The Vietnam caucus

Matt Bai, at the start of his long profile of McCain in the New York Times Magazine, discusses why McCain has found himself in opposition to the military measures undertaken by his fellow Vietnam veterans.

They are wary of seeming to denigrate McCain’s service, marked by his legendary endurance in a Hanoi prison camp, when in fact they remain, to this day, in awe of it. And yet in private discussions with friends and colleagues, some of them have pointed out that McCain, who was shot down and captured in 1967, spent the worst and most costly years of the war sealed away, both from the rice paddies of Indochina and from the outside world. During those years, McCain did not share the disillusioning and morally jarring experiences of soldiers like Kerry, Webb and Hagel, who found themselves unable to recognize their enemy in the confusion of the jungle; he never underwent the conversion that caused Kerry, for one, to toss away some of his war decorations during a protest at the Capitol. Whatever anger McCain felt remained focused on his captors, not on his own superiors back in Washington.

For his part, Bai points out that former Sen. Bob Kerrey disagrees with this characterization.

Gore vs. Clinton 2000

On CNN's forum on faith Sunday night, Hillary Clinton put down the candidacies of Al Gore and John Kerry saying, "We had two very good men and men of faith run for president in 2000 and 2004, but large segments of the electorate concluded that they did not really understand or relate to or frankly respect their ways of life."

This bothered E.J. Dionne.

That "frankly" is the most appalling word in the whole sentence. And never mind that Al Gore ran 360,000 votes ahead of Senate candidate Clinton when both were on New York's ballot in the 2000 election.

Axelrod says Obama competes in the South

Last week, National Journal's Linda Douglass interviewed Obama advisor David Axelrod.

Q: What state do you see Obama winning that John Kerry did not?

Axelrod: I think he can and will win every state that Senator Kerry did. I think there are other states that he will win, starting with Ohio. But I think he will put other states in play that no other [Democrat] can put in play. There is no doubt that the energy and enthusiasm in the African-American community will give us a chance in some Southern states where there is a high number of African-American voters, and some who are not necessarily registered to vote. We can increase that registration, we can increase that turnout, and put those states in play.

Clyburn endorsement far off

Yesterday, Rep. James Clyburn (D - SC) said that while he'll "be looking at things in December," if the Democratic presidential race maintains its current course, he "probably won't endorse."

Clyburn is the highest ranking African American in House leadership from a state where as much as 50% of the Democratic primary voters will be black. In 2004, he endorsed Senator John Kerry, though the black vote was largely divided.

(Via Marc Ambinder)