Don’t Ask McCain Tough Questions – He Was a POW
26 August 2008 11:45 am by Taylor Marsh
by Scott Hopkins
Reporting from Denver
The strategy is becoming more and more blatant every day. Last night on Leno:
John McCain, who often invokes his ordeal as a Vietnam war prisoner to show his devotion to his country as he runs for U.S. president, drew on the experience again on Monday — this time to deflect sniping over the number of houses he owns.
…In an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, McCain, 71, said his priority was to keep Americans in their homes in tough economic times.
Then he recalled his Vietnam experience.
“I spent 5 1/2 years in a prison cell without — I didn’t have a house. I didn’t have a kitchen table. I didn’t have a table. I didn’t have a chair,” he said.
“I spent those 5 1/2 years … not because I wanted to get a house when I got out.”
Don’t ask him about the seven (or eight, or nine, or…?) houses he owns. Don’t question his mega-hawk stances on Iraq and Iran. Don’t even ask him about his religious beliefs. You’ll always get the same deflection: The POW card.
Kerry focused his convention on Vietnam, and this year will be McCain’s turn. But where Kerry’s service was presented as a underlying testament to his strength and character, McCain will use his service as The Answer To Everything. And the thing is, it just might work.
We’re in Denver, people. It’s time to toughen up. Now.
