It's just that some see one candidate as inconsistent, some see it in the other.  

Takes me back to the FDR discussion.  We know now, of course, that FDR did not have a detailed plan -- but we also know that he had core principles that came across at a time when the public wanted the reassurance of a consistent direction, anyway.

Dem leadership should support that instead of letting BO (a) tossing them under the bus and (b) gambling the party's future on someone who's good at fundraising* and gilding his own image, but not much else.

For the second time, Mr. Obama will grace the cover of Rolling Stone [...] When Mr. Wenner asked how Mr. Obama might respond to harsh attacks from Republicans, suggesting that Democrats have "cowered" in the past, Mr. Obama replied, "Yeah, I don't do cowering." (The Inner Obama by Julie Bosman, The Caucus (NY Times political blog), June 24, 2008)

Senator Obama may become a good choice for a leader some day, but he isn't that now. Everything we're supposed to overlook because of his lack of record -- his "great" inspirational powers, his "vision", his ability to bring new voters to the Dem fold blah blah blah -- are proving to be duds.

Serving in the military isn't a solitary quality that makes someone potentially a good Prez either, but neither are speechifying or running a "great" campaign.

(Noting that you didn't claim this, BTD, but Gen Clark does deserve points for making that refined distinction about McCain in the stupid reactionary forum that passes for political news.)

To say I am attacking exchange students would be, in my view, a sort of Obama-esque campaign way of counter-attacking me for my observation.

I fought against that kind tomfoolery when it was used against Clinton and her supporters.

I think I still have to fight against it when it's used against Clark.

Which still doesn't mean I'm voting for Obama.  And it still doesn't mean you're not right if the media runs with a certain narrative and drives it home.

They will only drive attacks on character narratives.

So maybe this is a bad move for Clark.  But I think he's sincere.  He's not gonna back down cause it's what he believes.  And I agree with Clark.

But perhaps there's something also to be learned from Obama rejecting Clark here.

And when another surrogate goes out and smears McCain as a racist liar, we'll have to see how Obama reacts to that.  Funny thing is, I won't agree with that.

That's actually kind of the point.

The only way some of us can see to get off McCain's war record and talk about his Senate record is to simply point out that his war record, all by itself, is not sufficient enough reason to support him.  What else does McCain have going for him?

"If you want sycophancy, this isn't your place."