| dot commie
Breakin' prims in the hot sun
Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Shantytown
Posts: 4,460
My Mood:  SL Join Date: 07/15/2005
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Originally Posted by Cindy Claveau  No, his statements have questioned whether "riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president"" | Exactly. Is it? Quote:
Originally Posted by Cindy Claveau His Commander in Chief in Bosnia was Clinton, who never served at all. Neither has Obama. |  What has Clinton to do with this discussion? Oh! Serving in the military. Gee, I don't recall that being an issue in that campaign. Quote:
Originally Posted by Cindy Claveau And for the record, McCain hasn't been running around saying "Look at me I'm a hero" like some candidates have in the past. His books were matter-of-fact and even included mea culpas for things he regrets. | Which record is this? Not mentioned in this ringing endorsement: Quote: |
“A proven leader, and a man of integrity,” the New York Post called John McCain in its editorial endorsement. “A naval aviator shot down over North Vietnam and held as a POW, McCain knew that freedom was his for the taking. All he had to do was denounce his country. He refused–and, as a consequence, suffered years of unrelenting torture.”
| This is much closer the actual record. Quote:
Everybody knows by now that John McCain served our country honorably in Vietnam. But a key part of McCain's Vietnam story as the press tells it is that the senator is reluctant to mention it. As Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post once wrote, "McCain doesn't talk much about those days, but he doesn't have to." In the words of The Washington Examiner's Bill Sammon, "Unlike Sen. John Kerry, McCain rarely mentions his Vietnam service without prompting" (Free Ride, Page 14). McCain himself has said the same thing: "One of the things I've never tried to do is exploit my Vietnam service to my country because it would be totally inappropriate to do," McCain once said.
But for someone who supposedly doesn't want to talk about his experience as a POW, McCain sure does bring it up a lot. The truth is that he mentions it all the time. He talks about it seriously, he jokes about it, and he uses it to his political advantage. His first campaign for Congress was built on his Vietnam heroism, including when he responded to the potentially fatal (and true) accusation of carpetbagging by saying, "[T]he place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi" (Free Ride, Page 48). His emergence on the national stage came during his keynote address at the 1996 Republican convention, a speech that concerned his captivity in Vietnam. His first TV ad in New Hampshire for the 2000 primaries was a 60-second spot featuring black-and-white still photographs and footage of McCain as a fighter pilot. Faith of My Fathers, McCain's memoir of his wartime experience, came out in 1999, conveniently timed for the start of his campaign.
For his current campaign, McCain has not been shy about invoking Vietnam. In March 2007, the campaign sent out an email marking the anniversary of McCain's release from the Hanoi Hilton, retelling the story of his captivity. On his campaign website, the featured video on the main page is called "Courageous Service," which highlights McCain's POW experience and Vietnam service. His campaign has run ads showing him as a POW. Indeed, when one looks over McCain's career, one sees that at nearly every key moment, he has reaped political benefit from talking about Vietnam.
Of course, McCain has every right to talk about his military service as much as he pleases, just as many candidates did before him. It is his history, and no one has ever disputed the facts of what he went through. But no reporter should fool him or herself into thinking that McCain is reluctant to do so.
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Originally Posted by Cindy Claveau The only ones I see making it into a big deal are the Dems and shills like Clark. Yes, he's a wingnut, come get me Io!  | Uh-oh ... let me out of Io's way. |