The strategy is obvious. Republicans have owned this "issue" for a while, because Democrats like World War II fighter pilot George McGovern and Vietnam veteran John Kerry, have let GOPers who avoided service define what patriotism is for the past generation.

As the GOP found someone who actually did serve this time around, it is more obvious than ever that they will use some combination of "black," "Muslim," and "anti-American" to try and defeat Sen. Obama, because their economic, Iraq and healthcare plans ain't selling too well these days.

So like his speech on race, tactically, this is a good move to lay down a marker.

On a related note, many in the media and McCain Campaign (is there any difference?) are in a huff because General Wesley Clark, while not diminishing John McCain's service, has dared question whether John McCain's actualy military experience flying planes provides the kind of executive experience we're looking for in a president. I heard all these same voices crying out in unison when Republicans were calling John Kerry a traitor in 2004, didn't you?

That's right. We must all accept at face value the false analogy that having fought in a war = foreign policy gravitas, no matter now many times McCain's own personal Roaming Gnome, Joe Lieberman, has to whisper in his ear the difference between Sunni and Shiite.

Update: Barack Obama has rejected General Clark's statement. I think this is a HUGE mistake. First of all, all Clark was doing, as I stated above, was questioning McCain's credentials to be president from his war experience, not his war experience itself. By doing this, Obama accepts McCain's argument that it was beyond the pale, thereby freeing up McCain to use the same tactics whenever he ties his military service to a superior knowledge of foreign policy.

Additionally, Obama throws a fantastic surrogate, in Clark, under the bus, one of the few Democrats with the courage to openly criticize Joe Lieberman, and a man who led a mission in Bosnia that saw not one single American troop killed. Kind of a good guy to have questioning Iraq policy, which will be an issue in this campaign, no? Or how about VP, as a Arkansan, who did well with white voters in 2004, and possesses football fields of foreign policy knowledge.

Finally, this just makes Democrats look weak once again. Republicans can Swift Boat. Democrats apologize and run scared every time, which only makes voters think they are weak and stand for nothing.