Former POW Says McCain Is "Not Cut Out to be President"

"To see McCain resort to playing the POW card when answering legitimate questions, in my mind, cheapens that experience. And by cheapening his own experience in war, he degrades all of our experiences in war. He turns the horrific incidents we've all seen, touched, smelled, and felt into a lame excuse to earn political points. And it dishonors us all."

-- Brandon Friedman, a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan

John McCain has been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste in music.

The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads. But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in Vietnam is explaining loud and clear that being a POW does not qualify McCain to lead our country.

We are sure this video will draw an onslaught of right-wing attacks, but we bring it to you because it is our job to continue to convey the truth together and give these issues national attention. As Dr. Butler has said, McCain does not have the temperament to have his finger near the red button. Get this video to everyone you know: friends, family members, coworkers, and especially those who don't share your political views. The video is designed to reach them. Get it on your social networking sites like Digg. And get it to every blog, newspaper, and TV station that has ever overplayed McCain's POW story. It is time to fight back with truth!

The mainstream press has already begun to call out McCain for overusing his POW story. And it's cut across all political persuasions.

• "Whether he's deflecting criticism over his health-care plan or mocking a tribute to the Woodstock music festival, Senator John McCain has a trump card: the Hanoi Hilton. - Edwin Chen, Bloomberg
• "Noun, Verb, POW" - Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Monthly
• "The McCain campaign's constant invocation of the candidate's POW past is weird bordering on irrational..." - Ana Marie Cox, TIME
• "I think they are going to it way too many times." - Howard Fineman, Newsweek

Remember how Joe Biden got the press to refer to Rudy Giuliani as "A noun, a verb, and 9/11"? Well, let's actually take Andrew Sullivan's lead here and get the media to boil McCain down to a similar phrase: "A noun, a verb, and POW." Considering how often the McCain campaign invokes his POW story, isn't that what they're already doing?

Comments

[patianneb]

The REAL POW's are not those who have PROFITTED from their captivity, but those who have never escaped: The homeless, the uncared for, those who bear scars often invisible, and who will never live a normal life again or anything resembling one.

The real POW's are the families of those who went to Vietnam or Germany or Korea or Iraq or Afghanistan and never came back.

The POWs who deserve the profound respect and tears McCain would harvest for HIMSELF are those whether by virtue of incarceration or mutilation, will never hear the applause or see their names in light, or even mow their own lawns, or father a child.

Shame on him.

[scampy123]

Some of the good decent POW who suffered captivity and kept their mouths shut about it should now come forward and expose this old fraud McCain for the sake of their country.

[gaebolgaes]

the service review boards and the department of veterans affairs...­presumes the existence of 14 medical conditions that are apparent in former soldiers who were POWs for any length of time. 3 of these presumed medical conditions are mental conditions­.severe depression­...dysthem­ia and ptsd.

[wiseapple]

I am saddled with a dial-up connection. I get video stuff at a rate of like 3 frames every 5 minutes- very annoying. I am glad to see you reference this Dr. Butler again as I saw something yesterday saying that he wrote an article to a paper. I googled 'songbird mccain' like it said to read the article, but I could get it to display on my screen. Does anyone have the text from both the video and the article? I appreciate it; Thanks.

[peterg76]

Not a new message, but you can't beat the credibility of a first-hand witness.

[emncaity]

We need 25 videos just like this, with a couple of nationally­-broadcast campaign commercials consisting of clips from those vids. Let's get on it, Dems. Or do you just want to participate in an election without actually winning?

[dnels14]

great article ... all america knows mcsame is not cut out to be president of the free world

[CharlesJ]

It is about time someone starts talking about this. FActs are facts, pow is Pow, Pow does not equal presidential. Presidential is temperment, judgement, decisions making, logical and reasoning in the thought process, looking into the unknown for understanding (in other words asking questions), being a man (meaning acting and living by YOUR words and deeds). Mr noun, verb, POW has failed in all of these area.

I feel sorry for POW, I know that had to be a terrible experience, but they are alive and for the most part well. There are many that give their lives, so McCrying needs to suck it up and act the way he claims, or get out of dodge and stop humilating him self.

[McCainWho]

McCain needs to release his full military records. His military history is told by him. His records will prove he is unfit to be a senator and president. The news media is not pressing for his records. They are putting the US in grave danger helping McCain hide his records. This man may have a critical mentor challenge.

