McCain Camp's Defense Against Sturgis Beauty Pageant Critics: He Was A POW!
The McCain campaign has offered a novel defense against critics who hit him for offering up his wife Cindy as a contestant at a topless biker beauty pageant: He was a POW!
This whole mess started when Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, who is heading up an independent group of pro-Obama pastors -- and, by the way, officiated at Jenna Bush's wedding -- criticized McCain's remarks at the Sturgis rally: "My personal opinion, and based on my opinion of the Christian faith, that's not the type of expression a presidential candidate or anyone following the Christian faith ought to make."
The Wall St. Journal reports that McCain spokesman Brian Rogers fired back by saying that Americans "know that John McCain's faith and character were tested and forged in ways few can fathom."
So men of faith offer up their wives to other men at a biker rally, or demean their wives in this way?
August 15, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only if the wife is a trollop or a c*nt.
August 15, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
no surprise, mccain was never really the "family man" maybe cindy mccain should start standing up for herself
Hundreds Show Up 2 the PUMA Conference - Pictures
August 15, 2008 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
PUMA link is GREAT! LMAO! Hundreds??? Sure if you count each person about 5 or 6 times.
August 15, 2008 8:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, it's just a little sailor humor, that's all. No harm meant. Everyone is way too sensitive. Rush Limbaugh will tell you that. If you were out on the boat with John for 12 months without women, you'd probabaly be talking the same way. I'm saying John is keeping the best of his youth in his old age. Give the man break. He was a fighter (although not the best flyer) and not a student according to his USNA records. So what, you want some elitist intellectual speaker type or a real leader who is ready to pull the trigger at the drop of a ruskie pin? Who says the President of the US needs to be smarter than average citizens anyway, just richer is enough.
August 16, 2008 7:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
or a "cripple"
John McCain = Betrayed and abandon his injured wife. He'll betray and abandon the country too.
August 15, 2008 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
oooh...that hurts
August 16, 2008 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't forget that this was Sean Hannity's defense of him the other night when Colmes called McCain out for cheating on his wife. Literally.
It is the get out of jail free card, and it's fast becoming to McCain what 9/11 was to Rudy.
http://strategy08.wordpress.com
August 15, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
You can actually sit through Hannity's inanity? You've got a stronger stomach than I!
August 15, 2008 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
That was a thing of beauty.
I only wish we had video of Hannity after the show ended. I bet he went off.
August 15, 2008 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Awesome comment.
Rudy "9/11" Ghouliani and John "POW" McCain
My favorite bit is when GOP-ass-kissing pundits make a point of claiming that McCain is so honorable that he hardly even mentions the POW years.
We see now how "reluctant" he is.
August 15, 2008 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to forget adultery. Abcnews is now bringing that into the fold. Maybe the Edwards debacle, like some here predicted, is bringing this to light.
(http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/jenna-bush-wedd.html)
August 15, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm starting to think Edwards had an affair with Riella because he knew he wouldn't win the nomination, and the eventual accidental-on-purpose exposure of the affair would spill over into a comparison that would help bring down McCain.
God Bless John Edwards--and Elizabeth for going along with the wiley game plan!
August 15, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or if angels of the lord visit you and a crowd of bikers forms and demands that they come out and show their tits. As I understand it, the correct response is to offer up your wife and your daughter in lieu of the angels.
August 15, 2008 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
thats the same excuse they used to defend why he cheated on his wife...
August 15, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Greg, you should make a list of things McCain, his campaign, or surrogates have used the "it's OK because he was a POW!" defense for. It'd be fun reading.
August 15, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain keeps using this POW experience as a tactic to fend of criticism. He is such a 'chicken-shit' coward.
August 15, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
A noun: Check
A verb: Check
A POW reference: Check
That campaign is running with machine like efficiency.
August 15, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess this means that McFuddle was offered up for a topless contest when he was a POW then...makes sense to me..he was having a flashback!
August 15, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain isn't responsible for anything, ever because HE WAS A POW!!!
