McCain on Bill Clinton: “I don’t know where he gets his expertise”
posted at 12:15 pm on July 8, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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John McCain answered Bill Clinton’s assessment of the mental stability of POWs today on Fox News. He delivers what may be the classic rebuttal of his career, exposing Clinton’s lack of standing to even comment on such an issue:
McCain shrugs off the attack, answering that the Obama campaign can say whatever it wants about his military experience, but one has to wonder why the Democrats keep raising the issue. It only gives McCain an opportunity to speak about his war service, his love of country, and to remind voters that neither Bill Clinton nor Barack Obama served at all. They continually play to his strength while highlighting Obama’s weakness on military affairs.
And in this case, they get to highlight McCain’s sense of humor. Almost as good as the zinger is the gale of laughter that precedes it.
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Volley for effect. Petard, meet hoist.
a capella on July 8, 2008 at 12:17 PM
BJ Bill Clinton isn’t Republican, but he just luuuuuuuuvs bush.
marklmail on July 8, 2008 at 12:18 PM
Rage on, Senator McCain.
mymanpotsandpans on July 8, 2008 at 12:19 PM
I was wondering why the dims have been gang banging McCain on his military record. It has been completely classless and demeaning to say the least. Typical dimocratic trash talking without any basis of facts. Clinton has removed any doubt there is no depth he want sink to, if it fits his needs. The ad in the blogs below show why the tenacity of their attacks have grown. McCain simply proves he may not be our first choice, HE IS OUR ONLY CHOICE.
volsense on July 8, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Billy Jeff is a POM. (prisoner of marriage.
I’ll bet he has plenty of nightmares.
BrianA on July 8, 2008 at 12:24 PM
Shows how good he is without the telepromter. He came off as personable and able to speak off the cuff. Add that wordbot and he turns to wood.
Limerick on July 8, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Rage on?
Thats the war cry for the left?
Sonosam on July 8, 2008 at 12:26 PM
What a contrast!! McCain = reason. Obama = blind emotion.
docdave on July 8, 2008 at 12:27 PM
sheesh.
Redhead Infidel on July 8, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Not that I want to see this jackass elected. But for those of you who do, you need to get over this idea that he can get elected by bringing everything back to Vietnam.
Rudy Giuliani, who McCain is similar to in a lot of ways, thought he might become president by mentioning 9/11 in every speech. He ended up being mocked for it, as McCain is already starting to be for running on his service in Vietnam forty years ago.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 12:29 PM
McCain can easily turn the tables on Obama and attack his strength …….. which would be weakness.
fogw on July 8, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Obama read a book about war, once.
HOPE CHANGE BELIEVE!
rinse, repeat…
profitsbeard on July 8, 2008 at 12:32 PM
How true… *SIGH*
Swinehound on July 8, 2008 at 12:32 PM
McCain isn’t reminding us of his service in Vietnam. In case you haven’t noticed, it is Obama, Clark and Clinton who keep it in the headlines day in and day out.
And McCain flicks them off like the pesky little flies they are.
fogw on July 8, 2008 at 12:34 PM
I question the mental stability of sex addicts, like Bill Clinton, who denigrated the office of the presidency by boinking interns in The Whitehouse and as governor solicited women by exposing his genitalia to them.
Blake on July 8, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Yes,
Let’s get the coward & draft dodgers opinion of military service.
That makes sense.
JayHaw Phrenzie on July 8, 2008 at 12:37 PM
That’s the most impressive example of denial I’ve seen in quite some time.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Hey flenser…
McCain isn’t the one bringing up his war record..
IT’S YOUR GUYS THAT KEEP DOING IT!!
but, if that’s the way they want to play it, cool. Obambi continues to flip and flop on all issues, McCain continues to provide real answers to problems.
Markvike on July 8, 2008 at 12:40 PM
The donk strategy reminds me of the defense lawyer who puts his own client on the stand making him vulnerable to cross examination.
a capella on July 8, 2008 at 12:40 PM
Democrats apparently think that this is a subtle and more effective way of reminding people how old McCain is. Vietnam really is ancient history to anyone under the age of 50. Of course, in this day and age, Bill Clinton is also ancient history.
