JOhn McCain has said he never brings up his POW status.
One of the things I've never tried to do is exploit my Vietnam service to my country because it would be totally inappropriate to do so.
We all know that is not true.
We have gotten to a point in this campaign where that is all he has.
I do not denigrate McCain's service. However, I, like Wes Clark, don't think it qualifies him for higher office.
Still, you know he is going to use it, and he will most likely use it in the debates. So Obama has to be ready with a great response. And not just the "We all honor McCain's service, but..." response.
Obama has to take him on. He is showing signs that he will. But he has to do it in such a way that McCain can't sit on his pitty pot and whine over this "elitist who never served" calling him out on his incessant pandering.
So, I am asking you all to come up with a response. Nothing mean, nothing denigrating. Just a reasonable response to what I know is going to be McCain's response to a question he doesn't like in the debates.
Meanwhile, look at all the times McCain or his campaign has brought up the POW stuff.
"The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous," Nicole Wallace.
"This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," Brian Rogers.
"When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the physical pressures that were on me, I named the starting lineup, the defensive line, of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron-mates," John McCain in Pittsburgh. The line had been most often used relating to the Green Bay Packers.
"I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the first district of Arizona, but I was doing other things. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi." John McCain, in his 1982 Senate campaign, attempting to overcome his carpetbagger label after moving into Phoenix to run for office.
"Five and a half years in Vietnam, you've got to give him a break," Sean Hannity in response to a question about John Edwards' affair.
"My musical tastes stopped evolving when my plane intercepted a surface-to-air missile," John McCain, in response to a question about his favorite songs.
"I know what it is like to be deprived of your rights. I know what it's like to be in confinement. I know what it's like to be beaten. I know what it's like. So I think I have a special appreciation that maybe a lot of people don't have for what it's like to be deprived of your right, John McCain, defending his opposition to the MLK holiday.
"It's a cheap shot, but I did have a period of time where I didn't have very good healthcare, I had it from another government" John McCain, responding to Elizabeth Edwards' call for universal health care.
"I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was, I was tied up at the time," John McCain about Woodstock.
(With apologies to Kossack TexasLiz
, from whom I got some of these quotes.
So, I'm thinking a reasonable response could be:
"I respect your service, just as I respect the service of cops, teachers, doctors, waitresses, checkout clerks and the people who fix my car, repair my shoes, read my water meter, pick the tomatoes I eat, vaccinate my dog and do the myriad things that make this country run. The people who never ask for thanks, who never think that what they do is special. The people who make our lives work. The people who are hurting because of the policies that George Bush and you have put in place. The people who will never be what you desribe as "middle class." The people who wonder every day whether they are going to be able to feed their children AND pay the gas bill.
I appreciate what you've done for this country, but I will tell you that what you have done for this country is what you signed up to do. And it is no more important than what these cops, these teachers, these waitresses have signed up to do. And very few of them have 11 houses and
a salary in the millions to show for it.
But these are the people who make this country work. They do it without asking for praise. They do it because that's what they do.
So, yes, we appreciate your service. But we also appreciate the service of all these other people who have been and continue to be left out of your America where the people who make $50,000 a year cannot hope to be part of the middle class.
Because your middle class is beyond their reach.