SOS! It's McCain's POW Card Waterloo
By Bill W. Sunday Aug 24, 2008 12:00pm
Since it's no longer taboo to point out John McCain's ridiculous and offensive attempts to use of his experience as a POW as if it's somehow an excuse for everything from his extramarital affairs to his rule-breaking to his having more pieces of real estate than he can keep track of, and so on, we would be remiss if we didn't point this one out too.
When CNN's Walter Isaacson confronted John McCain about his professed love of the band of ABBA, which of course was a lame attempt to cater to "disaffected Hillary supporters" as his blogger Michael Goldfarb made clear, McCain (you guessed it) whipped out the trusty ol' POW card to explain:
“What were you thinking?,” Isaacson asked him, looking incredulous.
“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,” McCain joked. “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.”
But, as Spencer Ackerman was quick to point out:
What? McCain was shot down in 1967. ABBA began making music in 1972. Don't try this sh** on me, McCain! Your POW experience has nothing to do with your Partridgey musical taste.
Cue the mockery... Nicole thinks maybe we should just put out a distress signal for McSame instead
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Could it be any more obvious that McDepends is as empty , useless and IQ-challenged(and older) than his GOP predecessor ?
What, no Fortunate Son? I know that's W's song, but at least it is from the Vietnam Era for f%%% sake.
I see "veterans" all the time using their "service" to act like they are somehow deserving of special treatment. They put signs on their cars, clothing, and houses to brag about that. They act as if somehow killing for "your country" is superior to a life dedicated to peace and antiwar activities. I find this sickening and disgusting on their parts. McCain is just doing the same. His dedication to war and death is typical of these traitors to human life and dignity.
A noun and a verb and "I was a POW"
You know, every time Sen. McCain mentions the portion of his life as a POW, whether as an excuse or just to remind everyone about it, it does a disservice to the other POW's alive and POW/MIA's no longer with us. No doubt, the experience gave him some insights but it surprises me that insight into what "torture" is and isn't wasn't one of them. However, maybe he thinks every person in this country doesn't know that Sen. McCain was a POW; is that why he keeps bringing it up? Kinda' like that percentage of people in America who think Sen. Obama is a muslim.
Why couldn't he just say it's a familial relationship - "Dancing Queen" and "Flip-flop King"?
Methinks this fits mcgramps current situation as regards to his POW status:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpUz5zXywhY
Man I feel stupid I was listening to ABBA Gold while I read this. But never been in the armed services what can I blame my weird taste in music on?
Come On, Get Happy?
3 Underground Pirate
Nothing like trying to pass cowardice and selfishness as a virtue.
"Real heroes don’t go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about their own heroism"
"The heroes I remember were every bit the hero John McCain is – but they didn’t spend all their time for years afterward tooting their own horns and trying to trade on their status for personal political gain. In fact, that kind of immodesty used to be seen as inappropriate and unseemly, if not ridiculous."
3 Underground pirate
I take exception at your statement about veterans. Perhaps some but certainly not all. War is horrible and something to be considered carefully before engaging but to just brand our military as "killers" is unfair, incorrect and uncalled for. It is politicians who make these calls not the troops. You can call out the politicians for having to send our sons and daughters to war but do not criticize their efforts.
Funny thing is how my conservative associates react when they find out I'm a Cold War (as opposed to Hot War) veteran, while they're no kind.
But then I tell them, when it's potentially your own ass on the line your view tends to change.
Additionally, when you enlist at 18, generally you're not thinking for yourself yet, but how you were raised.
How many times will McCain's POW status be referred to at the Republican convention? That will be their biggest opportunity to milk every last ounce of symbolism out of it.
I won't be surprised to see the stripes of the American flag morph into prison bars.
"Yes, I realize that the economy is bad and people are losing their homes. But, when I was a POW I didn't have a home".
"Yes, I appreciate that food prices are climbing. When I was a POW I didn't have the bountiful foods that we have in America."
"Yes, I understand that Americans can't find work. When I was in the military, I was willing to do anything."
And on and on and on and on.
OhKay @ 14:
haha you could make a drinking game out of it.
Never mind water boarding:2 hours of ABBA would force me to turn over my entire family to the authorities.
