Charlie Black, a senior advisor to John McCain, is in trouble … because he “accidentally said something true,” American Prospect associate editor Ezra Klein, writes in the Los Angeles Times:

Black got caught in what Washingtonians know as a "Kinsleyan gaffe," named after the journalist Michael Kinsley, who once said that "a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth." The McCain campaign's position on this subject has long been known: If the race turns on the issue of terrorism, McCain might win. But if the dominant issue is the economy, he definitely loses. It's just that his aides aren't supposed to say that.

That's why, in the very same article in which Black uttered these unspeakable remarks, McCain replied to a question about “the gravest long-term threat facing our economy”" by saying, “the absolute gravest threat is the struggle that we're in against radical Islamic extremism, which can affect, if they prevail, our very existence. Another successful attack on the United States of America could have devastating consequences.”

The interviewer, rather than asking if McCain had failed to hear the word “economy” in the question, marveled at McCain's facility for “deftly turning the economy into a national security issue.”

Klein also points out examples of Hillary Clinton (“working, hard-working Americans, white Americans” support her) and Barack Obama (these same folks “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them”) getting caught uttering a Kinsleyan gaffe and notes that “It's an odd quirk of our democracy that some of the most powerful forces in campaigns cannot be mentioned, at least not directly” and that “the occasional Kinsleyan gaffe … clarifies campaign strategy.”

But not all instances of politicians telling the truth are Kinsleyan gaffe, and not all gaffes are politicians telling the truth – as demonstrated by McCain supporter Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Hillary-supporter-turned-Obama-surrogate General Wesley Clark (Ret.) on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

Lieberman told moderator Bob Schieffer the unalloyed truth about the risk of another terror attack on U.S. soil coming sooner rather than later:

We're in a war against Islamist extremists who attacked us on 9/11. They've been trying to attack us many, many ways since then. … [W]e need a president who's ready to be commander in chief on day one. Senator McCain is. … [O]ur enemies will test the new president early. Remember that the truck bombing of the World Trade Center happened in the first year of the Clinton administration. Nine-eleven happened in the first year of the Bush administration. John McCain is ready to take the reins on January 20th, 2009. He doesn't need any training.

After the commercial break, Clark came on to dispute McCain’s fitness as CIC in a bizarre gaffe-ridden exchange (video link) that left both Schieffer and the audience with their mouths agape:

Schieffer: Well, you went so far as to say that you thought John McCain was, quote, and these are your words, “untested and untried." And I must say, I had to read that twice, because you're talking about somebody who was a prisoner of war, he was a squadron commander of the largest squadron in the Navy, he's been on the Senate Armed Services Committee for lo these many years. How can you say that John McCain is untested and untried, General?

Clark: [I]n the matters of national security policy making, it's a matter of understanding risk, it's a matter of gauging your opponents and it's a matter of being held accountable. John McCain's never done any of that in his official positions. … [McCain] hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall.

Schieffer: I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.

Clark: Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.

Schieffer: Really?

Clark: But Barack … is not running on the fact that he has made these national

security pronouncements, he's running on his other strengths. He's running on the strengths of character, on the strengths of his communication skills, on the strengths of his judgment, and those are qualities that we seek in our national leadership.

To set the record straight, here’s a McCain campaign video interview with Lt. Col. Orson Swindle, a fellow guest at the Hanoi Hilton.

In this op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal Karl Rove fleshes out McCain’s understanding of risk while a POW, as related to him by Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Col. Bud Day, another fighter pilot who was interred at the Hanoi Hilton with McCain:

When [Day] was recaptured [after escaping from a North Vietnamese], a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, “I told you I would make you a cripple.”

The break was designed to shatter Mr. Day's will. He had survived in prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and be able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a bone sticking out of his arm, and put him in a misshapen cast … so that the arm would heal at “a goofy angle” … " Had it done so, he never would have flown again. …

Risking severe punishment, Messrs. McCain and Day collected pieces of bamboo in the prison courtyard to use as a splint. Mr. McCain put Mr. Day on the floor of their cell and, using his foot, jerked the broken bone into place. Then, using strips from the bandage on his own wounded leg and the bamboo, he put Mr. Day's splint in place.

Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complimented the treatment he'd gotten from his captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was Dr. McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again.

This snippet from a recent Journal op-ed pretty much sums up The Stiletto’s feelings about why McCain is uniquely qualified to be CIC at this perilous turning point in history:

In a display of character that boggles the imagination, he somehow managed to survive with his identity intact.

While others talk of courage, honor and dedication, John McCain exemplifies those virtues. At a time when America's integrity and purpose were being questioned, his fortitude helped reaffirm our core beliefs. A nation that could produce young men of his caliber could right itself and overcome whatever obstacles it faced. After more than five years of imprisonment, he finally came hobbling home, and with a broad smile and a firm salute, took our collective breath away.