What Is "Questioning?"

Hooray for Wesley Clark, who has the cojones to ask exactly how being shot down as a fighter pilot gives one qualifications for being a President.

Okay, now that I've said that, I also want to ask what the hell he was thinking saying that, because it's certainly not politic. I mean, if he hadn't been a general, he would have been immolated by the combined anger of all the military people in the world. As it is, he's just being hung out to dry. So no, I don't think it was the smartest thing in the world to do. It's a perfectly valid point, but maybe not intelligent to make it.

But is it really "questioning" John McCain's record of service to ask whether or not it gives him the qualifications to be Commander in Chief? That's like asking if your qualifications as a President are improved by your being a mother of three. No one is questioning that you are in fact a mother of three, just questioning whether or not that accepted fact (i.e. John McCain served in such and such a capacity) is necessarily a qualification for being President.

For the record, I think qualifications for being President are like the skills you list on your resume: anything can be a qualification to be President if you spin it the right way. For instance, one could argue that the aforementioned hypothetical mother of three has excellent qualifications to be President because she not only knows what it's like to be a mother (thus representing mothers everywhere) but also because as a mother of three, she's used to multitasking, dealing with petulant children (or those who act like them), and budgeting. I could go on, but you get the point.

So the appropriate response for John McCain to make is that yes, his service in the military does in fact give him excellent qualifications to be President, for reasons X, Y, and possibly Z.

Ah, but that would require reasoned discourse and logical argument, and thus is judged to pass directly over the heads of the target audience (i.e. the morons who vote). So instead, John McCain and everyone else says that Wesley Clark is questioning John McCain's record of service.

Now I don't know. Maybe Clark said some other things which did in fact question the facts of the case (John McCain served in the military, was shot down, was a prisoner of war, etc.). He would be a fool to question whether or not these facts are true, but hey, people questioned John Kerry's record of service. At that point, no one said anything like, "How dare you question his record," I guess because they actually were questioning his record, and not asking why his record made him qualified. If they had instead wondered why we're so obsessed with the idea of war heroes as Presidents, I suppose the media and everyone else would have reported that as "questioning Kerry's record" and been aghast.

And then there are the pundits who claim that Clark's comments are tantamount to talking about Obama's race. Guess what, geniuses. The only way that works is if someone questions whether Barrack Obama is lying about his background, that he is in fact a white woman in blackface, and has been leading us on all these years. That's "questioning." If, on the other hand, someone (it would probably have to be a black person, in the same way that only a military man could get away with the comments Clark made about McCain's qualifications) asked exactly how being a black man made Barrack Obama qualified to be President, pretty much everyone would react the same way, only they'd be wrong to do so. It's not racist to ask how someone's race qualifies them for something.

And then, Barrack Obama would go on television and call for his opponent to stop questioning his race, and leave the whole actual issue in the dust. And that issue is: what exactly do we as voters regard as qualifications for the Presidency? Being black? White? Christian? Muslim? A war hero? A pacifist (yeah, right)? A Senator (don't answer too quickly; a shockingly small number of Senators have managed to parlay that particular qualification into election)? A Governor? A beltway insider? A beltway outsider (that's pretty much as far out as we get, most times)? Just what makes one qualified to be President.

If John McCain had to answer the question of how his war service (which is all true, and I'm in no way questioning it) qualifies him to be President, maybe he'd say something useful. And maybe Barrack Obama would answer too, and tell us why being black has made him qualified to be President. And then maybe they could give us some other qualifications they happen to possess as well, and tell us why those qualifications work.

But it's politics, which means that what we would doubtless get nothing but empty soundbites and garbage. Which is why I say again, what was Clark thinking? He had to know he would be misrepresented (I won't say misinterpreted, because no one is interpreting; they're saying he said something different from what he actually said). What was he thinking?

So think about it: if we can't mention something without "questioning" it, how exactly can we talk about much of anything?