Funny thing though, is most war veterans don't talk to others about their experiences, outside of small groups of those who share the same experiences.
The "Greatest Generation" is more likely to do so now, because of the news coverage of them.
The rest more often than not who go around looking for free passes, have all the stickers on their cars etc., are wannabes. VA organizations have been complaining about them for years.
Funny thing, is how mcgramps did serve in a police action, probably as a volunteer, unlike the rest, but then spends the next 35 years or more acting like a wannabe.
I fell in love with Bjorn eons before Metrosexuals were the "thing".
Imagine what Corsi would say if Obama had lost five planes.
Underground Pirate @ 3:
I agree.But all veterans do not do that. My husband was a medic in Korea and Vietnam. He would never dream of bragging about it.
His brother, on the other hand, has a hat I swear he must wear to bed that says he won the purple heart. Big deal.
Just announced.
Just prior to McCain's acceptance speech at the GOP Convention...an illegal immigrant will be waterboarded while the CIA taps his cellphone.
"You know, that might be the answer - to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That's a trick that never seems to fail." - Joseph Heller, Catch 22
Only about 1% of America can afford to donate more than spare change to these rich jerks.
and Dancing Queen is a good song McCain needs to man up and admits this rather than blame his taste on being a POW.
Negotiations are underway to have a special edition of the Miss Buffalo Chip Pageant held during the GOP convention.
Evangelicals are in agreement, so long as the contestants wear bathing suits made from American Flags.
It's too late. The "McCain POW war hero maverick" mythology should have been exposed and destroyed last year. The McCain camp buys it, the Media buys it and many voters buy it. The McCain camp has carefully created the POW-war hero mythology about this guy such that the Media is loathe to even appear to be questioning it. The rightwingers are brilliant at pushing a pumped up story which also emasculates the other side from responding to it honestly. They understand that a particularly American hubris and hyper-patriotism won't allow it.
And it's going to get their guy elected. Once the Media jumps on Obama's "friendship" with a '60s radical terrorist, it will be all but over. The right knows they have to make it clear to the voters (in a foggy sort of way!) that the choice will be between a POW-war hero-maverick and a black, elitist, terrorist-loving "muslim".
And the Meda will help convey that message, as they have in the past.
Money,money money,
always sunny
in a rich man's world.
Will the McCain film at the Convention include video of him signing confessions when he was a POW?
Will the McCain film at the convention include video of him "wet starting" a jet that caused a rocket to fire, killing many men on board the Forestal?
How can there be a democracy when only .9% of the Americans have a say on who they want for a president? Is it fair to say that the rest of the money primarily come from corporation?
Pundents are now talking about how disconnected the candidate from the public when they criticize John McCain for not knowing how many houses he own. The question ought to ask how many corporation owns the candidate?
Hi, i'm john McCain. I got shot down in 1967 and lived for 5 years as a POW. My life pretty much stopped at that point. I know there is a lot that other people learn in life, and some like to call it "growth" like emotional maturity and stuff like that. Well my friends, in all honesty, and I'm honest because i was a POW, all of that stopped for me before most of you were ever born. So in a way because my growth was stunted some 40 years ago, i'm really the younger guy in this race. I have the mentality of a 30 year old, really a twenty-something. And i don't mean your average 30 year old, no not me. I was a spoiled, wild and crazy 20 something, so I'm the guy you want, experienced and young! If you like the stunted dry-drunk we've now got in the White House, you'll love me and love my wife too -- talk about wild and crazy. Don't get me started on Cindy.
Underground Pirate @ 3:
I don't know what you see or what you don't see. But I don't see the same thing you say you do.
I see vets, service members and their families with unit insignia on their cars and such. They want people to know that they served because they're proud of it. A lot of people do things that they're proud of and don't mind letting other people know about it.
I've yet to hear one person say they deserve anything extra because they're a vet. I'm talking about in civilian life. I can see a service member saying he deserves medical care to take care of a service-related injury but would not put that under the unreasonable entitlement category.
I'm a vet and have never asked for anything - including the disability income I am entitled to. In fact, it's been much more the other way around. When I left the service I had three different interviews where I was told that they were concerned about hiring vets because (in their opinion) being in the service means that we can't think for ourselves because we're trained to follow orders and not to think independently. Of course these folks had never been in the service and probably never lived anywhere near a base so their information came from war movies or comic books or something.
