<p>[Some</a> on left target McCain’s war record - Ben Smith - Politico.com](<a href=“http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11429.html]Some”>Some on left target McCain's war record - POLITICO)</p>
<p>This is just about as low as you can go. I’m constantly reminded on this board that the left take the high road and doesn’t make these kinds of attacks. I hope whoever did this gets the same treatment as the moron who attacked Murtha’s record.</p>
<p>That’s as low as you can go? Lower than spreading rumors that Obama is a radical gay Muslim racist who refuses to say the pledge of Allegiance? [washingtonpost.com</a> - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines](<a href=“http://washingtonpost.com%5Dwashingtonpost.com”>http://washingtonpost.com)</p>
<p>Frankly, pmlrcomm, all I see from you is whining about how the other guys are so unfair - interspersed with your own cheap shots from the right.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with the criticism of McCain based on his service in Viet Nam. But at least it’s based on actual facts. Obama has to defend against accusations which are fabricated out of whole cloth. – But apparently to you, that’s not as low as criticism of McCain. Does it ever occur to you that whose ox is being gored is a lot more important to you than the amount of goring going on?</p>
<p>[Obama:</a> I will never question others’ patriotism - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_el_pr/obama]Obama:”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_el_pr/obama)</p>
<p>I guess since Obama won’t question patriotism there are others who will. So much for no swift-boat style attacks. Guess the gloves will come off for the supporters. I was hoping for better.</p>
<p>I don’t think the attacks on either side are warranted but I’m tired of being told by you and others on here that the liberals wouldn’t do that sort of stuff.</p>
<p>There are good reasons to ignore political news items until much closer to the election. I plan to wait to see what the respective parties have as platforms, pick running mates and base my final decision on the CURRENT state of affairs for each candidate. Think forward, what will become of this country under each party’s leadership? PS, better to be a thinking liberal than conserving past errors in judgement.</p>
<p>Here’s the 1973 magazine article w/ McCain’s account of his experiences as a POW.</p>
<p>[John</a> McCain, Prisoner of War: A First-Person Account - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2008/01/28/john-mccain-prisoner-of-war-a-first-person-account_print.htm]John”>http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2008/01/28/john-mccain-prisoner-of-war-a-first-person-account_print.htm)</p>
<p>Come on wis. That makes entirely too much sense. What’s the fun in that! lol</p>
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As in:[washingtonpost.com</a> - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines](<a href=“http://washingtonpost.com%5Dwashingtonpost.com”>http://washingtonpost.com)</p>
<p>Guess so. I was led to believe I could expect better from the liberals. I guess not. Now that no one has moral high ground to stand on…don’t complain when the republican machine blasts Obama back to the stone age. I’m quite sure they will dig up something. I would prefer if this stuff didn’t happen but since turning the other cheek doesn’t work I suppose it won’t stop.</p>
<p>Whether or not attacking McCain on his military record is low or fair game is beside the point. Politically it’s about as stupid a thing to do as it gets, and only those who have completely lost touch with reality would think that this is sound strategy. </p>
<p>McCain has nothing to worry about in November if Obama continues to listen to the rocket scientists who thought this one up.</p>
<p>Yeah. That much I agree with. I don’t see how you can attack his strength. His military service is admired on both sides of the aisle and going there could cost some liberal votes from ex-military. It won’t endear him to those in active service either.</p>
<p>So exactly what IS his war record? Crashed four planes. Bombed civilian power plant. Strafed civilian targets. Got shot down. As to whether he should be criticized for it, that’s a different matter entirely. (It is Rove who invented the idea that the best political strategy is to attack a candidate’s perceived strengths, rather than his weaknesses.) But the record, or at least those parts he hasn’t redacted or refused to release, is there for anyone to see.</p>
<p>And I’m NOT a liberal.</p>
<p>My guess is his targets were not chosen by him. If I recall correctly at the time of his downing he was following orders from a Democratic CiC. If he was insubordinate that is one thing…</p>
<p>I think it is a stupid strategy for a liberal to attack a conservative on his service. Republicans are pretty much seen hand-in-hand with the military while Dems are not. I understand attacking a strength rather than a weakness but you have to know which mountain to die on.</p>
