Like an honor guard escorting him to his lectern, nine former generals and admirals entered a room this afternoon with military precision to try to help Sen. Barack Obama counter recent suggestions that he is not up to the job of commander-in-chief.

"After years of being told that Democrats have to talk, act and vote like John McCain to pass some commander-in-chief test, how many times do we have to learn that tough talk is not a substitute for sound judgment?" Obama said in his opening remarks.

With nine American flags behind him, as well as one for each branch of the military, Obama spoke at the Chicago History Museum, a rare Chicago appearance for a candidate who has spent much of the past 13 months on the road.

The event followed suggestions in recent days by Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign that Obama is not yet ready to be responsible for America's military might, even as it has also suggested that he might make a good vice presidential candidate.

Answering questions from reporters, Obama said he believes Clinton is qualified to be commander-in-chief, just as he and McCain are. But the Illinois Democrat also said Clinton has played unfair on the topic.

"I think it is fair to say Sen. Clinton has deployed this as a political strategy," he said. "The disingenuousness of it was revealed when they started saying that, 'A well, maybe he can be vice president, which by President Clinton's own criteria means that I must be qualified to be commander in chief. Apparently the thinking is that I might not be ready on day one, but maybe on day 15, I would be prepared. This is politics."

Obama pointed to a Clinton ad that suggests he would not be ready to answer a 3 a.m. crisis phone call at the White House.

"This was a last-minute gambit prior to Texas and Ohio because in their own terms, they had said that campaign would end if they didn't win. And so, they launched this broadside," Obama said. "Here's the one good thing about it, is that this issue would have come up in the general election anyway. So, we might as well surface it now. I didn't expect Democrats to be making these arguments against fellow Democrats. They typically come from Republicans against Democrats. Certainly, if Sen. Clinton were the nominee, John McCain will make this exact same argument against her. But…since I intend to be the nominee, and I'm going to be running against John McCain, it's an argument that we would have to deal with at some point anyway."

After Obama spoke, a quartet of the former military leaders each took a turn at the lectern to offer him praise. General Merrill “Tonyâ€쳌 McPeak said the first-term senator has the temperament to lead the military, calling him "no shock Barack" and "no drama Obama."