Doesn't he continue to play the "POW card" daily?
John McCain lies in his ads? Response - He was a POW for God's sake so it is OK!
August 15, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Precisely how much mileage is he allowed to get out of this? Can someone give me a number here?
August 15, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think yo just figured out the question to the answer to the meaning of life.
The answer of course being 42.
August 15, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Forty-TWO?????
August 15, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Douglas Adams Hichhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
If you haven't read it, you should.
August 15, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
The question, if you remember, was "What's 9 times 6". Before you go off thinking that doesn't come to 42, bear in mind that 9 times 6 _is_ 42 in base 13.
Us engineers have to do _something_ with our time as we bill hour after hour to bloated defense pork barrel projects...
August 15, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
But did you see the movie? It was a reference. :)
August 15, 2008 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
If an American hero like John McCain can't publicly humiliate his wife, then who can? It's as American as leaving your wife....
August 15, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I get it! He was a POW, who's character was tested and forged in ways few can fathom. Now I understand why it drives him crazy to see Barack with his shirt off!
August 15, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
So his "testing in ways few can fathom" causes him lapses in judgement.
And this is ok for someone running for president.
Yeah, that's what we need. A president who is allowed to have lapses in judgement.
Wait, hasn't that been the case for the last 8 years?
August 15, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
You can't have a lapse in what you don't have.
August 15, 2008 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Very nice.
August 15, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thx!
August 15, 2008 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
You people are joking, right?
This is a real issue to you? Please tell me you jest.
August 15, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
The temperment of the guy with his finger on the big red button? Oh yeah, BIG issue.
August 15, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, this line:
"faith and character were tested and forged in ways few can fathom."
Should read:
faith and character were broken and forged in ways few can fathom."
August 15, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
The sword that was broken has been reforged:
Andúril, Flame of the West... er, SouthWest!
August 15, 2008 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
It isn't that he made the comment, but that his camp is using his POW status as a defence to it.
August 15, 2008 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're right....I think it's much more important to debate Corsi's claim that Obama didn't dedicate his first book to his family.
August 15, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
When WILL folks stop prefacing McCain criticism with "We honor his heroism...."
It was all a Nixon dirty trick to begin with fer crissakes
So were Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld...
August 15, 2008 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just think of that as the new form of "With all due respect," which means that whatever follows will not be respectful.
August 15, 2008 8:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
And everyone will understand when his intemperate personality leads to WW3 - well... he was a POW you know.
August 15, 2008 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
If McCain defends every mistake he makes by saying "he was a POW", doesn't that say that he's not mentally right or still mentally scarred from his POW days?
August 15, 2008 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
And furthermore, if he keeps offering up his POW experience as a political play, doesn't it then open it up to be looked into?
If McCain thinks the Corsi book was "funny", I wonder if he's like a smear book written about him entitled "Songbird", and maybe have a corresponding campaign centered about it.
August 15, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. The McCain campaign is admitting that their candidate is still suffering from the effects of his imprisonment and that it is affecting his judgment.
That should pretty much disqualify McCain for being president all on its own.
August 15, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, but he's very reluctant to bring that up.
August 15, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Right. He never misses an opportunity to "reluctantly" bring it up.
August 15, 2008 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's astounding that Americans realize his faith and character were tested in such unfathomable ways, given that the McCain campaign is so obviously reluctant to bring up his POW experience.
A noun, a verb, and POW experience supercedes the noun, verb, and The Surge from a few weeks ago.
August 15, 2008 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
What needs to be said is that "his character was broken and forged in NEW ways that few can fathom"
August 15, 2008 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
After McCain returned to the U.S. he committed adultery with Cindy McCain after his first wife was disabled from a car accident.
What does that say about his faith and his character?
August 15, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm trying to fathom it, but I can't for some reason.
August 15, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, something about infidelity makes it real hard to fathom.
I hope Kirbyjon finds a way to spin this unfathomable shaping of faith and character in a manner that conveys it is mishapen and immoral, that moral bearings were lost and not regained.
