The POW card

Swaroop asked earlier if McCain was playing the POW card too often. I think it's becoming more obvious with each passing day that he's going to milk this for all it's worth. How much impact it has is anybody's guess, but so far it seems to have worked, at least with the press!

I wish the Democrats would take on this "being a POW excuses anything" argument more forcefully, and really examine McCain's service. After all, remember how the Repubs went after John Kerry, accusing him of self-inflicted woulds, faking injury and even making fun of his Purple Heart?

However my guess is that the Democrats won't have the guts to do this, since they're wimps and are scared to death of being labeled anti-military. In fact when Wesley Clark made the perfectly logical statement that being a POW doesn't prepare you for being President, there was nary a Democrat willing to back him up, and even Obama repudiated the statement and uninvited him from the convention!

Incidentally, I think this article titled "Why I Will Not Vote For John McCain" is required reading. It's from another pilot who was a POW with John McCain, and it provides valuable context and background info about POWs in Vietnam. Although it was a trying time for McCain, it's clear that the 600 other POWs there suffered similarly, some were captives for a longer time, and many were more decorated than McCain. This was not the singular act of heroism it's being projected to be.