Posted by Dave on 08/18/08 at 09:12:45 am
Categories: Campaign 2008

Did you know that John McCain is a prisoner of war?

If you didn't, I am not sure where you have been for the last two years.

After the Saddleback Forum on Saturday, there has been some controversy about whether or not McCain listened to the questions that were asked to Obama so that he could be more prepared for them. I have little interest in that story. None of the questions were surprises. There were some good questions, but they were all questions that either candidate should have been more than ready to answer.

But the McCain response to the story is what I am interested in:

"The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous," [Nikole Wallace, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain] said.

Huh?

So a prisoner of war cannot cheat? Hopefully we all know that McCain has proven that wrong in the past.

But the bigger issue is that John McCain uses his "prisoner of war" line as an answer to any question that may challenge his credibility in any way. Yet he pretends that he is not willing to talk about it.

When asked about his relationship with Jesus? He talks about being a prisoner of war. When asked about cheating? He talks about being a prisoner of war. When asked about foreign policy? He talks about being a prisoner of war. When asked about his qualifications to be a President? He talks about being a prisoner of war.

Don't get me wrong - being a prisoner of war must be an awful, awful experience. I am not discounting that in any way. But being a prisoner of war does not make you perfect. And it does not make you qualified to be a President. And it does not answer any question that is asked of you.

Ezra says is best here:

What's mainly impressive here is the versatility of the defense. "The insinuation that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, burnt the toast is outrageous." "The insinuation that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, thinks Val Kilmer was the best Batman is outrageous." "The insinuation that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, would cynically leverage his POW status for political gain is outrageous."

UPDATE: It gets better. John McCain's favorite song? Dancing Queen, by ABBA. Why? Because he was a prisoner of war:

If there is anything I am lacking in, I've got to tell you, it is taste in music and art and other great things in life. I've got to say that a lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane and never caught up again.

Except Dancing Queen came out in 1976, several years after he first became a prisoner of war and a few years after he was released from Vietnam.

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