WASHINGTON (AFP) — American voters will not stand for attacks on John McCain's military record, his campaign warned Tuesday in an escalating row over the Republican presidential hopeful's Vietnam war heroism.
The McCain team sought to score new points on the second day of a fresh controversy over whether McCain or Democratic candidate Barack Obama has the best credentials to be US commander-in-chief.
But Obama supporter and retired general Wesley Clark, who provoked the storm by saying McCain's experience as a navy pilot and prisoner of war did not qualify him to be president, refused to back down.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a McCain supporter, described his friend as a "rock star" among US troops, contrasting his long military and political experience with that of Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois.
"I do believe that General Clark has made a huge mistake here. No matter how he sugarcoats it... he is trying to question John's service," Graham told reporters on a conference call.
"I just don't think this is going to sit well with the American voter."
But Clark, who formerly supported Obama's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, refused to back down, though he said he was sorry the row had detracted from a speech by Obama on Monday about patriotism.
"John McCain as a young officer demonstrated courage and character, but the service as president is about judgment," Clark told ABC News.
"The experience that he had as a fighter pilot isn't the same as having been at the highest levels of the military and having to work with the president and other heads of state and make those kinds of life or death decisions about national, strategic issues."
On CBS on Sunday, Clark had been even more blunt.
"I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president," he said.
Obama addressed the controversy during a campaign stop in Ohio.
"I'm happy to have all sorts of conversations about how we deal with Iraq and what happens with Iran," he said.
"But the fact that somebody on a cable show or on a news show like General Clark said something that was inartful about Senator McCain, I don't think is probably the thing that is keeping Ohioans up at night."
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton on Monday issued a statement saying that the candidate rejected Clark's remarks, but the McCain campaign is apparently trying to push Obama into a personal apology.
Susan Rice, who advises Obama on foreign policy, however said there had been no intent to question McCain's service, just his political philosophy.
"This is not a debate about who served their country. Senator Obama spoke eloquently yesterday about patriotism and faith in this country and his commitment to our founding values.
"The question for the American voters is who has the right judgment and who will pursue the policies that'll make the country safer," she said on MSNBC television, bringing up McCain's support for what Obama considers the failed foreign policies of President George W. Bush.
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