New, just in, that the McSame Store:
http://www.bgladd.com/McSameStore/CarrierCrash.jpg
How does a guy who graduated at the bottom of the class get his own plane? That's kind of scary to think about who gets the multi million dollar machine to play with.
Here's the catch. If McCain has done all these ill-advised, unethical and illegal things as a result of being a POW then when did he get better?
If he didn't get better then why do we want a person with a broken moral compass as president? Try asking his little monkeys that question.
The DNC needed to run ads with other former POW's expressing their disgust at McCain's use of his POW status as a shield from questions and an arrogant excuse for practically everything.
paranoia @ 34:
He wrecked a lot of naval aviation hardware in his day.
I vehemently oppose the negative references aimed at Veterans in some of these posts. Whatever YOU believe in, these people either believed in service to their country and sacrificed part of their lives for that OR were poor and had no other viable employment options or choices. Same as today.
Shame on you. Is this how you support the troops.
I agree with the post above, real heroes don't brag about, use or manipulate their military service for political gain.
And before I'm attacked, I'm an avid Obama supporter; you don't have to be a troll to feel embarrassed, angered and ashamed of these posts.
Aren`t those folks from Denmark or somewhere like that.They don`t even have an accent.
Glad I never listened to the words.
If he loses the election, will he say it was because he was a POW?
Perhaps they can suspend MC Same from the ceiling at convention in a tiger cage and hire little asian kids to poke him with pointy sticks as he delivers his speech.
If I have offended, CMINCA. I apologize.
I have great respect for veterans and POWs. It is John McCain that I have no respect for.
BobbyG @ 33:
I don't know the history behind McCain's plane crashes but I don't think it's funny to make fun of them. Pappy Boyington was shot down a few times and crashed some planes on his own as well. Ok, he was a drunken asshole so maybe he's a bad example.
Bottom line is Vietnam is history even if McCain wants to make it live forever. That's fine for him and his life but for our lives and future generations we need to concentrate on what he's going to do and why we can't let him do it and not take cheap shots that probably aren't even warranted.
I vehemently oppose the negative references aimed at Veterans in some of these posts. Whatever YOU believe in, these people either believed in service to their country and sacrificed part of their lives for that OR were poor and had no other viable employment options or choices. Same as today.
I don't think the poster was questioning someone's beliefs for fighting as much as how some may unfairly capitalize on their service, and we can see McCain shamelessly doing just that.
pissed off patricia @ 40:
I'm thinking he'll say it's because he's black.
Yeah, I know you're talking about McCain. :)
43 CafeenMan
Google..."John McCain, USS Forrestal"
Then make up your own mind.
theWalrus @ 44:
OK, I stand corrected. I said I hadn't seen anyone do that. I wasn't counting politicians. I was thinking about regular people doing regular things.
CafeenMan @ 43:
I disagree. All shots, cheap or not, are warranted. McCain is the enemy.
Liberal AND Proud @ 46:
I might do that some time but it's irrelevant as far as this election is concerned. What is relevant is that McCain has given away his most important possession - his integrity. He's the last thing this country needs right now.
If he loses the election, will he say it was because he was a POW?
LOL! Good one.
Sadly, he's not going to lose. Amuricans ain't gonna vote in a black, elitist, terrorist-lovin' mooslim over a white POW war hero.
Liberal and Proud
It wasn't you at all, it was post #3.
24 someguy
mcgramps announced Dancing Queen as his running mate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IrE6FMpai8
He's right about his tastes. Why does anyone want someone with atrocious tastes? Haven't we had enough of morons? Look at those garish homes he owns ... most definitely not fabulous. If I were a rich asshole, I could do a lot better.
I would rather spend 7 years being waterboarded ever day at gittmo than listen to 2 seconds of Mama Mia.
"Sir, could you recite a few lines from your favorite ABBA tune?"
"Ummmm ... ahhhh...my staff will get back to you my friend..."
Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosden that is just horrid .
