Article: Philadelphia Inquirer Editor: Obama Disgracing Those Who Suffered or Died Wearing Uniform

SteveYoungonPolitics.com 7/6/08) This Sunday morning, Philadelphia Inquirer Associate Editor, Kevin Ferris, once again goes talk radio all over the Philadelphia Inquirer opinion pages, able to spin Gen. Wesley Clark's response to a question concerning John McCain's readiness as president into a hyperbolic hit piece surmising that Clark "denigrated the uniform" and that Barack Obama will "use the uniform as needed, disgracing those who suffered or died wearing it."

Wow. Might as well pen Ferris in as Bill O'Reilly's fill in.

What Ferris chose to leave out was the context of Clark's response where Face The Nation host, Bob Schieffer noted that Obama had not "ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down." Clark said, ""Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

Not did he include Clark's preface to his response, including..."I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces, as a prisoner of war."

Wow #2. Disgrace, thy name be honor. Or visa versa.

The Constitution is a wacky, kinda living, kinda not, document that explains just what we Americans can get away with. It also frames the conditions within which one can run for the position where one American can get away with the most - President of the United States of America. And Clark's comments were not a denigration of the uniform, but a reflection of the document that our troops have fought and died to protect for over 200 years.

See: It's The Constitution, Stupid!

Steve Young is author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" www.greatfailure.com and blogs at steveyoungonpolitics.com