By foolishly (in my view) "rejecting" Clark's perfectly reasonable statement, Obama established that Clark said something wrong as part of the ground rules, and McCain is now demanding that Obama do the logical next step.

I'm convinced that most people follow these stories so casually and tangentially that apologizing is the only way to lose for sure.  Dems tend to apologize to try and kill the story, but what ends up happening is that people assume the Dems must have actually done something bad or they wouldn't be apologizing.

 I was listening to Michele Norris grilling General Clark and the questions were so unbelievably trite and absurd that I found myself as annoyed as when she expressed surprise that same-sex marriage wasn't popular after the 2004 elections or disbelief that there was an ex-gay movement.  The press has consistently revealed itself to be a gigantic joke.  

 What Clark said is obvious and noncontroversial.  He's been saying it for weeks.  What changed, exactly? A Murdoch memo?

One guy managed to get his plane shot out of the air. Someone asks whether such a feat qualifies you to be president. Another says, shot down qualifies you for president? I don't think so...and 200 million Americans and a billion Chinese probably agree, but half a dozen media types and one presidential candidate who still haven't listened to what was actually said step up to the mic to puff out their chest acting like someone's manhood was challenged.

This is all calculated to get an emotional response from swing voters.  I think Clark needs to be the voice of reason, keep telling the truth and NOT apologize.  Apologies given when inappropriate are signs of weakness and capitulation.

I think they've realized that he's not going to budge and that bashing a respected GENERAL for his opinions about another veteran (who he is on record as complementing) is a little too ironic even for them.

and this isnt the only shot at mac they took:

...Contrast the absence of smears from the McCain camp with some of the outlandish remarks made by high-ranking Obama supporters. In April, West Virginia Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV said that because McCain "was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet," and "was long gone when they hit," the Arizona senator who spent five and a half years in a Vietcong tiger cage having his arms repeatedly broken didn't really understand the carnage of war. "What happened when [the missiles] get to the ground?" Rockefeller asked a crowd at an Obama rally. "He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues." That the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller would impugn the wartime experience of John McCain is especially rich, given that the only "battle" Rockefeller has seen is when he hunts wild game at his 80-acre ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

He'll blow up us and the rest of the world over any opposition or questioning of him or his policies.

This [latest] tantrum of his, over a perceived, though non-existent, slight would have disqualified him from even getting near the nomination back in the days of the Cold War.  Well, the last I checked there are still plenty of nukes running around and there is still a huge danger from accidental (or not) nucelar relase.

So, why should we let someone with demonstrated intemperance even near the nuclear button?

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who is accompanying McCain on his trip to Colombia and Mexico this week, said he could cite an instance where McCain's Vietnam service influenced public policy. During the Senate debate over the Detainee Treatment Act, he recalled when McCain spoke out against torture by the United States on the grounds that it then becomes used as a propaganda by America's enemies. "That, to me, is a classic example of how his military experience helped him shape public policy in a way no other senator could have done," Graham said.

McCain is in full whine mode now.  He's a thin-skinned guy who cannot tolerate his "image" being tarnished.

we all know that the whole thing is scripted. Clark is never known to be a loose cannon. On the other hand, he's highly discipline. Obama acts to stay above it has fallen flat.