Or, my first reaction may still be right, that Democrats think they can goad McCain into a Howard Dean meltdown by attacking his military servie over and over again.
rockmom on July 8, 2008 at 12:43 PM
If we ever come up with a POW czar in this country, McCain will gladly get my vote!
Monkei on July 8, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Heh. That was good.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 8, 2008 at 12:43 PM
You need to get out more.
fogw on July 8, 2008 at 12:44 PM
McCain might actually pull this off (in spite of himself).
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 12:45 PM
We need this crack team of donks to take care of the world and look out for their interests!!!1111!!
jukin on July 8, 2008 at 12:45 PM
You mean like that Lurch, John F’n Kerry reminding us every day 4 eyars ago that he was in Vietnam (and Cambodia)?
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 12:46 PM
By the same token it’s a nice way to compile soundbytes of McCain responding to allegations and giving them the appearance that he is simply talking Vietnam ad infinatum. As a schoolkid I recall the instigator often getting away with it and the retaliator being “caught”. With a sympathetic media this game is easy to play.
RDuke on July 8, 2008 at 12:46 PM
Are you really acting like you are not aware of all the flip flops that McCain has accomplished (I think they call them evolving positions in the GOP) since 2000 or are you just ignoring them?
Monkei on July 8, 2008 at 12:47 PM
Yeah, I think I heard that same tune back when Lynn Swan was running for Governor!
Monkei on July 8, 2008 at 12:48 PM
Lynn Swann was not running against a Marxist was he?.
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Oh, I think it will come. He’ll go all Clint Eastwood on some soul before Nov 4th. The left keeps doing this and McCain just brushes it off. They are getting frustrated trying to show-his-true-side and take cheaper and cheaper shots. They’ll end up throwing something out there one day that the general public will find so beyond the pale that when McCain jumps the public will be cheering him on.
Limerick on July 8, 2008 at 12:51 PM
Exactly like that. We mocked Lurch for that, remember?
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 12:51 PM
I can’t get the video to work and when i did a search at You Tube and on FNC, I got zilch. Hmmm…Big Bro doesn’t want us to see it?
I am loathe to contradict John on this but, Bill does have expertise on POWs. He’s married to The Beast isn’t he?
Whar, whar…
Christine on July 8, 2008 at 12:52 PM
By the way Ed Rendell was/is a fairly run of the mill liberal. People will put up with liberals for Senator, Governor, Congressman (’cause all politics is local’ – think of Red State Governors who are Democrats) but when it comes to POTUS – a Marxist should not be able to make it (ask McGovern).
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 12:53 PM
Right. If McCain wins, this will be the reason.
JiangxiDad on July 8, 2008 at 12:53 PM
realclearpolitics dot com has it up.
Limerick on July 8, 2008 at 12:54 PM
A lot of people change their mind on issues in an eight year span.
Few change them in a matter of days. You do the math.
ynot4tony2 on July 8, 2008 at 12:54 PM
It’s not “my guys”. And if you look right here on HA you’ll see a McCain ad that brings up his war record.
I guess that he has figured, correctly, that if he pounds on that point long enough people like you will forget that he’s politically to the left of Bill Clinton.
But he’s a war hero!
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 12:55 PM
Lurch was the one who brought it up until the Swift Boat guys reminded people born after 1971 that Lurch had called American soldiers rapists and murderers. McCain (for all his faults) served honorably and well and is not the one bringing it up – Wesley Clark, Jay Rockefeller, Bill Clinton are and they are assholes for doing so. Trolls like your self serve a purpose in reminding independent conservatives such as myself what is at stake in November. One of two people will become POTUS and Commander-in-chief and the neo Marxist friend of Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers should not be that person.
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Here Christine:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video_log/
scroll down the page.
Limerick on July 8, 2008 at 12:56 PM
I forgot to add that whenever Billy talks about other people he is really describing himself and exposing his own psyche. He truly is a tormented man–who constantly blames and projects himself on others.