[CaseyBabes]

Aviator Butler makes a solid case against the man he once knew......­........he once knew. That was years ago and doesn't account for the many years when Senator McCain experienced the growth to coral that temper. Indeed, he still has it, yet iknown to channel his energy for the direction he chooses. Perhaps there is someone out there with documented incidents of Senator McCain's temper gone completely awry.
Yes, being a POW does not qualify a man to be President, or anything for that matter. But as former Senator Thompson aptly stated, Aviator McCain's conduct during his confinement "reveals character.­"

[rich3324]

McCain claims that he was tortured while in custody. There were no other American witnesses to this torture and some former POWs doubt that it happened at all. In fact, McCain himself admitted in a 1973 interview with the magazine US News and World Report that he volunteered to give military information in return for medical treatment, even before being subjected to any torture.

[CaseyBabes]

There are several books about POWs and some cite exactly the horrible treatment of McCain as certified by fellow prisoners. It is true that McCain gave names of men involved in military operations­.........t­he names were the starting linemen of the Green Bay Packers. Afterward, though, he did break under torture, something he has never hidden. When we watch McCain today and see how he cannot hold his shoulders square when only being able to lift his arms to chest level we readily understand his treatment in captivity.

[punkingale]

The Republicans jumped on General Wesley Clark for saying exactly what Fred Thompson said. Where's the outrage? Forget McCain's character. He has none.

[CaseyBabes]

Correct, Republicans did jump......­and Obama has barred further communications with Clark. C'mon, McCain has no character?

[GPhilly13]

How do we start getting this out to the media, refer them to the you tube site? Has anyone already tried this? We have to shut McCain down!

[MSiddique]

I have read that article. The question that came to my mind is, how is it McCain is able to sell himself as a so called ‘maverick’, and shift the focus from his competence? How does he become the ‘maverick’ while supporting Bush over 90% of the time? Aren’t there others who occasionally disagree with their parties? What I see is a crafty, long term propaganda and image building scheme to fulfill his life long ambition – something he admitted to – to become President. And, no one questions his less than mediocre intellect (he came in 5th from the bottom of his class of nearly 500). Look at his selection of Sara Palin as his running mate! Does this really show his love of the country or the Machiavellian effort to win at any gimmick? In addition many people, including the progressives, fail to question the marketing of McCain as a war hero. The US war against Vietnam was also an illegal war, just as the war against Iraq. I do not recall Vietnamese ever attacking US territory; US got its nose bloodied while it was engaged in an imperialist war. McCain was not a hero, he was a coward, and was engaged in war crimes. Folks need to stop participating and feeding into this kind of mythology, sole purpose of which is to promote reactionary politics!

[GrainOSand]

Your summation mirrors the credible, the rational, the sensible, and the reasonable, but will be lost upon the arrogant, the corrupt, the distracted, the fearful, and the willfully ignorant.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Excellent.

Note that Mr. Butler isn't necessarily pro-Obama, let alone partisan whatsoever, in his comments.

[anon004]

"A noun, a verb, and POW."

If John McCain wants to garner the respect, etc. that is due to being a POW, then I think he has to answer some questions about the serious negative consequences of that experience, too. My question is: did John McCain ever receive any treatment for mental issues such as PTSD when he returned from Vietnam? The reason I'm asking is that if he didn't, then the public has the right to know that they are electing someone with a potentially serious untreated mental condition. We've just suffered through eight years of a presidency with an untreated alcoholic; I would prefer not to hand over the White House to someone with a similar problem.

[GrainOSand]

When I was a kid, veterans met in a family setting or community setting, who suffered from the ghosts of war were cruelly labeled shell-shocked, and it was said that they were having flashbacks and that is why their behavior was strange. A five-year-old mind wonders about what it means to shock a shell or what that shocked shell had to do with the man’s behavior. I also wondered what it means to be somewhere else in your mind from where you currently reside. Why is this man talking with himself? Why is it that this man is acting out a scene in hyper-animated fashion while he repeatedly mutters incoherently to himself?

The issues you raise anon004 are real. Temperament is starting to be looked at, and let us hope we get a thorough examination of the mental stability/health of both candidates’. For me the jury is already in on Obama. He has proven himself cool under fire and thoughtful under pressure. There are under-investigated rumors about McCain’s self-control that are fair game for pursuit.

My school of hard knocks taught me that in intense situations if you are not in control of your “bearings” and intellectual reflexes, you could inflict great damage upon yourself through susceptibility and over and under reaction to clear and present dangers -- such is the life one is compelled to live in the war zone known as inner city America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_stress_reaction

[Soothsayer08]

As an Obama supporter, I am glad that this man's story is being told. I only wish that the MSM would have the guts to challenge McCain on the subject. They seem to enable McCain's touting of his POW status for any and all questions he wants to avoid. Wesley Clark was wrongly crucified when he dared to say as much. Fred Thompson and the rest of the bunch want people to feel so sorry for McCain's imprisonment that they swallow all of the BS that he and his campaign are spewing. The presidency sin't a "pity party" where we elect someone only on the basis of how much sympathy they can get regardless of their qualifications, judgment or mental fitness.