Wes Clark: Commie peace creep or wussie flower child?

I'm not among those who find Wes Clark, or any other candidate - including my own choice - above criticism, but in fairness, he's taking some knocks that are anything but fair.

To hear the criticism of some of his former military colleagues, you'd think Wes Clark was a goldbricking PFC who never quite got the hang of Army life. Of course, to hear some of his political opponents, you'd think he's got the political experience and instincts of a chapter president of your local high school Young Democrats.

In fact, his military career was typified by both battlefield heroism and demonstrations of political savvy of the highest order. Make no mistake, once a soldier pins on a star, he or she is out of the range of the strictly military and deeply immersed in a swamp of some of the most brutal politics on the planet. They may not have parties, but they have sides. Wes Clark chose his, and the other team, some of whom are currently in ascendency, are still trying to exact a price.

That's one of the reasons that Clark remains high on my list of candidate choices. I may have my reservations about Wes, and I remain convinced that John Kerry is not only our best candidate for this year but promises to be the best President of my lifetime, but I'm confident that if Clark's the nominee, he's well prepared to handle the rough and tumble of the fall campaign.

As far as the impact of his military detractors goes, there's far too much being made of it in some circles. Jonathan Chait makes sense when he writes "Yes, there are people in the military who dislike Clark, and the Bush administration has very successfully gotten their criticisms of him into the media. (They have done so to derail his candidacy and help ensure that they can face Dean.) They may convince a lot of people that Clark's military career was checkered. But they won't succeed in convincing the public that he was not in fact a general. Nobody is going to think of him as some wussy flower child."