Cross Me

So just to review, we're all grateful for Senator McCain's service to this country. I have to say that, because if I don't I'm unpatriotic.

But it's true, I'm thankful for our soldiers and all those who serve this country and for those war heroes like the Senator who have done what their country told them to do. Now, disclaimer aside, I'm really flipping tired of it being trotted out in this election.

Really. Tired.

At first, I thought it was totally relevant.

Then, the stories were getting a bit, overused.

Then, I started to wonder how big a campaign ploy this was going to turn into and if his service and sacrifice was going to turn into a total disgrace due to it being paraded around and exploited.

Then I watched the re-run of the Saddleback interviews and something in the back of my head said 'hmmmm, that story sounds totally familiar' and I just chalked it up to 'must have heard McCain tell that one before.'

And then...today, from Daily Kos

I was watching the forum last night and decided that since I hadn't eaten yet, I would try to listen to John McCain speak.  I was doing OK with the "my friends" and the evil chuckle when I heard him talk about his POW story of the cross in the dirt.  That was when I couldn't take it anymore. It just sounded so fake and so contrived, so I did a little research about it.  Someone on here said it sounded like a scene from Ben-Hur, so I did a google search about Ben-Hur and cross in the sand and such.  No dice.  But I searched around a little bit more and here is what I found.  A story about Alexander Solzhenitsyn from his times in the Soviet Gulags.

Click the rest of that diary, it makes for very interesting reading.

Erin Kotecki Vest is uber busy getting ready to go to the DNC in Denver AND the RNC in St. Paul and doesn't post over here nearly as much as she should. Volunteer to intern for her and maybe she can post here more often.

Comments

[progressive gal]

There is a great article by another POW on Military.com entitled, "Why I Will Not Vote for John McCain." Link ---> http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,164859_1,00.html

Among other things, POW Phillip Butler writes, "But my point here is that John allows the media to make him out to be THE hero POW, which he knows is absolutely not true, to further his political goals."

We all respect McCain for his service to the country, but that will not, WILL NOT, translate into my vote. John McCain supports militarism...not so much the military.

[jen]

My Friends, you know that if he doesn't talk about his POW days, in real or imaginative forms, he's got little else to say. So My Friends, we should all be very afraid of what the next 4 years would look like if he was elected, because My Friends, he'd be only talking war and terror. We've had enough make believe let's go start a war stories during the last 7, am not sure we need any more.

[Daisy]

I noticed that most of his "stories" start in a POW camp. I realize that was a defining lifetime experience, but please. Tell us what you'll do, McCain, stop repeating what was done to you!