McCain and Democrats Clash
Senator John McCain will launch a biography tour next week, in which he will spend a lot of time to his time as a prisoner of war. The intention of the tour is to ” introduce McCain to the general electorate.” A major part of the message: McCain served his country in good, and in bad times. He didn’t just talk about serving his country, he suffered while serving his country, and he didn’t stop serving it, no matter how much he suffered.
Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean issued a statement, saying, “John McCain can try to reintroduce himself to the country, but he can’t change the fact that he cast aside his principles to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Bush the last seven years. While we honor McCain’s military service, the fact is Americans want a real leader who offers real solutions, not a blatant opportunist who doesn’t understand the economy and is promising to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years.”
I can’t quite understand why politicians repeat that last line, if though they know it’s false, the media know it’s false, and citizens and others who actually pay attention know it’s false. ‘Have you no shame?’ Dean doesn’t.
Meanwhile, the GOP ’seized upon the term “blatant opportunist” to suggest that Dean is implying McCain is an opportunist for including his POW information in his TV ad.’
There is, of course, a lot of truth to the charge that having served in the military doesn’t automatically make on a good president. Having been a POW doesn’t do so either. A country doesn’t owe former POW’s anything; well, a good income perhaps, psychological help if needed and so on, but most certainly not the highest office.
A problem for Dean though:
“The real issue is this,” Dean said in March 2004, when endorsing formal rival Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., “Who would you rather have in charge of the defense of the United States of America, a group of people who never served a day overseas in their life, or a guy who served his country honorably and has three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star on the battlefields of Vietnam?”
I don’t see why it would be considered opportunistic to use McCain’s service record as part of his qualification for president. It’s not about a claim that he deserves the presidency or is owed it, but instead it’s just a claim that his service says something about his character and the choices he’s made.
Funny, too, that Howard Dean apparently has only recently come to think that it would be opportunistic to use a veteran’s record of service as a campaign selling point.
I wonder why Dean would now apparently answer his own question in the opposite way from how he framed it in 2004:
“Who would you rather have in charge of the defense of the United States of America,” Dean asked the young crowd, “a group of people who never served a day overseas in their life or a guy who served his country honorably and has three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star from the battlefields of Vietnam?”
Didn’t you know that service records are only relevant when you’re a Democrat?
And I’m still waiting for John Kerry to release his complete service records, as he promised to do lo so many moons ago..