Crosses, Cones & Codgers, Oh My!

Posted by SHAUN MULLEN, TMV Columnist in At TMV.
Aug 18th, 2008 | 9 responses

Is it possible that the addled John McCain really believes the “cross in the dirt” incident occurred when he was a POW? I’ll give him that much, but isn’t it curious that he has brought it up at a time when a guy to whom such an incident did happened has been much in the news?

And won’t it just be ducky when we get past the conventions and can move on from crosses in the dirt, cones of silence and Hawaii as an elitist destination and talk about the stuff that matters?

Or maybe we won’t.

9 Responses to “Crosses, Cones & Codgers, Oh My!”

1. ChrisWWW says:

   August 18, 2008 at 10:20 am

   No way to know if he lied.

   What's more interesting is that McCain has made his POW experience the core of his campaign message – with offshore drilling coming in a close second. Does this mean Wesley Clark will be allowed to come out of hiding again?
2. ChrisWWW says:

   August 18, 2008 at 10:42 am

   Yglesias adds:
   

   … his campaign has started doing two very odd things. One is its habit, somewhat ludicrously, of insisting that McCain doesn’t like to talk about his POW experience when, in fact, he and his campaign do it all the time. Another, more disturbing habit, is the tendency to use references to his wartime service to deflect any and all questions the campaign doesn’t feel like answering.
3. AustinRoth says:

   August 18, 2008 at 12:24 pm

   Shaun – please, where are those vaunted journalistic standards of yours? Repeating an unsubstantiated and malicious rumor of plagiarism by McCain's enemies? This is not even Swift Boating. Those allegations against Kerry were made by people who served with him, not by a bunch of hacks.

   And your statement of “that he never mentioned such a seminal moment in his POW memoir or at anytime since” again shows your lack of journalistic integrity and a lack of work ethic, as a simple Google search shows that he has been mentioning that story since 1999.

   Now, it is indeed possible that it is a 'false memory' he has picked up from reading Solzhenitsyn, but facts would be better than innuendo. This is no different than the BS charges against both candidates that they are not technically qualified to run for President – they are unsubstantiated rantings of hyper-partisans.

   Let's keep this type of crap where it belongs – at Kos.
4. ChrisWWW says:

   August 18, 2008 at 12:46 pm

   AR,
   Shaun should correct his post to note the mention of it in 1999. But that detail doesn't change or refute the point of Shaun's writing.
5. GeorgeSorwell says:

   August 18, 2008 at 1:01 pm

   Austin Roth–

   Give me a break! The men who actually served with Kerry (there is a single exception) say good thing about his service.

   Read all about it at Snopes.com.
6. shaun says:

   August 18, 2008 at 1:05 pm

   Fair enuf, AR and Chris WWW. Post amended.
7. ChrisWWW says:

   August 18, 2008 at 1:19 pm

   Andrew Sullivan has just posted some updated thoughts on the subject: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily…
8. Ricorun says:

   August 18, 2008 at 2:51 pm

   AR: Those allegations against Kerry were made by people who served with him, not by a bunch of hacks.

   To paraphrase another memorable bit of dissembling… it depends on what your definition of “with” is.
9. Wayne says:

   August 18, 2008 at 9:46 pm

   …. Orson Swindle, a fellow POW who is campaigning for McCain … “I recall John telling that story when we first got together in 1971, when were talking about every conceivable thing that had ever happened to us when we were in prison”