Excuse, maybe not. Does that happening show some underlying character flaw that need be a concern today? I don't think so. I think the PTSS provides a sound explanation for that which doesn't affect his decisionmaking in the present day.
plcmts17...I meant it the way I said it. People can talk about Kerry going to Vietnam, getting shot in the ass and coming home or whatever...but the fact was that he was there. There were many more in that era that avoided it. You were the first one to bring up Kerry's service in this thread. You were the one that likened having a President you don't like to being held captive by enemy forces, beaten and tortured for 5 years. Good job. I hope you meant to come off like a jerk...because it worked flawlessly.
McCain POW-POW-POWs In Response To Economy Question POW-POW-POW hyperinflation alert! In an interview with KDKA radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, John McCain POW-POW-POWed when asked about charges that he's an elitist who's out of touch with the American worker on kitchen-table issues. This underscores again the degree to which the McCain campaign wants the discussion about the economy to morph into a conversation about character, rather than a discussion of, you know, actual policy differences. Dems say McCain's policies show that he's out of touch with the real needs of working people. McCain replies that his POW past shows he knows what it's like to struggle, which he hopes will settle the question of whether he's out of touch or not. Once that question has been settled to McCain's satisfaction, there's no longer any need to meaningfully engage in an argument about what our understanding of what it's like to struggle should lead us to actually do to alleviate people's economic problems on a policy level. http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/mccain_powpowpows_in_response.php
How is this different from Obama saying he grew up without material wealth and was raised by his grandmother without a father etc? He is trying to let the people know he has also had struggles.
And most Americans' struggles aren't due to the fact that they are being held prisoner by an government that is currently at war with America.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Mtzb0Krz-9Q&color1=11645361&color2=13619151&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Mtzb0Krz-9Q&color1=11645361&color2=13619151&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Apparently mccain was a pow
via TPM -- All POW, all the TIME To our knowledge, this new ad from the South Carolina Republican Party is the first ad to focus exclusively on McCain's POW captivity. The spot is set to run in Minneapolis starting tomorrow and through the GOP convention, a South Carolina GOP spokesperson confirms. It hits directly back at Obama for his criticism of McCain's number-of-houses flub: [edit] video removed - BigBenito beat me to it... This is the story of a John McCain home you might not know about," the ad opens, and follows with footage dramatizing McCain getting shot down. After showing shots of a prison cell, the spot continues: "This is where John McCain was starved, beaten, tortured, and maimed for life. So the next time Barack Obama talks about one of John McCain's homes, remember this one." The spot suggests that surrogates in the states will soon start pushing the POW-POW-POWing in earnest, in a way that even McCain himself might not be willing to do.
I've been thinking and I agree with the Reps, clearly senator obama is not ready to lead this nation. I firmly believe that one key aspect is missing from his CV that would allow him to wisely lead our nation. He needs to take his ass to Iraq and become POWed, Once he does this than I can firmly stand behind him without any questions of whether he is ready to lead. I firmly believe that being brutally tortured by the Iraq's will give him all the necessary experience that is essential to being a competent president. Once he does this he will become holier than thou, above criticisms and able to answer policy questions with POW.
reporter: Senator Mccain, Can you talk about your the criticisms of you being out of touch with the average american? Mccain:
So, now he's just insulting the intelligence of the American voters. Unless there are a lot of people who thought being a POW meant you were staying in a plush five-star resort. Or seven of them.
My whole thought process could be wrong, so I'll first ask... has any Obama surrogate or any top Democrat made a comment about the McCain's repeated use of the POW defense? If not, is the McCain camp repeatedly pushing 'POW', just hoping/praying that a Dem will blunder and comment about it? Thus, allowing for the whole general election to collapse into a "how dare he make fun of POWs ?!?' mock outrage. I can't see an easy path for the Dems to go after McCain's auto-defense. They certainly can try, but it seems like too much effort/too complicated to be a soundbite worth having. And it puts both sides in the muck, with McCain the easy winner on the issue. Rather, it seems like Obama's camp is just allowing McCain to shout POW as much as he wants and ignore it at all costs. Yes, I realize Kerry was 'swift boated' and repugs wore purple bandaids to mock his purple heart, so there is a precedent to go after the 'soldier'. But Kerry for some inexplicable reason didn't attack back. McCain's Rove aids will. (And no, I'm not buying into the 'don't attack the repugs, because they'll attack harder'. I'm just saying, that I don't expect this to be something any top Dems bring up, until McCain's already made it an old and tired joke on the late night talk shows.) Yeah, my whole premise could be crap, if Obama has already made fun of the auto-defense. If he has, ignore everything I wrote above, thanks!
I might not have been too clear on the statement Hayes quoted: Yes, Obama does bring up his past. But McCain has devolved into 'word verb POW' status.
I think this is enough to make the point: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/us/politics/18text-obama.html I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/obamaroadblog/gGxyd4 The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father – my grandfather – was a cook, a domestic servant to the British. http://www.barackobama.com/2008/08/19/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_106.php My father left when I was 2, so my grandfather was the man who helpedraise me. He grew up in El Dorado, Kansas - a town too small to warrantboldface on a road map. He worked on oil rigs and drifted from town totown during the Depression. Then he met my grandmother and enlistedafter Pearl Harbor. He would go on to march across Europe in Patton'sArmy, while my great uncle fought with the 89th Infantry Division toliberate Buchenwald, my grandmother worked on a bomber assembly line,and my mother was born at Fort Leavenworth. After my grandfather leftthe Army, he went to college on the GI Bill, bought his home with helpfrom the Federal Housing Authority, and he and my grandmother moved westin a restless pursuit of their dreams. http://www.barackobama.com/2008/07/10/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_92.php I saw my mother, a young, single mom, put herself through school, and follow her passion for helping others while raising me and my sister. But I also saw how she struggled to provide for us, worrying at times about how she'd pay the bills. I saw my grandmother, who helped raise me, work her way up from a secretary at a bank to become one of the first women bank vice presidents in the state. But I also saw how she ultimately hit a glass ceiling – how men no more qualified than she was kept moving up the corporate ladder ahead of her.
Actually the point is is that Obama doesn't try to deflect every criticism with "but I'm a black man"
