Monday, June 30, 2008

Are we really that sensitive?

Gen. Wesley Clack recently questioned how McCain's Vietnam experience relates to being president, raising a valid point that no one event, or experience automatically makes you perfect for a specific job. Suddenly McCain is condemning the remarks, and Obama is distancing himself from a potential VP candidate. Why are we suddenly so sensitive, that we immediately condemn a reasonable question, instead of answering it.

Clark made a valid point, even if he went around it the wrong way. McCain's time in Vietnam does not automatically qualify him to be an expert on foreign relations and nation security. Being a former navy pilot does not give you the right to be president. Why then is everyone acting like Clark was waging a personal attack against McCain?

We as a society, are becoming far too sensitive. We see something that might be considered offensive, and immediately reject it as being hateful or disrespectful. In this day of PC, we need to step back and look at how crazy we've all gotten if we cannot open our mouths without worrying that we will be ostracized for speaking our mind. There is a difference between open questions and attacks.

All McCain had to do was say that he's got all this other experience that allows him to be much more knowledgeable on topics such as the war in Iraq. Instead he took some kind of personal offense that he did not have the right to be president because he was a POW. The media helped fuel this controversy by playing into it. They're always looking for the next big story, and in a week where candidates would normal just trade barbs over the economy and climate change, they saw a chance to make some headlines. It is becoming almost a weekly occurrence to have a big story, that isn't really a story at all. I wonder if those reporters are ever going to see the light and realize they are cheapening their own profession.
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