Does anyone else think it is odd that Cindy McCain is always at his side on the campaign trail?
Why IS that? You always see her right there on the trail with him...no one candidate is like that. If Cindy is not at his elbow then some Senator is ...what is up with this?
Can McCain go on the campaign trail alone? If not, why not?
August 15, 2008 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
To be fair, the spokesman said McCain's character was tested. He never said McCain passed.
August 15, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
yes forged in ways unfathomable can mean unspeakable or vile!
August 15, 2008 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain's stint as a captive of the Vietnamese was also given (by McCain surrogate Sean Hannity) as the excuse for McCain's dumping his first wife to have a fling with the younger, richer Cindy, whom he later married.
There is no ethical lapse, no moral failure of McCain's that cannot be explained away by loudly whining "he was a POW, ferchrissake!"
Tiresome.
August 15, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess that's how he got out of not paying taxes on that condo in Cali for so long.
August 15, 2008 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, at least he's consistent about taxes (sort of): he doesn't pay 'em and doesn't want anyone else to (or so he says).
August 15, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Again, it shows how crazy this old man is becoming. The next thing we're going to hear from talking heads is" McCain doesn't have control of his campaign.” But he wants to become the commander in chief. Personally, I don’t think the guy is bright at all
August 15, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well they already said that McCain doesn't speak for the McCain campaign.
August 15, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
So can we expect more "judgment lapses" during a McCain presidency that can be explained away as "He was a POW?". If his years as a POW still effect his mental capacity to this day, maybe it's not a good idea to put him in the White House...
August 15, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
John McCain jokes about rape...but it's OK, he was a POW.
John McCain calls his wife a trollop, and worse...but it's OK, he was a POW.
John McCain is in bed with lobbyists...but it's OK, he was a POW.
John McCain doesn't know basic facts about foreign policy and openly admits that he knows nothing about the economy...but it's OK, he was a POW.
I guess I better now make an offering unto St. McSame...because he was a POW.
August 15, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember when the right attacked John Kerry becuase he dared to bring up his service in Viet Nam as something good? Real Vets don't talk about their medals, etc.
It seems the fact that McCain was tortured in Viet Nam is their fall back position for everything.
"John McCain's faith and character were tested and forged in ways few can fathom."
or
He left his wife because he was tortured in Viet Nam, he wasn't the same person."
It's a one size fits all response.
August 15, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is this the "pity card" that keeps being played?
August 15, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's his get out of jail free card.
and the media is too scared to call him on it.
Can you hear the cons: "They're attacking a POW!"
August 15, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wesley Clark wasn't afraid to call him on it!
Obama needs a stack of Generals to talk about this!
Just like those Swiftboaters did Kerry with those veterans.
Obama needs a slew of 4-5 veterans/generals who talk about how being a POW does not make one a warhero...it means you are held in captivity...not performing brave acts of courage to lead others or save lives with your life is being risked. Nor does it mean crashing airplanes because you are nothing but the Eddie Haskell of the skies and Naval Academy legacy.
August 15, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
sounds like the same excuse Hannity tried to offer up for McCain's cheating on his wife. "BUT HE'S A POW", Hannity screeched.
August 15, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
May be all POW should abandon their wives and use McCain's argument as an excuse.
August 15, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain's brain is STILL a POW.
August 15, 2008 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
John McCain a POW president we can believe in....what a clown?
August 15, 2008 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where's McCain's sense of humor?
August 15, 2008 3:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good one
August 15, 2008 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's something else he said to a reporter (all reporters are now local to McCain) from the Rapid City Journal while at the bike rally.
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2008/08/06/news/top/doc4899148d6bff9947792856.txt
August 15, 2008 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
So McCain really does not have post traumatic stress disorder?
That means he was of clean mind and body when he cheated on his wife, made crude jokes and lost his temper.
Ok that just makes him a jerk instead of a man dealing with personal daemons from the past. Really not much better.
