I still think Wesley Clark was wrong and clumsy with his remarks the other day about John McCain's military service…but Joe Conason reminds us of something relevant.
Back in '92, Ross Perot picked as his running mate, a man named James Stockdale who was as much a "war hero" as anyone who ever had his name on a ballot. Despite this, Admiral Stockdale became something of a laughingstock in this country, derided by Liberals and Conservatives alike. Many of the folks who are selling McCain's past heroism as an argument for him as Prez had no trouble deriding Stockdale as unqualified or even senile. And of course, a lot of them had no trouble pissing all over John Kerry's medals.