As John McCain tries to resuscitate his presidential campaign, he and his staff are repeatedly flogging his undeniably heroic experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The problem is that it has nothing to do with being president.
During the most recent Republican debate, McCain got off a seemingly scripted jab at Hillary Clinton:
In case you missed it, a few days ago, Senator Clinton tried to spend $1 million on the Woodstock Concert Museum. Now, my friends, I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time.
My friends, no one can be president of the United States that supports projects such as these. And I believe that wasteful spending has got to be eliminated. And I will have this debate and win because she is a liberal Democrat and I am a proud, reliable, consistent conservative Republican. That's why I'll win.
The reference to McCain's time as a POW was a hit at the debate. Now his campaign is running an ad featuring the clip in New Hampshire:
McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, sent supporters an even more tacky email today (PDF) that capitalizes on the 40th anniversary of McCain being shot down to raise campaign contributions:
He has given so much - join me in giving him a gift of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or even $2,300 in remembrance of his past service to all of us and in support of a future McCain Presidency.
...P.S. Help me honor a true American hero on this 40th anniversary of being shot down over Vietnam by making a commitment to the campaign. Follow this link and make a contribution to a better America.
Classy! McCain's POW experience may become the equivalent of 9/11 for Giuliani...
Update 10/25 8:44 PM: Ezra Klein reminds me of Jon Chait's TNR article on McCain exploiting the POW issue.
After an admittedly quick review of your Spinsanity archives, I couldn't find any post where you similarly criticized John Kerry for injecting his Vietnam service into the 2004 campaign. (Surely you remember him saluting and saying "Reporting for duty" at the beginning of his acceptance speech, after the biopic laid out his service.) Could you help us out by linking to the post where you said that Kerry's Vietnam service "has nothing to do with being president"?
Posted by: Rob | October 24, 2007 at 11:23 PM
Rob, the difference is that this blog includes personal opinion, whereas Spinsanity did not. I do think that military service as a low-level officer may be a useful character reference, but it is not relevant experience for being president, which applies to both Kerry and McCain.
Posted by: Brendan Nyhan | October 25, 2007 at 10:47 AM