Here's what the public has taken away from the ongoing back and forth between Wes Clark and John McCain:

Clark: blah, blah, blah, John McCain is a war hero, blah, blah, blah.

McCain: I'm a war hero, blah, blah, blah. Obama is attacking me, blah, blah, blah.

Not only did Clark step on Obama's big patriotism speech, he's reinforcing what people know and respect about McCain, which is in turn playing into the angles McCain must leverage to win in November: experience, national security, and the narrative that McCain has spent his life serving America's interests as opposed to serving his own.