Christine on July 8, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Thanks Limerick!
Christine on July 8, 2008 at 12:57 PM
It may take criticism from another military guy to do it. Perhaps that’s why they’re holding McPeak in reserve. They know how much he’s hated by the Air Force guys and if he starts trashing McCain, it might be a bit much to turn the other cheek to that clown.
a capella on July 8, 2008 at 12:57 PM
“Being married to THAT WOMAN” is enough torture in my book. So Bill does know what he talks about.
Sir Napsalot on July 8, 2008 at 12:58 PM
so flenser, what is your strategy? If McCain is left of Bill Clinton, and Obama is clearly left of McCain, does that mean you are going to vote for the most liberal person ever to run for POTUS?
McCain has spoken a lot about all the issues. All you ever hear is “Vietnam”, “Vietnam”, maybe it’s you who is stuck in the past.
kirkill on July 8, 2008 at 12:59 PM
WTF?
fogw on July 8, 2008 at 12:59 PM
You don’t read so good.
I’m a Republican conservative and you’re the troll. You want to shill for a lefty, be my guest. It’s a free country. But don’t give me this crap about how conservative you are. The man you’re backing is well to the left of Bill Clinton.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:01 PM
Being a war hero is not a qualification to be President. If that was the case then Audie Murphy and Ted Williams should have run. However being a war hero does speak to ones character. I am not a McCain fan at all, he is far too “independent” reveling in the moniker of “Maverick” and willing to suck up to the odious likes of The Fat Rich Kid (F.R.K. being Teddy Kennedy) but if the choice is between the slightly left of center McCain and the uber leftist Obama then I know where my responsibility lies.
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 1:01 PM
And you’re a poseur. It’s really getting tiresome.
rockmom on July 8, 2008 at 1:01 PM
No, it means I’ll vote for the most conservative person on the ballot. It means that you will vote for one of the most liberal people ever to run for POTUS.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:03 PM
Bovine excrement! The man you’re backing was endorsed by Hamas and is to the left of McGovern and is the darling of the Eurotrash and Hollywood crowd, and will appoint people with the political background of Ramsey Clark to high governmental positions. Cut the crap, the primaries are over we have two choices and one is 100% unacceptable. Btw Pat Buchanan also claims to be a conservative.
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 1:04 PM
Flenser: a verb, to cut or extract all logic from discussion.
As in, “Dude, why’d you have to come in here and flenser up this thread?”
carbon_footprint on July 8, 2008 at 1:05 PM
That is not the choice. You have free will, and the responsibility that comes with it. You can use that free will to tell yourself this guff about how you have no real choice at all, but you are lying to yourself. If you vote for one of the left-wing candidates it’s on your head.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:06 PM
In defense of flenser he, according to him, isn’t an Obama man. He claimed he is a DeMintsuppoter and committed isolationist…….how those two tie together you’ll have to work out for yourselves.
Limerick on July 8, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Barr was endorsed by Hamas? I think you are lying again. Funny how you do that so often.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Barr is a lunatic. So now we know who you support, a guy who probably belongs in a straitjacket along with his Lew Rockwell friends. I imagine you are a Paulbot.
Hamas endorsed Obama.
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 1:09 PM
Wow! Barr now! A couple of weeks ago you claimed it was DeMint and wanted me to join you in getting him on the ballot. Strange bedfellows, Barr/Demint.
Limerick on July 8, 2008 at 1:09 PM
Talk about not paying attention. The mysteries of the liberal mind never cease to amaze me.
Rick on July 8, 2008 at 1:10 PM
You pathological dishonesty is getting annoying. I claimed no such thing.
Well, I guess two can play that game. Tell me, “lim”, why do you want to shove all the Jews into ovens?
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:10 PM
Does the video slow down for anybody and sound like a super slowmo voice distortion? About halfway through?
