McCain camp: Obama's 'wink and nod'

Posted: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 11:49 AM by Domenico Montanaro

From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
The McCain campaign forcefully kept up the attack against Obama for Gen. Wes Clark’s comments on McCain’s military service and his readiness to be president.

In his speech on patriotism yesterday, Obama tried to distance himself from Clark’s comments (without naming him) saying no military service should be disparaged. But the McCain campaign says that is not enough and that Obama is “winking and nodding” at the attacks.

Campaign spokesman Brian Rogers added, the Obama campaign “supposedly repudiate it … if this is the kind of wink and a nod game they want to play, that’s fine, but spare us” the talk of new politics.

“I do think Gen Clark has made a huge mistake here,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham. “No matter how he sugar coats it, he is attacking John McCain’s military service. … Yesterday, [the Obama campaign said it’s inappropriate. Today they’re pretty quiet when he reiterates that attack.”

Graham added that “Obama needs to show some leadership here” and called on him to either tell surrogates to “knock it off” or say he agrees with them.

Swindle put it more bluntly. “He [Obama] could display some leadership to tell his surrogates, ‘Knock this crap off,’” he said. “This is not really about Gen. Clark,” who Swindle called “not worth” continuing to talk about. “This is about Sen. Obama. If he can’t even lead his surrogates, he won’t do a very good job of leading the U.S. troops.”

Ready from Day One
Graham went further, setting up the election as a choice of who is most ready to be commander in chief.

“Every voter’s got to decide … who would be the best commander in chief for the nation and those in uniform, when we’re fighting two wars,” Graham said. “If you want to help the men and women in uniform cast your vote for the person best qualified to be commander in chief.”

He called McCain the most qualified to be commander in chief since Eisenhower and then ticked off the Arizona senator’s family’s history of service.

“His military service is extraordinary,” he said, adding that McCain is viewed as a “rock star” among the rank-and-file in the military.

“They know what John is made of, when his back is against the wall, when he had an opportunity to help himself over his comrades,” Graham said, referring to McCain’s days as a prisoner of war and declining an early release.

Thank you, Wes Clark
On the call, Graham brought up Bob Dole’s, saying that “Bob Dole was a war hero; he wasn’t elected president.”

But as Newsweek’s Holly Bailey pointed out, McCain and others advisers to Dole thought the World War II veteran should have emphasized his military record more:

“In the summer of 1996, McCain pulled Dole aside and urged him to be himself. In particular, says one former Dole strategist who declined to be named while discussing private conversations, McCain suggested that Dole talk more about his military service. It was a touchy subject with Dole, who believed that bringing up his experience in the war would be viewed as bragging, and would tarnish his honor. For the most part, he didn't take McCain's advice.

“It's a conversation that, ironically, McCain would have with his own aides several years later when he decided to run for president in 2000. Like Dole, McCain doesn't like to talk about his years of military service in personal terms, especially his time as a POW. … In this election, McCain has talked about some of his difficult moments -- on video that the campaign has distributed to voters and played at rallies before McCain arrives. But he still seems reluctant to address the subject in person.”

Now the subject is front and center -- and brought up for him.

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