs.

Sen. McCain? The most relevant experience has been on Senate Armed Services and Commerce, neither of which have anything to do with foreign policy.

I am consistently amazed at the truthiness that gets around in the media today. Sen. McCain is older and was a POW so it sounds true that he has more foreign policy experience than Sen. Obama. The reality is quite different.

The Carpetbagger Report