The Sacred McCow

I guess this is proof, after a fashion, that the war has indeed followed us home. Some of our leading veterans-turned-political-warriors, from John McCain to Wesley Clark and Jim Webb, and even a fresh-outta-mothballs Swiftboater seem to have decided that -- never mind "fighting 'em over there" -- the order of the day really is to "fight 'em here" after all.

It starts, as it always does anymore, with Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's prisoner-of-war status. It's the single most distinctive thing most Americans know about him. Shot down during the Vietnam War and taken up residence, the hard way, in the so-called "Hanoi Hilton." There isn't a politician, pundit, or voter alive, from liberal to conservative, military or civilian, campaign ally or competitor, who hasn't acknowledged that -- in a positive and respectful way. And despite his and his supporters' protestations, nobody is taking its name in vain. Unlike so many other Republican leading lights, McCain actually did wear his country's uniform, see combat, and shed blood and even those many millions of us who won't be voting for him still honor that.

Perhaps that aspect of McCain's back story is so prevalent because neither he nor Barack Obama seems willing to leave it alone. Obama sometimes sounds almost like he'd rather be McCain's PR manager than his Democratic opponent, carrying on at almost every turn, almost rhapsodically, about The War Record. With McCain himself, it's more or less all he has, as far as solid cards to play. Everything else about him involves either evasive maneuvers about where he's stood on any number of issues over the years, or his embrace of so much of Governance-According-to-George-W.-Bush that he's understandably billed by critics as running for Bush's "third term."

Perhaps that's why he's so sensitive about it. Evidently, as all Team McCain members vehemently insist, that's off-limits. It's actually another one of those World's Biggest Republican Entitlement Programs: that John McCain's military background renders him unassailably immune to ANY sort of objection you might raise. He's the MC Hammer of the GOP with his own personalized cover of "You Can't Touch This."

Well, I'm sorry, Senator McCain, but -- to borrow another 2008 campaign constant, "Yes We Can."

John McCain has willingly stuck his neck up and out of the foxhole here. Nobody waterboarded him or held him captive to force him against his will to run for president. He may call himself a maverick from dawn til dusk but claiming absolute sacred cow status is asking a bit much. If you put yourself out there to that extreme, in this day and age, fortunately or unfortunately, then everything about you is fair game. According to the rules of this or any other warfare, if you poke your head up into the open in the heat of battle, you risk becoming a target. Since he and his pals all want to make so much of his Vietnam experience, it is not unreasonable for opponents to make what they can of it, too.

It is completely fair for retired General Wesley Clark to observe, aloud, that flying a fighter jet over enemy territory and being shot down doesn't necessarily or automatically mean you're qualified to be president (anymore than how fun you are to go have a beer with means you've got what it takes, either). One would think with a background like his, McCain would want to bring his brothers- and sisters-in-arms home from a wasteful war they -- and we -- were lied into, rather than wanting to maroon them in Iraq for the sake of some vague, undefined, and distant "victory." One would think, as a veteran -- a wounded veteran at that -- McCain would be the first and loudest supporter of ANY GI Bill to ease his latter-day comrades' transition back to civilian life, rather than complain that it's too generous and not even show up to vote for it. The ensuing breathless outrage from McCain and his minions further loses credibility and all claims to the moral high ground when he brings back one of John Kerry's Swiftboaters, Bud Day, to join the latest counter-offensive. I guess to McCain and company, it's more than okay to Swiftboat a Democrat, but thou shalt not challenge this year's GOP standard-bearer!

It is also not out-of-bounds for Senator and decorated Vietnam War veteran Jim Webb to take issue with the politicizing of military service. Webb correctly pointed out on MSNBC's Countdown that McCain should "calm down" about it, because "people don't serve their country for political issues." Or at least they shouldn't. Calming down is not a bad thing. Cooler heads should prevail in Oval Office, anyway.

I'd like to give the whole issue a rest, but I know better. We're all stuck with it. As long as both McCain and Barack Obama insist on bringing up McCain's background in speech after speech, then all's fair in politics and war. If McCain's own hypocrisy has punched holes in whatever integrity his Vietnam experience originally bought for him, Obama supporters somehow are not allowed to weigh in?

Here's the real straight talk: the letters POW do not spell POTUS. Such voices as those of Wesley Clark and Jim Webb are correct to bring some balance and perspective to the issue and wipe some of the steam off the windows. As long as McCain and Company want to parade it around in public for all to see, and to make it such a big issue in his campaign, they really can't demand that the rest of us keep to a hands-off policy when we want to look closely at it and speak realistically about it. We're being asked to quarter it in our stables for four years. It's not asking too much to want to look a war horse, or a sacred cow, in the mouth.

Comments

[akaJohnQ]

Why should speaking of McCain's POW status be taboo? He claims that he is prepared to be president from day one, with no OJT necessary. One of his reasons for making this claim is his military experience. Because of that claim, we have every right to examine his military career in it's totality, including his time served as a POW. I don't think that Gen. Clark crossed any lines when he questioned McCain's immediate readiness to be CIC. McCain recieved a free college education at the US Naval Academy, but finished 894th in a class of 899. (bottom 1 %) His time spent in the POW camp was unfortunate, but it doesn't add to his presidential qualifications. McCain never held a military leadership position in time of war, when lives were on the line. He served in the US House and Senate, along with of 534 others. With John Sidney McCain III, as with anyone else, OJT is necessary to be POTUS.