August 15, 2008 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, it means he was in denial about PTS, he is unable to accept that his character and spirit are severely damaged in ways that we can not fathom unless we consider perversed and unspeakably vile acts. McCain is in deep deep longstanding denial.
August 15, 2008 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Very fortunate" my ass. There wasn't any readjustment necessary since Songbird McCain, the Admiral's son, wasn't tortured but rather suffered those injuries upon ejecting incorrectly out of his aircraft. Then he was treated like a Prince after his captors found out who he was and got him to sing like a canary.
August 15, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you for those details. So he was injured in the crash and then the shoulders were set incorrectly in the POW camp?
August 15, 2008 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
WTF is this? From the Political Radar article:
Okay, boys - go ahead and move on to Clinton's Losing Strategy Part 3. You know you want to...
August 15, 2008 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
IOW, a hit dog will holler.
As if they hadn't been planning that all along. Whatever.
August 15, 2008 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, because McCain would have to use those bullets now rather than saving them for late October.
Wright, Rezko and Ayers will all be brought up, might as well make it sooner than later.
August 15, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, if Obama can provoke McCain into it early, that's nothing but good news. Let's get it out the way as soon as possible.
August 15, 2008 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
What about Obama bringing it up himself? Explain it as saying he wanted to be up front with the larger GE audience sorta deal...
I blogged about this idea here - http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/08/should-obama-campaign-preempti.php
August 15, 2008 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
a noun, a verb and a P.O.W.
August 15, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
In case we forgot what boneheaded remarks he actually made at the time, here's John McCain bonding with bikers.
August 15, 2008 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cool!
McCain 2008
August 15, 2008 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just FYI, attendance at the Sturgis biker rally was down 12 percent from the previous year.
I don't think McCain's being there had anything to do with the decline, however.
August 15, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think that the title of this post is misleading. There was no explicit reference to McCain's POW status in Brian Rogers' response.
That being said some things I find of interest:
1) I encourage people to go to the WSJ link and watch the video of the pro-Obaa ad the Matthew 25 network will air. It is really good.
2) When Rogers says that Americans "know that John McCain's faith and character were tested and forged in ways few can fathom." few can disagree. It should be noted, however, that McCain's time as a POW was not a 24/7 display of heroism. If this article is to be believed, McCain confessed to war crimes, etc., while in Vietnam. (I concede that this was under duress.)
August 15, 2008 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
The ad is terrific.
August 15, 2008 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
"There was no explicit reference to McCain's POW status in Brian Rogers' response."
Perhaps someone should ask Mr Rogers to clarify his remark in light of the possibility he was not referring to McCain's tenure as a war captive in citing the non-POW ways John had his character and faith "tested and forged" in ways "few can fathom."
August 15, 2008 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well there was that one indecent with the clown, crazy glue, and a blueberry muffin, but lets not go there.
August 15, 2008 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
More than I can fathom.
August 15, 2008 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Awesome ad
'he has stood by his family and he will stand by yours'
I like that a lot.
August 15, 2008 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
the mccain camp is also claiming that Rev. Caldwell is an official Obama surrogate (per ABC), I guess they're hoping he'll be forced to distance himself from another pastor. i hope they're wrong about that and the media doesn't bite, but they probably will.
August 15, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
The McCain campaign has offered a novel defense against critics who hit him for offering up his wife Cindy as a contestant at a topless biker beauty pageant: He was a POW!
But of course, he doesn't like to talk about it...
August 15, 2008 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
"John McCain's faith and character were tested and forged in ways few can fathom."
Why do you think it means being a POW?
It could just as easily mean being tempted by a hot young beer heiress!
That is a salior's dream.
Or by Charles Keating, "take my plane please."
Or whether to run a civil campaign or not.
I'm sure he has been tempted many times in many ways...
(Most of the time he failed the test).
August 15, 2008 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Obama did it,....they would call him a pimp. But since it was McCain,...he's just old white guy who was once a POW. Sleight of hand in politics.
