It came to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day. No, not that Doris Day. The Doris Day who is married to Col. Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton.
As we ate near the Days’ home in Florida recently, I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving because they told me things about him the American people need to know. And troubling because it is clear that Mr. McCain is one of the most private individuals to run for president in history.
When it comes to choosing a president, the American people want to know more about a candidate than policy positions. They want to know about character, the values ingrained in his heart. For Mr. McCain, that means they will want to know more about him personally than he has been willing to reveal.
In this case, Rove isn’t talking about McCain’s rocky history in his personal life, but rather, his military experiences, most notably McCain’s time as a prisoner of war.
In all sincerity, my first thought that Rove was being ironic, perhaps even sarcastic. McCain has been reluctant to talk about his past? He’s been too “private” to highlight his military experiences?
I know Rove tries to keep up on current events, but what race has he been watching?
It started in September, with one of the first McCain ads of the fall, featuring a young McCain being interviewed in a Hanoi prison.
Interviewer: How old are you?
John McCain: Thirty one.
Interviewer: What is your rank in the army?
McCain: Lt. Commander in the Navy. … hit by either missile or anti-aircraft fire, I’m not sure which. And the plane continued straight down and I ejected and broke my leg and both arms.
Interviewer: And your official number?
McCain: 624787
The viewer hears the announcer say, “One man sacrificed for his country.”
It led to another ad based on McCain’s favorite scripted debate sound-bite.
“A few days ago, Senator Clinton tried to spend one million dollars on the Woodstock concert museum. Now my friends, I wasn’t there. I’m sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was, I was tied up at the time.”
In mid-December, McCain completely gave up on subtlety:
“One night, after being mistreated as a POW, a guard loosened the ropes binding me, easing my pain.
“On Christmas, that same guard approached me, and without saying a word, he drew a cross in the sand. We stood wordlessly looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas.”
About a month ago, the McCain campaign released its first general-election ad — one-fourth of which was interrogation footage taken while McCain was a prisoner of war.
All of this was followed by a “biographical tour” earlier this month, during which McCain highlighted his family history, with an emphasis on their military service.
And all of this was followed by campaign videos spotlighting McCain’s experiences growing up.
If McCain is one of the “most private individuals to run for president in history,” I really don’t want to see the extroverted candidates.
No Trackbacks To “John McCain is not an introverted shrinking violet“
I thought Mccain was just shrinking. He reminds me of Mr. Burns.
I think Karl Rove is simply overawed to be in the presence of anybody with military experience.
He rarely met any in the Bush White House.
Feels like treading water in a sea of dumbfotainment waiting to be rescued by the wrong people.
McCain is going to pimp his military service all the way to election day. I’m pulling out my band aids!
Lumpy may be the real Manchurian candidate. How do we know he’s not?
And Rove…still and always repulsive, hoping a bit of “hero” rubs off on him. eww.
i want to thank the 3 new blogers i have seen using HIS full name
JOHN “THE REPUBLICAN” MCCAIN
i have even seen a posting on a right-wing site complaining about this usage
HIS backers have issued a memo not to use HIS NAME and HIS PARTY in the same sentence. They REALLY hate this:
JOHN “THE REPUBLICAN” MCCAIN
JOHN “THE REPUBLICAN” MCCAIN
JOHN “THE REPUBLICAN” MCCAIN
JOHN “THE REPUBLICAN” MCCAIN
JOHN “THE REPUBLICAN” MCCAIN wear it proudly like a cheap lapel pin
mcstain has long since sucked every last drop of political cred out of the corpse of his military service.
John McSideshow.
McCain’s military service is the ONLY thing he has to run on. When the Democratic Convention is over, the Democrats are going to throw Bush, economy and Reverend Hagee at him. Should be interesting.
McSame is no shrinking violet,and Rove is the deeply cynical exploiter of religious and patriotic emotions that we’ve come to know and “love” so well.Yes Karl,if only John would “open up” more about his painful experience as a POW.Then maybe we could come to understand why he loves his country so much.Oh:and why he has no problem with water boarding…n’stuff..
Is McCain vulnerable to people digging up everything the Republican Party attacked him with in 2000 and replaying it now?
yeeeahh… see. the important thing to remember is that John McCain will NEVER be president. and that’s a very, very good thing.
I actually couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what happened to McCain while a POW (hey, the human will to survive isn’t unique to a pilot shot down on a bombing run) but has his time as a prisoner been seriously vetted? Is Cockburn out to lunch here?
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn04192008.html
What a hero.
Ozguy @ 2:
With the exception of Jeff Gannon, of course…
McCain hides his assets behind his wife. Uses her jet to get around his campaign laws. Aligns himself with the same man who trashed his daughter. Sucks up Bush, the very man, who trashed him and his family. Refuses to support the military men and women in their benefits after they serve. Supports illogical and failed military planning. Supports a torture ban and then decides waterboarding is fun past time. That’s a lot of personal information right there.
I agree with Rove that policy is McCain’s weak point. Not even having POW status exempts him from being viewed and seen as a repulsive man with little to no character. Military does not mean treating a man or woman like a stupid little fairytale character.
Yeah, how original a Republican wants to get the “personality” out for a candidate. That’s the whole name of the game, otherwise you have to talk policy and ideology. That doesn’t work so well for them.
For a rather different version of how John McCain spent his years in the Hanoi Hilton, this Counterpunch article by Alexander Cockburn is most informative:
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn04192008.html
Unfortunately, the American people still find it “heroic” for a man to drop bombs on innocent civilians from 30,000 feet and then knock back a few beers at the OC after another successful mission. Americans are incapable of imagining how they would feel if the Mexican or Canadian air forces flew sorties over Dallas or Detroit and rained bombs down on their heads with near impunity; or how they would feel if one of those invisible “heroes” suddenly fell to earth and was forced to confront the relatives of those he had murdered.
McCain is no hero, nor are the pilots flying sorties in Iraq and Afghanistan today. Those young men are no different then their Luftwaffe counterparts who bombed Guernica in the Spanish Civil War or London during the Blitz. They are terrorists, as were their predecessors flying fire bombing raids over Tokyo and Dresden. T-E-R-R-O-R-I-S-T-S.
John McCain [Deleted-Sitemonitor], particularly now that he embraces torture and the denial of rights to America’s prisoners of war in Guantanamo and secret CIA prisons around the world. The man is utterly pathetic and deserves neither respect nor sympathy. He deserves more time in prison to reflect on his crimes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFM1xqqTX_g
By the by,I absolutely adore the way our quivering chicken hawk war monger Karl just happens to casually drop the name of the medal of honor recipient.After all,these are KARL’S PEOPLE.
Did I hear him say he spent two years in solitary confinement? That can’t be good on someone’s mental health. By the way, who was that c*nt sitting next to him on the bench? If it was his wife, why wasn’t she running her fingers through his hair like a God fearing lapel wearing patriot would do, or is she some kind of elitist or something??
Too bad Karl wasn’t so wet for McCain in 2000.
Please. By claiming that McCain isn’t doing enough to highlight his noble (but politically speaking ancient) sacrifice for his country, Rove is cuing our fawning MSM to do yet some more heavy lifting for Johnny Boy.
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
I know Rove tries to keep up on current events, but what race has he been watching?
karl is spinning… just doin’ his job…
if the ‘war hero’ wants to talk about his vietnam days, let’s start with his confession while a pow and then move on to his targets while he was an active flyboy.
Well, I’ll I know is Bush is going to drag McCain down at every turn. Endless scandals, broken military, failing economy, disasterous war. Do I need to go on?
if rove were a veteran he would know there is no such medal as the “congressional medal of honor”. it is the “medal of honor”. but rove wouldn’t know that because he’s a spineless weenie like our current president and his veep.
you can thank mccain for his service in vietnam, but
that in no way qualifies him to be president. all the
history he has since then in politics is more relavant.
stop trying to choke his war record down our throats,
i don’t elect a president because he spent several
months in a pow camp. if that were the case, he needs
to stand in line, there are many more who are more
deserving for that reason. and they are level-headed and
moral people.
McCain spent two years in solitary? Some people are saying he inflicted that punishment on himself. Let’s get him a purple band-aid.
P.D. @ 25:
The albatross certainly hangs low around his neck. They played the DNC McCain Ad during commercial time for Countdown. It definitely left a Bush-third-term taste in my mouth.
this commercial is why mccain has to be considered the favorite to win. without question.
What is this thread about? I was so disturbed by the initial image of people sitting down to eat with Karl Rove that I passed out from the nausea. I can only assume the table bussers wore HazMat suits.
John McCain is the real Frank Burns!
As Will Farrell as George W. Bush said very astutely. “Oh, were you a POW? I HADN’T HEARD!”
This is all he’s ever run on, who are the media kidding? I have heard more than just Rove spout this nonsense.
Harry R. Sohl Says: “McCain spent two years in solitary? Some people are saying he inflicted that punishment on himself. Let’s get him a purple band-aid.”
Now that would be evil and unfair. We’re not Republicans.
you know me from my posts, a socialist, populist, atheist, anti corporate polemicist!!
but…
i am a veteran as well
i have mixed feelings seeing this video
i worship a man that can survive these kinds of injuries and the tortures he endured
but if i believed in god, which i don’t
i would pray that he would not be our president
addendum
he was shot down bombing a city
and as Howard Zinn as said many times
“when you bomb a city, the killing of innocents is not accidental, it’s inevitable”!!!
That was another world. How long ago was that? Again…he was a hero?…or a survivor?…and a lucky one at that.
I knew a LOT of Americans that were drafted into that nightmare that went home with no arms, legs, or in a body bag. Were they “heroes”.