Dubn8tr on July 8, 2008 at 1:11 PM
MDS’rs will only see what they want to see. They want to defeat McCain so Obama will be elected and we can end up with a liberal supreme court, higher taxes, reduce our military and obscene energy problems.
It is a scorched earth policy. Then they are going to rise up like the Phoenix, with some masterful ultra-conservative candidate that will lead us to salvation…didn’t you read the MDS handbook?
Of course, we still end up with a liberal supreme court, higher taxes, and energy problems…but hell, we got them on the run in 8 years.
right2bright on July 8, 2008 at 1:11 PM
Lurch was mocked for his Vietnam references because his experience there was so inconsequential. Just a couple of months, then three band-aids got him a ticket home.
MarkTheGreat on July 8, 2008 at 1:11 PM
I imagine that you consider anyone to the right of Joe Lieberman to be a lunatic.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:12 PM
I suspect he might be one of the 28 people who regularly subscribe to Buchanan’s rag (and misnamed) “The American Conservative.
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 1:12 PM
why is mccain blinking so much?
triple on July 8, 2008 at 1:13 PM
Yeah, all anyone needs do is follow his remarks in Iran and Immigration threads to get his true colors.
Limerick on July 8, 2008 at 1:13 PM
My apologies flenser, didn’t mean to call you a liberal.
Rick on July 8, 2008 at 1:13 PM
We don’t have two choices.
So do you, and a good deal more improbably.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:14 PM
Nope just Paleocons, LaRouchites, Rockwellians, Daily Kos Kids and Soros acolytes. Lieberman is wrong on just about every issue except the fight we are engaged in. He is a profile in courage since he has been marginalized in his party and has tons of abuse hurled on him. Even his former running mate Al Gore did not support his re-election. Sometimes there are men of principle out there.
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Thanks Limerick = I couldn’t get the video in here to work either.
HawaiiLwyr on July 8, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Because everyone knows that real conservatives, like “Lim”, are commited to open borders and war with Iran and the entire Muslim world. That’s always been the conservative position, just as we’ve always been at war with Eurasia. Why, it’s common knowlege. Just as we know that the Pope has given his blessing for an American nuclear attack on Tehran.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:19 PM
Bwaaaahhhh now you hurt my feelings.
Btw not that it really matters but for my own curiosity, what do you think of Buchanan’s latest book, was World War II the right war to fight? Just asking.
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 1:19 PM
McCain should have said that when Wesley Clark was in VietNam, Clark was known as a RAMF. McCain should have said that Clinton shirked military duty and that Obama also shirked military duty. McCain goes too easy on these Ivy League clowns like Clinton and Obama who think that their Ivy League pedigree gives them a God given right to rule over America. Wind up Michelle Obama and in two seconds, she brings up that she went to Princeton.
Larraby on July 8, 2008 at 1:19 PM
newsflash: Iran IS at war with us…we just aren’t fighting back…
right4life on July 8, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Is flenser a Paulnut and ashamed to say so? He’s always quite vague.
a capella on July 8, 2008 at 1:22 PM
flenser, the man who peels the onion, layer by layer and some here…
”… can’t handle the truth”.
flenser, keep it up; you gott’em all between a rock and a hard place!
J_Gocht on July 8, 2008 at 1:23 PM
Hey, you hurt mine first!
That’s not an approach calculated to get a response, is it? If your own curosity is not even important to you, why should it be to me?
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:24 PM
They are not doing a very good job of it then, are they? If they’re at war with us and we’re not fighting back, doesn’t that mean that the Iranian Third Armored Divison will be occupying New York within the month?
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:26 PM
I strongly believe that you fully support Buchanan’s thesis that Hitler although “not a nice man” was a reasonable man and that Winston Churchill (along with FDR) was the source of all the problems that led to World War II.
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 1:27 PM
right2bright on July 8, 2008 at 1:28 PM
Oh and now that I think of it…
Yea of little faith, the Saint holdeth the record!
Ten count ‘em, perfect dolphins during two weeks in June and we still have four months to go.
J_Gocht on July 8, 2008 at 1:29 PM
Hilts
I guess you’re new here because half the comenters on HA refuse to vote for McCain, and they are none of the above.
But a lot of the die-hard McCainiacs do give the impression that they are single issue pro-war liberals.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:30 PM
2004 playbook … doesn’t work anymore … liberal vs conservative has virtually no meaning … conservatism, thanks to the human waste of skin GWB, has been given a black eye that will take 10-15 years to overcome. GWB is the current face of conservatism. Could there possibly be a worse spokesman?
Monkei on July 8, 2008 at 1:30 PM
That is funnnny!
right2bright on July 8, 2008 at 1:31 PM
I think that BJ Clinton is just trying to sabotage Obama with his idiotic talk. We all know he thinks that he and his wife should return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. There is no way in hell he really wants Obama to win.
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 1:32 PM
FOX News should give BJ his own talk show! He might just win this thing for the Republicans…they can’t do it themselves!
sabbott on July 8, 2008 at 1:32 PM
Oh, the big lie about America’s hero that somehow all he was about was 9/11. Great, the best candidate of recent history for the GOP shot down by people like you. Gee, thanks. If Obaldwin* gets in, it’ll be because of people like you.
HotAirJosef
*Obaldwin is a reference to Obama’s similarities with the populist, anti-rearmament British PM Stanley Baldwin.
HotAirJosef on July 8, 2008 at 1:32 PM
Well done, right2bright!
Now all you need to do is to find me saying that I’m a “commited isolationist” and you’ll have caught me in a lie. Instead of making yourself look stupid, again.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:32 PM
yes
right2bright on July 8, 2008 at 1:33 PM
Bush and his doofus country club father is not now and never has been a Conservative. As William F. Buckley said “He (Bush) is conservative but he is not a Conservative.”
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 1:34 PM
I 100% agree wtih you, flenser. I do want to see McCain elected, if only because the alternative (Obama) is much worse. But I agree with you that McCain needs to stop running ads showing his POW footage over and over again. It is a very great testament to his character that he was able to survive five years at the Hilton Hanoi and end up running for President 30+ years later. But he cheapens that legacy by pimping it out for short term political points. And unlike Rudy Giuliani, he actually has a tangible record he can run on. He doesn’t need to do this, and whoever is telling him to keep running the POW footage and beating that dead horse is disserving him.
Outlander on July 8, 2008 at 1:34 PM
The best candidate of recent history? Funny way to describe a man who received lots and lots of money, and lots and lots of slavish coverage in the press, both MSM and right wing, but who managed to get a whole two delegates.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:35 PM
Better a RINO war hero than a Marxist ANYDAY
jcrue on July 8, 2008 at 1:36 PM
Too funny! Churchill’s comment on learning about the death of Stanley Baldwin and what to do with his body”Embalm, cremate and bury. Take no chances.”
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 1:37 PM
well lets see, they took our hostages, killed a bunch of our marines in lebanon…back al-qaeda…send EFPs to iraq to kill our people…
yeah they’re doing a good job at it.
right4life on July 8, 2008 at 1:37 PM
I have no doubts they have sleeper cells throughout our country…and soon those sleeper cells will have a few nukes with them….
right4life on July 8, 2008 at 1:38 PM
If you feel that way about Bush, what do you think of McCain? He has all of Bushs bad points, including the problem with speaking, and a few that Bush does not have. Say what you will about W but he’d veto this global warming garbage.
flenser on July 8, 2008 at 1:39 PM
As I already indicated, I think Israel needs to do whatever
It is what it is.
Limerick on July 8, 2008 at 1:40 PM
I hear he won four (4) Purple Hearts too!
ctmom on July 8, 2008 at 1:40 PM
Iran specializes in getting other people to do their killing for them – Hezbollah, Al Qaeda in Iraq, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Syrian Military Intelligence (assassinating Rafik Harriri and other anti Syrian/Iranian politicians in Lebanon) etc. meanwhile as their Manhattan Project goes whizzing along.
Hilts on July 8, 2008 at 1:41 PM
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