McCain’s Military Service not a qualification for the Presidency

On Sunday, retired General Wesley Clark said that: “I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” He’s exactly right. In fact, McCain’s 54 years of government “service” make him very unqualified to be President.

McCain grew up in a military family. His father and Grandfather were both career military officers. McCain started working for the government in 1954 when he entered the U.S. Naval Academy. He graduated in 1958 and then went to flight school in Pensacola, Florida and become a Naval aviator in 1960. He received a combat assignment in 1966, where he participated in a bombing campaign of Vietnam. In 1967, while on his 23rd bombing mission, he was shot down over Hanoi. He was imprisoned for 5 ½ years, suffering lengthy solitary confinement and torture.

McCain left the Navy in 1981. He briefly worked for his father-in-law’s beer distributorship, as VP of Public Relations, while he was running for Congress. In 1982 he was elected to the House. In 1986, he won a seat in the Senate, where he has remained for 20 years.

McCain has virtually no experience in the private sector. He’s never led an organization, built a business, met a payroll, balanced a budget, or had to serve customers in a competitive market to survive. He admits that the economy is not his strong suit because from the time he grew up as a military brat until today, he’s lived in a world of edicts and mandates rather than one of competition. Accordingly, he has demonstrated a propensity for supporting unworkable government solutions, for example with his advocacy for the Eurocrat cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions.

With $4 a gallon gas, the worst housing market in 70 years, a collapsed dollar, and rising unemployment, private sector experience is an essential qualification for the next President. McCain's private sector experience is virtually non-existent.

I have nothing but respect for people who volunteer to serve in the U.S. military. I am a 4 year veteran of the U.S. Air Force. However, Wesley Clark is right -- military service alone doesn’t qualify one to be President of the United States.