’08 McCain uses Vietnam experience, ’00 McCain didn’t

December 21, 2007

By any reasonable measure, John McCain’s experience in the military during the war in Vietnam were heroic and demands respect. If he wants to use this part of his biography in the presidential campaign, it makes perfect sense — like John Kerry, that’s what war heroes do.

But it’s interesting that when McCain ran in 2000, he made an intentional decision not to highlight his five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

In his own primary campaign in 2000, McCain said, he didn’t have to [focus on his Vietnam service] because everyone knew he’d been there. For Kerry, “it’s clearly a tactical or strategic move” to shield him against “charges of being too liberal and soft on defense.”

And in 2004, McCain said the decades-old conflict should be left in the past.

“I’m sick and tired of re-fighting the Vietnam War. And most importantly, I’m sick and tired of opening the wounds of the Vietnam War, which I’ve spent the last 30 years trying to heal,” the Arizona Republican said at a lunch with USA TODAY and Gannett News Service. “It’s offensive to me, and it’s angering to me that we’re doing this. It’s time to move on.”

And now, with his campaign hoping to complete a comeback after a near-fatal summer, McCain has apparently decided to focus on little else.

It started in September, with one of the first McCain TV ads of the fall, featuring a young McCain being interviewed in a Hanoi prison.

Interviewer: How old are you?

John McCain: Thirty one.

Interviewer: What is your rank in the army?

McCain: Lt. Commander in the Navy. … hit by either missile or anti-aircraft fire, I’m not sure which. And the plane continued straight down and I ejected and broke my leg and both arms.

Interviewer: And your official number?

McCain: 624787

The viewer hears the announcer say, “One man sacrificed for his country.”

It led to another ad based on McCain’s favorite scripted debate sound-bite.

“A few days ago, Senator Clinton tried to spend one million dollars on the Woodstock concert museum. Now my friends, I wasn’t there. I’m sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was, I was tied up at the time.”

And this week, McCain completely gave up on subtlety.

“One night, after being mistreated as a POW, a guard loosened the ropes binding me, easing my pain.

“On Christmas, that same guard approached me, and without saying a word, he drew a cross in the sand. We stood wordlessly looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas.”

Viewers are shown a prominent Christian cross in the middle of the screen.

And in case folks don’t see the ad, the campaign is hitting mailboxes with the same cross/Vietnam message.

First, just to reiterate, there’s nothing wrong with a war hero reminding voters of his or her service, but as recently as 2004, McCain was publicly questioning John Kerry for highlighting his Vietnam service, saying it was “clearly a tactical or strategic move.” One wonders whether McCain might be subject to similar criticism.

Second, in 2000, McCain said he intentionally didn’t want to focus on his military service. I wonder how he’d explain the shift, seven years later.

And third, just think, if McCain were a Dem, there’d be a group of professional liars out there, planning to question whether McCain’s military service is legitimate.

McCain made a huge mistake by not focusing on his military service in his 2000 presidential campaign. Wasn’t his status as a former POW his ticket into political office in the first place? He was elected to Congress with absolutely no political experience and little on his resume besides his Navy service.

If McCain had emphasized the “former POW” thing more in 2000, he might have survived the Bush swiftboating and won the Republican nomination. If he had managed to “win” against Al Gore, he certainly would have been a better president than George W. Bush. He couldn’t have been any worse.

Republicans are even more militaristic now than they were in 2000. I think this is a smart change in strategy, but probably too late.

  • I remember a quote by a Vietnam vet that to be shot down in something other than an Army aircraft required the crew to do something stupid. Helicopters and scout plans tended to be easy targets.

    So I poked around a little on the net and came up with a ballpark % of

  • I can’t help but feel sorry for Big Mac. He wants to be president so desperately, he’s changed his campaign strategy more times than a chamelion changes colors when being hunted.

    That should be a major red flag to anyone who wishes to see the next president be a person of character and integrity, willing to stand up for the average Joe, and not monied special interests.

  • whatever happened to the maverick mccain, the politician with backbone not opposed to bucking the trend, the voice of reason, the man whose war experience resulted in restraint? now he panders and postures, even on issues he believes in, like opposing torture. but unlike other military heros like Ike, john has somehow forgotten the misery war leads to, and appears to fully comitted to the ideological jihad.