August 15, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Obama did it, Michelle would kick him in his ass! Cindy being the old bowling trophy wife that she is, just smiled and waived like a ditts!
August 15, 2008 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, now the POW thing really is becoming his excuse for everything:
“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.”
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/08/young_and_sweet_only_72.php
August 15, 2008 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Crybaby McCain cries POW whenever people call him on his bullshit.
This jerk has weaseled his way ahead his entire life.
He betrayed and abandoned his crippled first wife to marry a rich blonde heiress with political connections. This is how he ended up in the Senate.
Weasel, sneak, liar '08
August 15, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
A lot has change in 40 years. This McCain has no character and no honor. Oh and by the way I guess since McCain military experience is the centerpiece of his campaign it’s perfectly legitimate to question that experience.
August 15, 2008 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
He was a POW is their bottom line defense in response to everything... It is the excuse, it is the reason, it is the answer and how dare we ever, EVER question his character, policies, values, actions, etc... How dare we? We must consider him worthy to lead and acceptable in every way, why? because he was a POW end of story.
It is a demeaning argument for the american people. We must always question everything in defense of our freedoms. Thanks for serving John McCain. Sorry you were shot down and had to survive being a POW unfortunately many had to go through that experience. I don't think that the others would presume to believe that they have a right to be president and never question based on the fact that they had such an experience.
I'd love to see Wesley Clark as VP at this point. He can take down and talk down this argument.
August 15, 2008 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd love to see an ad that says "McCain was a prisoner ... AND HE STILL IS, TO Karl Rove, Big Oil, etc."
Nasty enough?
LOL
August 16, 2008 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, so now let me get this straight. John McCain can get away with adultery on his first wife, and offered up his current wife as a contestant in the infamous Miss Buffalo Chip contest, and he can be excused for it because he was a POW? Uh-Huh...
So, that must also mean if "President" John McCain decides someday, that he doesn't like the way some dignitary looks at him, he could order our
missiles to attack, with no consequences because he was a POW, Right?
If being a POW is going to be his excuse for anything he gets wrong, he shouldn't even be running for the office of POTUS!
August 16, 2008 9:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I saw him on the Compassion Forum. He said his greatest moral failure was cheating on and then leaving his crippled wife. Well, not in those words, of course. He looked super uncomfortable .... or sleepy. I couldn't tell.
August 16, 2008 10:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lest we forget, it is not McCain's experience as a POW that has instilled in him a set of values that would allow him to offer up his wife in a Miss Buffalo Chip contest. Rather it was his total immersion in the culture of being a Navy man, a naval officer and in particular a naval aviator.
Remember Tailhook? Here's a pretty good compilation of articles looking at the '91 Tailhook Association debacle and the aftermath.
http://www.greatdreams.com/tailhook.htm
Though McCain was out of the Navy by the time all this happened, one can assume the culture was no more considerate of women during McCain's service.
August 16, 2008 11:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Everyone jumped all over Wes Clark a couple of months back when he made the (quite obvious) point that merely having had an unpleasant wartime experience---i.e. getting shot down in your plane---does not qualify one to be commander in chief. We are now seeing the logical extension of the inane rejection of this perfectly valid point.
The Wes Clark smackdown made it obvious that the GOP was going to play up McCain's "sacrifice" to the nation. I have always been rather irritated with this line of sales pitch, since the unsavory subtext is always "You must elect this man--the COUNTRY OWES HIM." Huh?
McCain's suffering was not caused by the American people, but by the idiot political "leadership" in DC who elected to plunge the country into a disastrous confrontation with indigenous ideologues in Southeast Asia. This was a fight we could not win. McCain may have endured very real agony as a result of this decision (as well as his own decision personally to serve this dubious cause), but it is not our fault, dammit, and we don't owe him the White House as payback.
By logical extension, any one of the millions of people in this country, for example, who suffered an abusive upbringing--which in many cases involved torture and brutality---is now owed the presidency as a result of his/her suffering. Who would seriously make that case?
I don't see how this is any different.
August 17, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink