McCain Chief Uses POW Card To Defend Rally Rhetoric

Defending the aggressive campaign rhetoric at recent McCain-Palin events against criticisms made by Rep. John Lewis, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis raised John McCain's history as a POW on Sunday.

"Look, Chris, I think we have to take this very seriously," Davis told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. "And the kind of comments made by Congressman Lewis, a big Obama supporter, are reprehensible. The idea that you're going to compare John McCain to the kinds of hate spread in the '60s by somebody like George Wallace is outrageous. Where was John McCain when George Wallace was spreading his hate and segregationist policies at that time? He was in a Vietnam prison camp serving his country with his civil rights also denied."

The use of such a line of defense came one day after Lewis warned that the Arizona Republican - through his recent campaign rhetoric - was "sowing the seeds of hatred and division" in scenes reminiscent of segregationist George Wallace. The McCain campaign was quick to jump on the statement and demand an apology from Obama. The Illinois Democrat's aides said that while the Wallace comparison was over the line, the longtime civil rights figure's underlying message was, in fact, true.

David Axelrod, sitting across from Davis, would echo that stance arguing that McCain's ads were designed to "inflame" but not to be compared to George Wallace.

Later in the Fox appearance, meanwhile, Davis distanced the McCain campaign from some of the more inflammatory crowd rhetoric - including calling Obama a "terrorist" and a "traitor" and yelling "kill him" when his name comes up. But he dismissed the suggestion that McCain or Sarah Palin were in any way responsible for inciting such ire.

That he could weave in McCain's history in Vietnam was not particularly unique or difficult. The reference to the civil rights era did provide an entree into reminding voters of the Arizona Republican's biography.

"Nobody knows sacrifice like John McCain does," said Davis. "And the idea that Barack Obama didn't address this issue directly, had his campaign walk out there with a half-baked statement that didn't even address the comments made by Lewis as related to John McCain. Barack Obama should apologize to John McCain directly for the kinds of comments made by John Lewis yesterday and that should be the end of this sordid affair."

Comments

[kittyma]

what about the GOP campaign director in Virginia who rallied his volunteers by telling them that Obama is like Osama. They both have friends who bombed the Pentagon . the volunteers shouted out even worse lies and garbage! Mc Cain should be called upon to apologize.

[Barbara2423]

John Lewis's comments were correct.

[sisteract]

Absolutely!

[voteobamatn]

Rick Davis is such a JOKE! I am so sick of hearing about the POW stories; it is not relevant to the topic Rick! RD has a lot of b a l l s to even suggest that Sen.Obama give JM/SP an apology. Why can't he just admit it ...JM/SP started this rascist message! John Lewis is just speaking the truth. Sorry that Mac, SP, and the right wing pundits don't wanna hear it. The bs can't get any worse than this can it? I can't wait to see RD's broken face on NOV 4th. Obama 08!

[dkerrice2861]

Plain and simple, they will never take responsibility for their wrong doings. Republicans have always blamed everybody else for their failures, why do you think we are in the mess we are in? How can things be righted if they continually deny they ever did anything wrong? It's just a lot easier to blame the other guy than it is to stand up and be a real man and admit he was wrong!!!!

[lis60]

They are SO FULL OF IT and I am SO TIRED OF IT!! Do they really think we are all idiots! ? I am so tired of hearing about McCain's POW days. It does not give him license to do what he is doing. I KNOW that McCain and Palin are inciting hatred, and that it is racially based, as does every thinking person in America! And it they think they can spin it any other and people will believe them,they are wrong.........! McCain and Palin make me sick and so do the people around them who are supporting this. For them to deny their wrongdoing is worse then them doing it in the first place!