Did ABBA do"How Much Is That Doggy In The Window"?And the "FUGS" did How Much Is The Dog Shi.t
CafeenMan @ 43:
Boyington was cooler than McCain can ever hope to be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pappy_Boyington
Today seems to be national bash Obama day on the cable news channels. Jesus, it started with Morning Joe and of course Fox and CNN. If this is going to be what they talk about all week, I can't take it. On MSNBC they showed the tape of Michelle Obama saying it was the first time she was proud of America or whatever it was. This was the one where it is real obvious that the word "real" had been edited out, and no one mentioned that but instead continued to criticize her. It's so fu*king frustrating!
McCain couldn't in a million years afford to pay for the free advertising time and space he has gotten from all the cable news shows today alone. He doesn't need to cry foul and I was a POW, the media is taking care of him and his reputation.
the Walrus @ 44
Read #3 again "killing for your country" is what really got me.
49 CafeenMan
Aaah. But it is relevant. It speaks of his judgement, his character.
And if you feel that it should be written off to youth...well...John Kerry was not given that consideration by his opponents, nor have others who campaign against the GOP.
Jo @ 48:
Means to an end? I have different states of mind and in some of them I agree with you. This election is very important and there's nothing we shouldn't do to ensure republicans lose power.
But right now I'm not thinking that way probably because I don't think we need to do that. I think slamming McCain on all his flip-flops in ad after ad and showing him to be Bush Reborn will lose the election for him by a comfortable margin. Too early to tell though.
In any case, crashing planes in a war isn't going to sway very many voters so even if I agree or disagree with the ethics of it, it's diminished returns. Lots of energy for little result.
ysbaddaden @ 52:
I'm not sure who I think would make the funner VP to campaign against Mittens or Rudy.
POP, the MSM is trying and trying to tear down Obama. As I wrote in another thread, Hillary was their choice because she was the "establishment" candidate, as McCain is.
The only thing standing in Obama's way is Diebold.
CafeenMan @ 43:
I don't think it's funny to fuck up repeatedly and get repeated passes owing to family brass juice, and to now tout yourself as some War Hero immune from any criticism. Sorry.
When McSame and his people quit taking their relentless, egregious cheap shots at Obama, I'll stop.
Mccain is a pussy. i spent 5 years in the military and i wasnt fighting some back water hick country like Viet Nam. I was in the COLD WAR baby. two super powers flinging insults back and forth like a cong fire fight. many said all we did was drink and carouse but we had to drink that much because for all we knew we would wake up the next morning in a full fledged world war. those women who gave us the clap were as necessary and as important to the effort as Clara Barton. We longed for POW status but instead had to spend long, excruciating hours walking up and down the pier guarding our Aircraft carriers with nothing but a stick hangover and bad attitude.
Oh how i wish i had time at the hanoi hilton. where's MY parade?
This is a little off of the point of the post, but remember back a few months ago when during the primaries everyone kept saying that a long, drawn out, and hard fought primary would be beneficial to the Democratic Party? Well it's looking like now, not so much. I really don't know why these Clinton supporters would even consider voting for McSame. John McCain has found an opening just wide enough to stick his $500 shoe through and now with the help of the RNC he's widening it.
These people need to consider all of the nasty things that Republicans have said about and done to the Clintons. We cannot allow them another 4 years running this country. Look at any of John McCain's policies and see if they're in line with what Hillary was proposing.
As far as the POW excuse, as long as the media let's McCain and his cronies get by with it , they will use it.
I am just saying that if McCain wants to use his war experience as his ticket for presidency, then I question how someone who graduated at the bottom of his class get a cushy air job away from the front line? Although statistically he had a safer job, but still manage to get shot down. Isn't this the same as Bush getting a free pass in the military while also graduating at the bottom of the class?
Seems to me this military career that McCain is more of the same of Bush career. Being pass up in spite of poor performance, because of wealth, and powerful ties to the govt.
Liberal AND Proud @ 61:
Ok, well if we're going to be just like the GOP then I have no reason to vote. I thought we wanted dems to be elected because they're better than repugs.
the Walrus @ 44
Read #3 again “killing for your country” is what really got me.
I understand, but there are pacifists out there and I respect their beliefs also. Don't let words make you a smaller person. I know you're bigger than that.
