It's standard operating procedure for McCain to play the POW victim card in an effort to deflect tough (and easy) questions. According to one report, he's been doing this since 1982:
Running for Congress from Arizona in 1982, John McCain was repeatedly assailed as a carpetbagger, which he pretty much was.At a candidates forum when the matter was brought up yet again, McCain responded abruptly, telling his rival, "Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. 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."
Apparently, it played well back then, and McCain has been flashing it at every opportunity since. Recently, his campaign even used it to deflect criticism that he was pimping his own wife:
After McCain jokingly offered his wife Cindy as a contestant at a biker beauty pageant, and was criticized for it, McCain spox Brian Rogers said Americans "know that John McCain's faith and character were tested and forged in ways few can fathom."
Oh Jesus is right. Since '82, if you dared to criticize McCain on healthcare, violating cones of silence and other policy matters, you could expect to be hit with POW!
But, last night, McCain officially promoted his POW card to punchline status by flashing it at Jay Leno--a clear invitation for the entire comedy world to further cheapen and mock this specious line of defense:
BURBANK, California (Reuters) - John McCain, who often invokes his ordeal as a Vietnam war prisoner to show his devotion to his country as he runs for U.S. president, drew on the experience again on Monday -- this time to deflect sniping over the number of houses he owns.McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama last week accused the Republican senator of being out of touch with ordinary people after he was unable to say in an interview how many houses were owned by him and his wife Cindy, a wealthy heiress to a beer distributorship.
In an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, McCain, 71, said his priority was to keep Americans in their homes in tough economic times.
Then he recalled his Vietnam experience."I spent 5 1/2 years in a prison cell without -- I didn't have a house. I didn't have a kitchen table. I didn't have a table. I didn't have a chair," he said.
"I spent those 5 1/2 years ... not because I wanted to get a house when I got out."
What a joke.
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