Echoes of War

It is, I suppose, the curse of the baby boomers: Every presidential campaign is ultimately about Vietnam.

How can it be, in 2008, that we're still arguing about a war that started in the Johnson administration?

In 1976, it was Jimmy Carter's amnesty proposal for draft dodgers. In 1980, it was Ronald Reagan promising to restore America's military and morale. In 1988, it was Dan Quayle avoiding Vietnam by joining the National Guard. In 1992, it was whether Bill Clinton had ducked the draft. In 2000, it was whether George W. Bush had evaded combat by joining the National Guard and then going AWOL. In 2004, it was the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry's service.

And now Wes Clark attacking the only POW to become a major-party nominee for president.

On one level, this is about the cultural divide rooted in the sixties, whether you served or didn't serve, whether you supported ROTC and the military or were a long-haired protester marching against America's role in the conflict.

But it also represents the morphing of attack politics into all-out warfare. If you avoided Vietnam, you're painted as a questionable commander in chief. If you served in Vietnam, even won medals for bravery as Kerry did, your record comes under fire. Al Gore, a senator's son, enlisted and served five months there as an information specialist, and yet was criticized for saying he took risks and was shot at. And now John McCain, who was shot down and subsequently tortured over 5 1/2 years, is finding his record under fire as well.

And since McCain used one of the Swift Boaters to defend his honor in a conference call, we get to argue about that episode all over again.

It's not that anyone who suited up in Vietnam should be above criticism, or automatically assumed to be presidential timber. I would simply ask this: Do Americans worried about their jobs, mortgages and gas prices really care as much as the pundit class about what McCain did 35 years ago?

The second-day debate is still going strong, with Clark making the rounds from "Good Morning America" to CNN to MSNBC. Andrew Sullivan lobs this grenade:

"Wesley Clark is now and always has been a Clinton-type, but this is pretty revolting. This kind of personal attack was repulsive coming against Kerry from the far right. And it's repulsive the other way round. Both Kerry and McCain served their country honorably; and their records should be revered, period. You can make an argument against McCain's foreign policy experience and judgment on its merits. Do it and leave this crap out of it."

But Josh Marshall blames the MSM:

"It's not surprising. But it is an example of the fatuous McCain worship that is the bread and butter of the Washington press corps that Wes Clark's comments this weekend on Face the Nation are being called 'swift-boating'. It's almost comical, but not much less than Bob Schieffer's incredulous responses to the fact that Clark had the temerity to argue that McCain's experience as a Navy pilot and a POW don't necessarily mean he'd be a good president."