My late father was as the battles Guam and Iwo Jima, both to which he was awarded a battle star and the latter the Purple Heart (multiple shrapnel, some of which he carried to his grave and a broken back). I've always considered that a "big deal" - maybe some would prefer the US had become a part of the Third Reich or the Empire of the Sun. He was extremely proud of his service although he didn't speak of it often. Rarely, actually. If a "war movie" came on television, he would tell us to change it. My uncle Clarence never got over the war, becoming an alcoholic and finally committing suicide in 1972. In his retired years dad raised and lowered the American flag in the front yard every day. He liked to meet with with other local WWII veterans in town for coffee. The only apparel I ever saw was a "Disabled American Veterans" cap, which I now have and treasure along with his Marine dress uniform and medals, which he never put on again once returning home. The military honors at his funeral were incredible - I was so proud. When those Marines handed that flag to my mom - I still get choked up just thinking about it. It was a big deal to me, and still is. As to being a killer, he told my uncle and brother is a rare catharsis "I did what my country asked me to do, and I hope God forgives me." Please, don't let McCain's hyperbolic touting of his military service for personal gain tarnish others, who served most honorably both during wartime and after the uniform came off.
paranoia @ 68:
Being a fortunate son does count in my book only if the person never earned anything on his own merit. You can't blame a guy for being born into luxury but you can blame him if, like Bush, he kept fucking up and his parents never let him suffer the consequences which had the consequence of him never growing as a person.
I think McCain has it all over Bush in that regard but then Obama has it all over McCain too.
56 jeff Says: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosden that is just horrid
pierce brosnan. I hated him as James Bond. My favorites were Sean Connery and Timothy Dalton.
Here's an interesting clip from a Bond movie that was not only very good, but largely forgotten.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxDRVE-UfHk
CafeenMan @ 72:
Watch it, bud. Bush single handedly kept the No Fly Zone above the TANG golf course and NCO Club utterly free of Vietcong heavy fighter-bombers during 'nam. HOOOOO-ahh!!!
http://www.bgladd.com/McSameStore/The_Disgracer_in_Chief.jpg
Two points:
1) Yes, the Republicans will continue ad nauseum with McCain's war hero bullshit, because the Vietnam War has never really ended in this country. The hostilities between those who were Cold War pro-war enthusiasts and those who were anti-war or active in the peace movement will not end until every baby boomer is in his or her grave. Thowing John McCain's POW status in our faces is there to remind us that he was part of the establishment in the 60's, a masculine, heroic John Wayne type, with those kinds of ethics and morals. John McCain's POW status promises a "kinder-gentler" time, (appealling to the Evangelicals' dream of a return to an Eisenhower Era America). In essence, John McCain's POW status promises us a a return to Pleasantville.
2) The MSM backed Hillary because it would have been better TV. Think of the 8 years of footage of the Clintons. Their lazy asses (the MSM) would barely have to budge to put together scandal and utter mayhem. The Republicans wanted this too. Anyone who doesn't remember what attack dogs they were during the Clinton Era does not remember the whole "Vince Foster was murdered by the Clintons" muckraking.
Noun---verb---POW!!.... Don@4 beat me to it, but it bares repeating... It's Rudy's gameplan modified.... If Gramps is going to beat it into the ground, we all, who are fed up with hearing it, might as well beat into the ground what it all amounts to....i.e. BULLSHIT!
I agree with other posters who state most vets don't play that 'I'm a vet ooo rah' shit.... whether they be cold or hot war types. That kind of phony war hero shit is usually used as a front to hide something or deflect attention from something. As for those who do like to play that card for fun and fame... Fuckem, they are pathetic idiots... Wars, gettin caught up in one, and being forced to endure it, just trying to do what you're ordered to do by those with higher rank... Killing strangers from other countries who are just as often as not, caught up in this thing unwillingly same as you, is not really something to beat ones chest about. The memories of the things saw and done under those conditions can stay with a person sometimes tearing them up inside the rest of their lives. People don't generally go around bragging about wrapping five cars around trees do they?? Look folks, I ain't a hot war vet but I don't have to be to know, war is evil, not something to trumpet. Wars essentially are failures of mankind to deal with a problem.....