[brabra]

Is there anyone on these comments that have contact with anyone in the Obama camp? I just want to know why they don't do an ad on this. VIDEO..INTERVIEW WITH MCCAIN WHO ADMITTED HE KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT THE ECONOMY. With the emphasis being on the economy , this is what people need to hear. This is why it seems sometimes that he gets it wrong. He forgets how his advisors tell him to say http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1X3efvVTLAX3efvVTLA

[rrlane]

This reminds me of another classic line of defense: http://fadingmargins.webbedfeatsonline.com/blogarchive/127-mccain-aides-take-cue-from-otter.html

[wtgthin2000]

Love the comparison!!! LMAO ;o)

[LemonMeringue]

I feel like I am witnessing the last scene in The Fly, only Jeff Goldblum looks better than McCain, even as The Fly.

[zenaby56]

McCain and Palin are responsible for the messages of hate and distorted facts. They have allowed comments to go forward unchallenged. Terrorist! Kill him! This is hate in no uncertain terms. Being compared to George Wallace is actually quite close in comparison. Allowing and propagating hate. Too bad if it offends McCain's delicate sensibilities. Along with standing there and doing nothing for an entire week while allowing comments to be made...they endorse ads making the connection to domestic terrorism, Palin herself has said the term at rallies. Saying they have no responsibility is to say they have no responsibility for leadership. Now let me ask you this, aren't they both running for the highest offices in this country? yet they are not to carry any responsibility? Now that is the kind of leadership I absolutely can do with out. No wonder they are losing in the polls. An absolute lack of responsibility and leadership on both their parts!

[pearl89]

Now Obama is responsible for someone else's opinion. This is getting ludicrous. On the same show Rick Davis, also the Obama camp as being more negative than McCain's. As if anything Rich Davis has to say carries any weight. I think he is one of those greedy "fat cats".

[tangelan]

He's done the impossible. McPOW has desensitized an entire nation to the POW issue. After this travesty of a campaign is over, hopefully we won't continue to see being a POW as a detriment. Currently, it's a punch line.

[Lee2320]

What a suprise. The fact that he was a POW is John McCain's answer for everything. Evidently that fact alone entitles him to be President of the United States. Everything anyone ever critisizes him for about his campaign, his life, all comes back to his time a a POW. His service to his country is comendable, but honestly this habit of using it as a crutch for a man 72 years of age makes him look extremely pathetic.

[bellasuerte]

I find it interesting that I have not heard the most obvious being mentioned: that his POW experience has scarred him psychologically. If he went through therapy it wasn't enough as evidenced by his displays of extreme anger. It does still color his experience of life and this fact in and of it self should disqualify him for the position of someone with the power to annihilate us all with the push of a button.

[run-that-by-me-again]

Anyway you slice this story, it's a bunch of baloney.

[DrDemon]

Davis:

- > Go Suck A Duck F*ck!

[gnomic]

POW. POW. POW. AWK!
No one knows more.
No one has suffered more.
No one has lied more.
No one should vote for this POW.
He is a Prisoner of his Own Words.

[Seldomright]

Congressman Lewis’ warning had to be given in the starkest manner possible. It’s clear that the McCain campaign has placed victory above all else and that the Senator himself has become enshrouded in the same sort of delusional fog that W. hides within to avoid accepting the monumental failures and immoral acts of his administration. If harsh words from one of McCain’s most admired persons is what it takes to lift that fog even slightly, they are a blessing. I am old enough to remember the all too frequent reports of violence during the civil rights movement and the assassinations of the Kennedys and Dr. King will always be vivid, painful memories. The most frightening thing to me about the hateful crowds attending the McCain and Palin rallies is that the overwhelming majority in attendance appear to be people of my generation or older. Presumably, they too saw that violence, although it would seem from a very different perspective, and they apparently feel no discomfort wallowing in the kind of hatred about which Congressman Lewis spoke.

If there were any reprehensible words spoken on Fox News this morning, they came out of Davis’ mouth. Making any connection of the Senator’s heroic past with his undeniably dishonorable presidential campaign and the kind of people connected to it is the real disservice to the Senator’s legacy.

[DrDemon]

Well you're right this time!