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  • I totally agree with Okie. It was a huge mistake for McCain not to push his Vietnam experience in 2000. It seems that this campaign is predicated on not making the same mistakes he did in 2000. Unfortunately, his new mistakes are doozies.

  • I think McConman will have a hard time getting Das Base fired up for him, given his statements about the intolerance of the fundamentalists (in 2000) and his image as someone who makes deals with Democrats. He also has the “loser” aroma about him from previous races, that plus the fact that his face isn’t terribly telegenic, all these things add up to the people who can’t think their way out of a paper bag.

    I’d say McCain’s recent military experiences should be more of an issue, you know, where he went on his little shopping excursion in Iraq with 50 plus marines and then came back to tell us about how safe it was.

  • I used to like McCain. He was honest and not afraid to speak his mind even when it went against his own party. But that was before he hopped into bed with the far right in a demonstration of pandering I, frankly, find almost unbelievable…at least for him.

    The real reason his campaign took a nosedive over the summer was because, contrary to what most polititians apparently believe, people are not THAT stupid.

    I personally do not want to see ANYONE in the Whitehouse who wants it THAT badly. Unfortuately, it is starting to look like Hillary wants it THAT badly too. I definitely like Barack Obama…even Ron Paul.

  • I reject completely your overstated, hyperbolic, strawman premise that McCain has decided to “focus on little else”. Be that as it may…

    [i]First…one wonders whether McCain might be subject to similar criticism.[/i]

    First, McCain’s characterization of Kerry highlighting his own service as “clearly a tactical or strategic move” hardly rises to the level of a “public questioning” of John Kerry. It is a simple acknowledgement of political reality. Why don’t you provide some context for your innuendo?

    [i]Second, in 2000, McCain said he intentionally didn’t want to focus on his military service. I wonder how he’d explain the shift, seven years later.[/i]

    Are you that politically naieve? It’s an asset he SHOULD use and, unlike Kerry, it’s most likely unassailable…but that brings us to point #3…

    [i]And third, just think, if McCain were a Dem, there’d be a group of professional liars out there, planning to question whether McCain’s military service is legitimate.[/i]

    Frankly, your “wishful thinking” isn’t even subtle…not that you wouldn’t relish the appearance of a “POWs for Truth” vs. John McCain. However, at that point, your “dream scenario” falls apart. Unlike Kerry’s embellished, overblown, overhyped “War Record” (See John Sasso’s recent Globe op-ed as to Kerry’s “vulnerability” in that regard), McCain’s appears to be rock solid…unless, of course, you’re privy to something you don’t have the guts to peddle here?

  • A few things have changed between ’00 and ’08. And I’m not talking about 9/11 so much as the political issues at present. In 2000 America was at peace, in 2008 we are at war. McCain’s experience does directly relate to his support for the Surge and for the contunuation of the Iraq war, and his opposition to the use of any form of torture in interrogation.

  • The bit of the McCain ad that I’ve seen is quite good. I was intrigued by Obama, and then the Wright clips came along.

    If Obama does not have the courage to stand up to a foul-mouthed bully in a pulpit for 20 years and he cynically stood silent while Wright told his congregants that the US introduced HIV and crack into communities of color for purposes of genocide, he doesn’t have the courage to be president. And the lie that the US dropped the atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki “without batting an eye” is a historical lie. No differences of opinion–lies.

    British statesmen Edmund Burke supposedly wrote, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Lies are evil. Obama is apparently a good man. He should have stood up in his church and did the right thing. He has zero record, so this demonstration of cowardice in the face of a bully is telling. He kept silent because it was in his political interest to clam up. A real man steps in and does the right thing.

    With such resolve, if Obama were Truman, he’d never desegregated the military and he wouldn’t have recognized Israel; if Obama were Johnson, Nixon or a later president would have been ushering the Voting Rights Act through Congress; and if Obama were McCain, he’d have been on the first flight out of Hanoi, leaving his fellow countrymen behind, when offered a chance for early release.

    Obama is a spine of jelly. Get him to grow a backbone and come back for a run in 4 to 12 years.

  • With obama on the other end of the race, I can look past McCains faults. Not that I want to, I just cant see a racist,traitorous, socialist closet muslim running our country. God help the US if the liberal cream dream obama is elected.

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