That's all I got to say about war, and gramps pathetic record in his, except to remind everyone that those who give the grunts in these things shit is basically no better than those people who shoot messengers because they don't like the message they're getting... Here's an odd idea... IF you don't like wars and killin, then take that complaint to the people who start this kind of shit...(hint:, it ain't the kid down the street who will end up drafted, or conned with some kind of patriotic marketing bullshit into putting their life on the line for the next one)....JD
Didn't JR's sister-in-law kill Vince Foster?
71 LockeNessMonster
Beautifully said, and I don't think you have any worries. Your father and his generation are greatly appreciated and remembered, as are the men and women tossed into unpopular conflicts such as Viet Nam and Iraq. I think Americans have shown that they are capable of understanding that soldiers don't choose to kill. They are simply doing their jobs.
It is up to the those of us not in the military to ensure that the missions we send them on are just and absolutely necessary.
Cherish your memories of both your father and your uncle. Honor what they fought for.
I've been suspecting all along that mcgramps is trying to pull an Eisenhower. He was the last military figure to hold the presidency. He was a comforting father/grandfather figure to conservatives. And even Liberals seem impressed by his prescience, and quote him often with credit as the source of the whole military-industrial complex argument.
My guess, is mcgramps would simply work for the complex, hence his 100 year war.
ABBA's not Danish, silly – they're Swedish.
It's a shame McCain doesn't want to import any other great Swedish institutions, like national health insurance or the ban on advertising to toddlers.
Let's hope that this election is his Waterloo. Couldn't escape if he wanted to.
the Walrus @ 70:
-------------
the Walrus @ 44
Read #3 again “killing for your country” is what really got me.
I understand, but there are pacifists out there and I respect their beliefs also. Don’t let words make you a smaller person. I know you’re bigger than that.
---------------------
Thanks for taking the time to put things into perspective. Much appreciated.
I should say that Eisenhower was the last high-ranking military figure. Kennedy, Carter, George HW Bush all served, but without making that a key reason to vote for them.
I'm not sure if Johnson or Nixon served or not. As for ronnie ray gun he served
In the USO (propaganda movies.)
I surely have no experience in the military. Having said that, if I had experienced something as awful as McCain said he experienced, I sure as hell wouldn't want to bring it up over and over in my daily life. Also I wouldn't want to go through my life asking people to feel sorry for me and excuse everything I did wrong, because to my past experiences. If I did that I would be admitting that it had a permanent effect on my actions and my thinking. I would be admitting something was wrong with me that I had no control over.
Personally I would want to overcome my past and prove to the world that I had left the past behind and moved on. Also if I was a guy and had Abba on my Ipod, I would wonder what the hell was wrong with me.
ABBA? What -- isn't AMERICAN disco good enough for Senator Fancy-pants?
Smells like elitism. I bet he's a latte-sipper.
Senator McCain, how do you explain not knowing how many houses you own?
McCain: Because when that surface to air missile hit my plane I lost my memory.
But you got those house after you were shot down.
McCain: Says you!
pissed off patricia @ 83:
You mean McCain's "iPod"?
http://tinyurl.com/5gv9gy
every townhall meeting or speech mccain reminds people of his prior service and POW status.....we all what it is.........branding and disarming. he sets the the emotional tone in his favor.
secondly this brand seems to be a free pass to the white house with certain voters.....i believe this demographic is NOT knowledgable of issues such as
taxation,energy transition and future foreign conflicts.
being a veteran i noticed this early on and realized it was over the top. i say
reveal his Real u.s.veteran voting record. the numbers don't lie. i'm not
interested in mccain's awards but his Real voting record.
third the draft......this should be talked about.
Hold it. If McCain's musical taste went to pot AFTER he was shot down in 1967, then that DOES explain his poor choice in picking ABBA as his favorite musical group....
So bottom line, everything McCain has done since he was set free was a result of being a POW? It caused him to cheat on his wife, leave his family, to marry a millionairess, to get involved in Keating 5, to get real chummy with lobbyist, and to have ABBA on his Ipod. Also it seems to have made him tell lies. Would it cause him to bomb some country on a whim too? Seems to me the guy's being a POW is his worst detractor if it caused him to do so many problematic things.