I’m not buying that bullshit. Those were bad times …war. You think the muffin head would have learned from it. But no…he wants more, and more, and more.
That tells me tons about the numbskull. He doesn’t get it, that pain and suffering is NOT the way to peace. Moron!
And we should turn our country over to this neocon puppet because he has some war stories? Hell, there were THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of Americans who have war stories….many, much worse than him.
I think those stories are better buried. They tell nothing of who this hollow man who sold his soul to the devil is today. Listen to him today. That tells who he is.
Because KKKarl Rove is embedded in this, it will become a sick and disgusting affair. If he were a Democratic Party consultant, he would be looking for people who were imprisoned with McCain in Hanoi… and PAY THEM to tell us their first-hand accounts (as in “swift-boat”) of McCain’s collaboration with the enemy… and how many innocents were killed as a result… well… you get the picture.
Rove is a POX on modern politics. We all need an innoculation.
archmunster @ 30:
Well, he obviously had healthcare (the cast) and was smoking cigarettes - the VC gave cigs to just anybody? Or only sympathizers?
Name Rank and Serial Number includes age and where one attended (perhaps classified) military training? Sounds like someone decided to cut and run from the get go.
Some Republicans have serious questions as to whether McCain deliberately engineered this whole situation - was he POW or MIA? Or was he actually AWOL? Even he refers to it as the Hanoi Hilton, not the Motel 6.
What say we have hundreds of hours of TV dedicated to whether he was brainwashed while he was sitting out the better half of a war making commercials for VC. I wonder if he got his own dressing room?
We don’t have to have accurate information or credible eyewitnesses, we’ll just talk about the controversy and rehash the allegations without ever getting around to mentioning that we don’t have accurate information or credible eyewitnesses. It wouldn’t be the first time.
I want to hear the tapes he made for the Vietnamese while he was prisoner.
rove is probably right……still an obnoxious a-hole……but right
Remember , GHWB’’s 88 campaign? It started showing rescued by a Sub after he bailed out of his plane after a bombing run on a little radio station on Chi Chi Jima. Then he had a book written called ” The Flight of the Avenger”. They said he bailed out because his plane was on fire. Teenager shot down in flames as media put it. …He was actually 20. A Naval officer’s first duty is the welfare of his crew. His 2 crewman went down with the plane , so who was shot down” ? Bush , finished his bombing run turned out to sea and bailed out…he said in interview that over the intercom, he told his crew to bail out….but he went first , according to a squadron mate tail gunner in plane just in front of the Bush plane . In depth interview of a squadron mate can still be found on internet. GHWB was given a DFC for this. His father was personal friend of the Sec of the Navy Named Gates. History will show him as a Hero. The great pilots of WW11 that gave their lives,and there were many at Midway, Leyte etc were the real heroes. John Kennedy was a real hero..his PT boat was run over by a destroyer , he swam to a nearby Island , carrying one of his injured crew… Ike was legitamate hero of course. W was a phoney who chose the NG to duck the Viet Nam war…
When I was a kid, our neighbors had a little black terrier that would yap all day long. One day I was washing a car and this little ankle biter started barking at me, so I sprayed him with water from the hose. Instead of running away, he snapped and snapped at the stream of water. Stupid and crazy, but by gum, he sure didn’t back down.
Now that little snapping dog wants to be president. He’s just as dumb as ever, just as bigoted, ornery, as crooked and just as bull-headed.
John McCain. Hasn’t changed a bit.
LIZ @ 42:
Ike was a hero? Ike had zero valor awards. So, you must mean hero in another way.
I’ve heard somewhere that he wrecked 4 planes before he was shot down. Any idea if that is true? I guess since he graduated 895th in his class of 899 at the Academy, that might not be a stretch.
Why? We do know about his personal story. Became a pilot because of Daddy.
Cause an accident on the Forrestal. Was whysked away fro the scene to avoid any investigation. Became a POW because flying low was a testosterone challenge. Was “tortured” then set free. Came back home, abandoned and droped his family. Married a millionaire. Went into politics with her money. Became a Senator. They say his a straight talker. To me, the man has never made sense. Ahh! And “There are plenty of wars coming, many sacrifices to make, plus we might stay one hundred years in Irak”
That’s his story. And I don’t like it!
“For example, in 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by her husband, who asked what all this was about.
Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of rehabilitation. “I hope she can stay with us,” she told her husband. Mr. McCain agreed. Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget.
I was aware of this story.”
Isn’t this the same child that Rove push-polled about in 2000?
From DKos:
Bush’s campaign strategists, including Karl Rove, devised a push poll against John McCain. South Carolina voters were asked “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?”. They had no interest in the actual percentages in the poll, the goal was to suggest that [McCain had a black child]. This was particularly vicious since McCain was campaining with his adopted [dark skinned] Bangladeshi daughter. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/8/26/31853/5881
Nice of Karl to finally come around to see that helping the underprivileged is a good thing.