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Eschaton —
but...but... POW!
A noun, a verb, and ‘prisoner of war’
Political Animal —
The initial response from the McCain campaign on the senator’s confusion about how many homes he owns was pretty weak. Put it this way, it talked about arugula and Hawaii.
A couple of hours later, though, the McCain gang went with the one response that applies to every question.
The McCain campaign is road-testing a new argument in responding to Obama’s criticism of his number-of-houses gaffe, an approach the McCain camp has never tried before: The houses gaffe doesn’t matter because … he was a P.O.W.!
“This is a ...
The POW card
Ben Smith's Blog —
... Eric Kleefeld notices that McCain aides referred back to McCain's time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam in defending him from the mockery over his houses. ...
Analogy
The RBC —
... : Hard to see how the McCain camp plays the POW card on this one. Oh, wait .... Full text of Obama's remarks. The good stuff is after the video clip ends: ******** But the fact of the matter is that John McCain is offering more of the same. He said a while back that he thought that we had made great progress economically during the years that George Bush has been in office. Now, that raised some eyebrows. Great progress economically. Who is he talking to? And it turns out that you get a sense of who he's talking to because some of you saw the Saddleback Forum with Rick ...
John McCain Just Slept With Your Wife
pandagon.net - these things don't just blame themselves —
by Jesse Taylor
But it’s okay, because he was a POW.
Inspired by John McCain’s example:
Q: Why did John McCain cross the road?
A: Because John McCain was a POW.
---
Q: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
A: John McCain was a POW.
---
A priest, a rabbi and an imam walk into a bar. John McCain is behind the bar, serving drinks. The rabbi says, “Can I have a Smart Grasshopper?” The imam asks, “What in Allah’s name is a Smart Grasshopper?” ...
Here's why I hope it's Biden
Brilliant at Breakfast —
... days, John McCain's campaign is using "He was a POW" as the answer to everything. He couldn't have cheated and listened to Rick Warren questioning Barack Obama while in the car because he was a POW. It doesn't matter that he cheated on his first wife and may have cheated on The Lovely Cindy because he was a POW. It doesn't matter that he was up to his eyeballs in the Keating Five scandal because he was a POW. He gets a free pass on everything because he was a POW. Now Eric Kleefeld at TPM Election Central tells us that the McCain campaign says that the fact that Senator ...
McCain's housing gaffe doesn't matter because - are you ready? - he was a POW
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth —
... . It only took the McCain campaign three hours, or so, to invoke John McCain's former POW status to defend him from attacks regarding his gaffe yesterday in which he couldn't remember how many houses he owns. You see, the McCain campaign explained to the Washington Post today, McCain was a POW. It's not entirely clear why that's relevant to a discussion of McCain owning 7 or 8 or 9 homes, and not being able to remember exactly how many homes he owns, but it apparently doesn't matter. Because McCain was a POW. Did everybody get that? ...
The incredible rightness of being a POW
Newshoggers.com —
... he didn't know how many houses he and Cindy own and after floating a couple of responses to the ensuing reaction from the Democrats, they settled on -- wait for it -- pulling the POW card that old Johnny just hates to talk about. Again. ...
The McCain Campaign is Genuinely Flustered
The Anonymous Liberal —
McCain stepped in it big time this morning and his campaign knows it. So now, like a cornered wolverine, they're lashing out wildly. First they brought up Rezko. Sensing that wasn't going to be enough, they then played the POW card. But that just resulted in mockery, so now they're pulling out all the stops. According to Marc Ambinder, the McCain campaign is trying several new approaches. First, they're trying to spin this as an attack on Cindy McCain: Though McCain is widely perceived to have drawn first blood by attacking Obama's ...
Noun, Verb, POW
Daily Kos —
Cloak of invincibility ON! The McCain campaign is road-testing a new argument in responding to Obama's criticism of his number-of-houses gaffe, an approach the McCain camp has never tried before: The houses gaffe doesn't matter because ... he was a POW! "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post. Lord. McCain is Giuliani-like at this point in his single-minded determination to cling to the one positive association that his campaign ...
McCain “How Many Houses” Story Gains Traction
Comments from Left Field —
... he owns. When one of your homes is really a combination of two different luxury condos the metaphysical status of your property comes into question. You’d really need to ask a trained professional [meteorologist] to resolve the issue and can’t expect McCain to speak to it personally.
Mother Jones has more on the difficulty of counting homes.
McCain’s spokesperson thinks we should give McCain a break for a different reason:
The McCain campaign is road-testing a ...
Noun, Verb, POW
Shakesville —
John McCain can't remember how many houses he owns, but that's okay because he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Quiddity's rule applies. (Cross-posted.)
The Hanoi Hilton Defense
TalkLeft —
... Unlike the entire Left blogosphere, I could not care less how many homes John McCain's heiress wife has purchased for him. I worry about McCain's tendency to react like a madman regarding foreign policy issues (see the Russia-Gerogia conflict). But I do find it amusing that McCain's "reluctance" to discuss his prisoner of war experience does not extend to responding to silly charges about houses. Via TPM: ...
