Obama becoming a joke. Gen. Cark delivers a laser guided missile on McCain and this is how he is treated.

Obama can fight his own battles. I'm not going to defend him anymore. He is WEAK.

It's precisely what needed to be said, and every time Clark says it, he gets the same reaction: utter shock that he can say such an over-the-top thing as to suggest that McCain's POW status is no qualification to be president.  The problem is that he's damn well right; being a POW is an image builder, not a qualification builder.  We know it, and the rest of the country needs to hear it more often.

It's astounding just how short the GOP memory is, when it was they who disparaged Kerry from here back to Vietnam.

Obama distanced himself from the comments from that doesn't mean he doesn't approve of them.

This was the second time (first was on Morning Joe) in which Clark said exactly the same thing. That doesn't look like a gaffe or a blunder. It looks like a choreographed attempt at bringing this issue to the forefront.

I disagree with your whole "bus" thing, but I do agree that Obama didn't have much of a choice. It was an ill-advised comment. Had he just stopped before the "getting shot down" comment, that would've been fine. But unfortunately, Clark stepped in it and left Obama no choice but to distance himself from the comments.

Remember that Obama's walking a pretty thin line as it is, because anything that's seen as too negative, petty, etc., brings out the inevitable "what happened to a new kind of politics!?!?!" whining. So he has to keep a low tolerance for this kind of comment.

And yes, it does seem to make it less likely that Clark would be VP, but I really don't think he was  a top choice to begin with. I still hold firm to the belief that Obama would not pick a pure military guy to be his VP, as it would make it look like he's admitting a McCain CIC advantage.

The only exception I see is Webb, who's at least got some legislative experience now and could help  in a swing state.

Clark was either a launching a trial balloon or he was a loose cannon.

It was a dangerous thing to try to do, not necessarily because it was counter-factual, but because of how firmly entrenched Senator McCain's image as a foreign policy and national security expert is.  Additionally, this is not the sort of thing I expected from the Obama campaign.

Clark rolled the dice, either on Obama's behalf or his own.  I wasn't happy with Clark's remarks, and you know what?  He took a chance, not for the first time.  He's "gone there" a few times, but never quite so boldly as this time.

The American public will invariably side with the gritty war hero over the well-coiffed general.  It doesn't matter that Clark's criticism was largely correct - to the American electorate there are just things that are off limits.  Apparently getting within a million miles of criticising John McCain's service (or more precisely the significance of it) is one of them.

Learn the lesson, painful though it was, and move on.

That bus has Really Big Tires . . . room for all!

will lit into Obama throwing Clark under the bus in their conversation, which is set to take place in hours.  They probably feel that Obama should have stood up for the General, unless this thing was orchestrated by either Obama or the Clintons.

Clark is such a unifying figure for the Obama and Clinton crowds; the 'roots loves him and both camps respect the hell out of the guy.  Even if Obama did the right thing in rejecting Clark, the optics look horrible for Obama considering that the 'roots will roast him for throwing overboard a popular figure and Hillary and Bill will probably not appreciate Obama's quick distancing from one of their best friends.

are probably the only two people immune from the Obama bus at this point.  The bus joke is all in good fun Obama folks, I'm not sure I would have played it any differently.

Who else is safe from the bus besides Hillary and Michelle?  Kathleen Sebelius?

The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round...

This was a bad move on Clark's part.  Look at the coverage today- anyone and everyone knows this would've been framed as "Clark attacks McCain's military service" and nothing more, and that's exactly what happened.

This scores points with the red-meat base (people like us, who are smart enough to read the whole quote), but it antagonizes republicans and independents that lean right.  

I wish Clark had made his point more artfully- there IS a point to be had there, but he followed up with the "shot down" thing which, while true, was clearly off the reservation when he did.

I don't see how the statement from Burton amounts to throwing Clark overboard or under the bus. It just expresses rejection of a statement--a rejection that was politically necessary, period.

I don't know why Obama has to endorse everything every supporter says. Supporters are going to say certain things that Obama doesn't or can't endorse, so we should just let him speak for himself and quit demanding that he adopt the words of less politic commenters.

Of course, the press is to blame for some of this, since Clark's statement is being interpreted in the least charitable way. But, Obama only has a limited ability to shape the political reality in which he operates.

Jeremiah Wright
Trinity Church
Samantha Power
Jim Johnson
white grandmother
Wesley Clark

just wait till november. it will be a looonnngg list.

Obama should have just said of course we honor McBushes service and left it that.  Should have had no comment on Clark at all.

the optics look bad.  but not sure what else could have been done.

Obama could have just ignored Clark's comment.