<p>I figure I’ll criticize someone who’s spent 5 years as a POW when I have some kind of clue what he went through. Anyone who spent 20+ years in the military deserves some level of respect (and over those 20 years is bound to have made some mistakes). I really think this will come back to bite them if they keep it up. </p>
<p>It makes Obama look foolish when he says he won’t tolerate this and then it pretty much happens the same day he says he won’t question anyone’s patriotism.</p>
<p>If the Obama folks want to make an issue of his supposed bombing of a civilian power plant or strafing civilian targets, I say go for it. The idea that this is somehow going to get them votes that they don’t already have would only make sense to someone who doesn’t interact with anyone to the right of Cindy Sheehan.</p>
<p>“I think it is a stupid strategy for a liberal to attack a conservative on his service. Republicans are pretty much seen hand-in-hand with the military while Dems are not.”</p>
<p>I would have thought it pretty stupid strategy to attack a decorated war hero like Kerry, too. It worked, though, and with far flimsier material as the basis for attack.</p>
<p>For me, I’m more worried about a candidate who, even after being repeatedly corrected, can’t tell a Sunni from a Shia, doesn’t know where Al-Qaeda in Iraq gets its arms, and ignores five million refugees created by the “success” of U.S. policy in Iraq. </p>
<p>(As for his patriotism, the attack on him for making a propaganda film is coming from the Right, not the Left.)</p>
<p>I hope the Dems turn out to be as bad at running a campaign they usually are. Their own ineptitude has kept them out of office in the last two elections (along with the dog candidates they ran out there). I’m more than happy to watch them blow it.</p>
<p>At least McCain was man enough to come to his defense…as Obama is doing with McCain. It isn’t the candidates that are doing this.</p>
<p>[McCain</a> Criticizes Ad Attacking Kerry on Vietnam War Record (washingtonpost.com)](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42740-2004Aug5.html]McCain”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42740-2004Aug5.html)</p>
<p>My guess is that the attacks on his military record will quietly go away. No doubt that the left wing blogs and websites will continue to play it up, but cooler heads will prevail in the more public arena.</p>
<p>You can’t find a better way to energize the conservative base of the Republican Party than criticizing McCain on his military record. Conservatives who dislike McCain for frequently acting more like a Democrat rather than a Republican will crawl through broken glass to vote for him if they see him getting smeared on that issue.</p>
<p>I hope Wesley Clark keeps it up, but if I were a betting man I think that there will be more comments like Democrat Bob Beckel’s “Wesley Clark, Shut up”.</p>
<p>In the Clark interview, he had already said how much he honored McCain and how he was a hero to him, when Shieffer said that Obama had never “ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.” Clark simply observed that “riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down” is not a qualification for president. I think that’s a fair statement.</p>
<p>So, meanwhile, McCain won’t release the “missing pages” from his Navy file. Wonder what he’s got to hide. We already know that he left the Navy because it was quite clear that Admiral wasn’t in the making: he wasn’t seen as “leadership” material. Wonder if the missing pages can shed a little more light on that.</p>
<p>As an Obama supporter, long before I knew who Obama was, I always honored what McCain had to endure and the guy obviously has a lot of guts. Having said that, this is a manufactured issue that has legs because some campaign staff are sly and a lot of people are idiots.</p>
<p>What Wesley Clarke said, after honoring McCain’s service, is just say that it’s not a good qualification to be Commander-in-Chief. As someone who worked in the military bureaucracy for many years and who is himself also a Vietnam vet, Clarke certainly has the credentials to say this.</p>
<p>Anybody who parrots the press’ interpretation that this is dishonoring McCain or his service is either a complete idiot or too sly by half. Everyone knows that McCain was brave and honorable during his time as a POW. Heck, McCain made propoganda broadcasts for the Viet Cong, but did you hear Clarke talking about that? No, because anybody with a brain knows he would have done so under duress and he purposely altered his way of speaking to make it obvious he was being forced to do so.</p>
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<p>And the irony that one of the members of McCain’s “Truth Squad” was a member of the Swift Boat organization is really rich.</p>