McC.R.E.A.M.
The Poor Man Institute —
... Mr. Rodgers is actually too soft on Obama here. John McCain does not have the elitist power of omnipresence, nor does he subscribe to the fashionable but morally nihilist doctrine of astral projection, so he actually could use only ONE house AT ANY GIVEN TIME. (The other three houses are for the use of his good friends P, O, and W.) One house at a time, just like the rest of us. A missed opportunity, there, perhaps, but Rodgers lands a crushing blow with his next attack: ...
Brandon Friedman: John McCain Needs to Lay Off the POW Talk
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... The bottom line is that we're sick of hearing about this as a justification for everything John McCain does or doesn't do. This instance is only the latest example, as others have noted. ...
TNR Exclusive: Long Lost McCain Video Exhumed
The Stump —
As others have suggested, yesterday may go down as the day the McCain campaign jumped the shark on Vietnam. In response to Obama's attack on his hard-to-count real estate holdings, McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers noted that "[t]his is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison." Subtle stuff.
McCain aides typically say their boss is reluctant to dwell on his Vietnam experience despite their constant prodding. That may or may not be true. But if McCain is ...
The Definitive Answer To: "How Many Houses Did John Own?"
BAGnewsNotes —
... So, either the question is an insult because he served his country in captivity and, thus, doesn't deserve to be subjected to such (gotcha) questions, or else his time spent as a prisoner in Hanoi must contribute to the confusion as to where he's lived otherwise, and for how long. ...
The Answer Is: "One, The Big House"
BAGnewsNotes —
... So, either the question is an insult because he served his country in captivity and, thus, doesn't deserve to be subjected to such (gotcha) questions, or else his time spent as a prisoner in Hanoi must contribute to the confusion as to where he's lived otherwise, and for how long. ...
It’s All About the Arugula
The Moderate Voice —
... the Obama campaign pointed out that the GOP man of the people isn’t exactly living the life of your average middle-class American (let alone your average blue collar one). After all: eight (or more?) houses?
But some days the stupid is almost too thick to see through.
“This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison,” spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post. (TPM)
Seems as if we’ve heard this one before. Uh….yes, I guess we have. ...
The Rude Pundit —
... Of course, McCain's greatest bit of rank whorishness has been the way he and his staff use his time as a POW in 'Nam to brush aside any allegations of being less than impeccably honorable. Seriously, if you have to say about your candidate when he can't remember how many houses he owns, "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," as McCain spokestooge Brian Rogers did yesterday, then your candidate is fucking worthless. ...
McCain and Keating Five Scandal Revisited-- McCain Should Have Gone To Prison
DownWithTyranny! —
... McCain's biggest achievement in life was to be a complete and dismal failure in the Navy, impress every superior officer he ever served under as utterly unfit, and then get shot down and spend the war in prison. Every time he gets in a tight corner, he screeches that he was tortured for America and people let him slide. That's how he was elected to the House; it's how he's managed to worm out of every crisis since then, and it's even how his campaign responded yesterday when he wound up telling a reporter he didn't know how many houses he owns. (McCain surrogate Sean Hannity ...
Roger Ailes —
The McCain campaign keeps emphasizing that McCain was a prisoner in Vietnam, as proof of his qualification for the Presidency. Well, so was Gary Glitter, and I'm not voting for him either.
From the Desk of John Sidney McCain, R-POW
Comments from Left Field —
... by the name of Everett Alvarez who had been in prison a couple years longer than I had. So I knew I had to refuse.” Similarly, at a July 18 campaign event in Warren, Michigan, McCain said (retrieved from Nexis): “One time when I was in prison in North Vietnam and the North Vietnamese came and said, ‘You can go home early,’ because my father was a high-ranking admiral, I chose not to do that.”
A noun, a verb and POW. That really is all they’ve got. And–surprise, surprise ...
'Clearly a tactical or strategic move'
Political Animal —
... about the number of homes he and his wife, Cindy, own. McCain referred the question to his staff, who said he had at least four. Records show the number could be twice that, depending on how you count the family's properties. "I am grateful for the fact that I have a wonderful life," McCain said. "I spent some years without a kitchen table, without a chair, and I know what it's like to be blessed by the opportunities of this great nation." Last week, a McCain campaign spokesperson made a similar argument , but this was the first time the candidate himself defended his gaffe ...
Friday McBush Bashing (Democratic Convention Edition)
Discourse.net —
... Obama Campaign, “Don’t Know Much” TV Ad
Via Needlnose, McCain’s Vice-President Announcement:
McCain’s Respectful Campaign
“Roger Ailes” writes, The McCain campaign keeps emphasizing that McCain was a prisoner in Vietnam, as proof of his qualification for the Presidency. Well, ...
My Fellow Prisoners
BAGnewsNotes —
... in August stimulated by McCain's confusion over how many houses he owns, speculating on the possibility -- even proffered by his own campaign, by the way -- that the confusion had something to do with his POW experience.) ...