[JCTaylor]

I hope this author gets just what she wishes for. I hope that lefties call out McCain on sitting out 5 years of the war. I hope they question and disparage him to no end.

And then lets see just how many states that costs them. McCain is not Kerry.

[longislandlol]

Catch 22 situation== both Webb and Clark -- up for VP-- but too much Vietnam- Gulf War scuttlebutt--- Obama better off with a good, ole non-military hero guy-- like Evan B.

[calluna]

Most politicians follow the "defining moments" principle during election seasons. McCain talking about being a POW is, really, no different that Obama talking about growing up biracial in America, or John Edwards talking about being the son of a mill worker, or Rudy Guiliani talking about 9/11. It's marketing, but it's also something they deeply feel -- that their life experiences have brought them to the points they are today.

Because in all these examples, we're talking about moments that generally represent pain, hurt, fear, and humiliation (as well as triumph over adversity), I just don't think it's very humane to use them as PR weapons.

Let the candidates keep their biographies and use them as they wish. There are plenty of substantive issues in play here. Harping too much on McCain's POW creds will backfire the same way attempts to harp on Obama's race backfired during the primaries. It's not worth it.

[BADEN]

"If you put yourself out there to that extreme, in this day and age, fortunately or unfortunately, then everything about you is fair game. According to the rules of this or any other warfare, if you poke your head up into the open in the heat of battle, you risk becoming a target. Since he and his pals all want to make so much of his Vietnam experience, it is not unreasonable for opponents to make what they can of it, too."

And THIS time around, we've got Iraq veterans fresh from that smell of guts and glory who know damn well what war is all about and can factually discuss this at great lengths with the SwiftBoatRUs crowd.

I was a Kerry Hawk. Warned about this stuff way before it came up on the radar.

Now we know what to expect and to look for.
Never Again.

~Viet Era Woman Vet.

[Politicallysavvy]

Thank you! We have had no rest from the GOP on the incredible service of Sen. McCain, and they are entitled to their opinions, but then, so also are the American people to examining those records and asking questions.

Since this is something Sen. McCain is running on, I keep wondering why he cannot even articulate a clear sentence about this experience? Every time without exception that he has been questioned, what we get is a glass veil, "I don't like to talk about it..." well, it is about time you did sir!

I say, Gen. Wes Clark, and Sen. Webb, don't back down on this one, you have to rise to the challenge on behalf of the years of blugeoning of democrats, we need clarity, and it is fair game to question how sen. McCain is more experience because of this experience. More than anything, I want to hear the words from his own mouth as to what really happened to him hmmn, is that too much to ask?

[peggio]

Bomb, bomb, bomb...bomb, bomb Iran?

That in and of itself has disqualified him to be in any position of authority.
His pow status means nothing in respect to his ability to be the president.
His brilliant flying record is always missing the five planes he crashed that the family admiralty was able to get him out of is never mentioned by the press.
HIs fourth from the bottom of his class status is never mentioned by the press.
His not paying property tax is never mentioned by the press.

Either he knows where all the bodies are buried or he is just the most amazing OLD man ever!

[ssb752]

Constitutionally, the commander in chief is a CIVILIAN. After all, doesn't Bush say he makes all his decisions by "listening to his generals in the field?"

[hopeless277]

McCain lies, Obama lies. McCain=Bush=Obama=Clinton=Nixon=Carter. They're all the same. It's just a matter of who you would rather be raped by, a Republican or a Democrat. Either way, you'll be raped and left for dead.

[banjomandan]

Let me ask this question. Are there any other people that shared Mr. McCain’s type of experience in war that are qualified to become President of the most powerful country in world solely because of that experience? If so where are they and why aren’t they running for office. Has anybody interviewed these people and got reasonable explanation as to how that experience translates into the skills necessary to be a world leader? What am I missing here?

[MissT]

I am so glad that the spell of McCains POW status has finally been broken even if it's only temporary. At least the public has finally been allowed to put it in perspective. And Clark and Webb were the perfect vessels to get this message out. I'd like to believe that this was part of the genius of Obama, knowing that this had to be done and also knowing that he could not do it himself. Hence his seemingly overly effusive praise of McCain at every opportunityl

"Obama sometimes sounds almost like he'd rather be McCain's PR manager than his Democratic opponent, carrying on at almost every turn, almost rhapsodically, about The War Record."

This, I believe, is a form of innoculation from any trumped up charged that he is dissing McCain's military record.

For my money, his lengthy POW status is a main reason why his prparedness to be POTUS should be questioned. We now know that PTSD is a real problem with combat veterans. My guess is McCain is no different. His anger mangagement issues are legendary. His temperment is inappropriate for the volitile times in which we live.

[meanguy]

"His temperment is inappropriate for the volitile times in which we live." yeah, it's hard to get an angry vet to kiss a dictator's butt...better a harvard-trained lawyer, butt-kissing is second nature for them

[Gma11]

McCain is doing that right now in Colombia.