Jimmy Carter: McCain Milking His POW Status
August 28th, 2008, 5:52 PM EDT
President Carter says John McCain was “a distinguished naval officer, but says he’s been “milking every possible drop of advantage” from his time as a prisoner of war. Carter talked to USA Today about McCain’s talk with Rick Warren earlier in the month:
”John McCain was able to weave in his experience in a Vietnam prison camp, no matter what the question was,” said Carter, a 7-year Naval officer who served aboard submarines. “It’s much better than talking about how he’s changed his total character between being a senator, a kind of a maverick at the time, and his acquiescence in the last few months with every kind of lobbyist pressure that the right wing Republicans have presented to him.”
Here’s the video.
Even Laura Ingraham said on her show this week that McCain needs to be careful not to become like Guillianim who constantly referenced 9/11 in every speech and interview.
We all know McCain’s a POW, and he is respected and admired for that. But he shouldn’t misuse that status. It’ll backfire.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I hate when people embed videos and they play automatically.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I’ve always dedended him against the Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain, and Ted Sampley and the swiftboating he endured in 2000, but when he exploits and uses it to answer for the houses and infidelity and EVERYTHING, he is demeaning the dignity of his service.
So sad.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
You are the pilot of an A4 Skyhawk jet fighter. It’s pitch black outside but your gauges say that you are 1000 feet high going 200 mph and decending. Ahead on the black sea are the lights of your carrier. It’s deck looks like a small postage stamp, bobbing in the 40mph cross wind. The rain obscures your vision as you realize that you have to land on that small deck at 150 mph and stop in 3 seconds; or die a quick death after crashing into the sea. John McCain chose to do this many times in defense of this nation. Any man or woman with this courage deserves our vote and our thanks.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Truth…me too. I’ve changed it.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
So, Jimmy Carter thinks McCain is milking his POW experience. What else would you expect from the “peanut Gallery?”
August 28th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
“What else would you expect from the “peanut Gallery?”
…………………………………..
A lot more integrity than you will get from the GOP.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
lol, Mary
August 28th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
A noun, a verb and “a POW”.
Someone more familiar with carrier air operations might explain it better, but I’m pretty sure trying to make a carrier landing with a 40mph crosswind would be quite unusual. The ship’s course would normally be set to keep the relative wind direction right down the centerline of the angled deck.
I remember Jim Stockdale running as Ross Perot’s VP. Stockdale was even more of a “hero” than McCain but his life wound down kind of sadly. The first signs of his decline seemed to appear during the Perot/Stockdale run at the White House. Poor timing.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
A hot-head obsessed with his experience as a POW is not someone I want in command of the world’s most formidable nuclear arsenal.
August 28th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Oh. In your Chevy, speed is measured in “mph”.
In the air or at sea, speed is measured in “knots”.
1992: “Who am I?! Where am I?! Why am I here?!”
August 28th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Alan – important
Please put up a strand to discuss the latest McCain ad in which the unbelievably nasty McCain camp have manipulated an image (accidentally of course) to show Obama standing under the middle four letters of ‘change’ held by a crowd. It reads HANG OBAMA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_JYm72ZhBQ
August 28th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Just another bubblehead expressing aviator envy. Quite common in Naval circles, really.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
At least, that’s what the aviators will tell you.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
The Comments from Carter are at the very least laughable, this from a person that was responsible for 53 Americans being held hostage in Iran for 444 days, He was responsible eight Americans being killed in the failed rescue mission to free the 53 hostages, he needs to milk his accomplishments during his 1 term to even deserve to be called a former President, we should have elected Billy Carter at least he knew enough to be quiet and be thought a fool rather then open his mouth and remove all doubt. Congrats Jimmy you helped me make up my mind; I am a Hillary voter that will be casting my vote for John McCain in November.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
At least McCain has an honorable past to milk. Obama is still being breast fed.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:17 am
McCain became a naval pilot by having the old man pull strings after he came, what was it, 894th out of 899 in his class… he crashed 5 planes and possibly caused the inferno on the Forrestal… he freely spilt his guts with everything he knew about his mission and the military information he had… he told them all about his famous father and the command set-up… he admitted to everything Hanoi wanted and made propaganda broadcasts for them… he turned down early release because he would have been court-martialled if he took it.
He spent years trying to shut down any enquiries into the MIA in Vietnam and the release of any information at all from Hanoi after the war. He even arranged to have 580 of the 600-odd pages in his military record permanently suppressed.
Some hero.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:56 am
Why don’t we just get down to brass tacks: Democrats think government can better decide where I spend my dollar than I can. And they don’t trust the compassion of the American people. Why?
August 29th, 2008 at 2:15 am
He learned the “I was in Vietnam” trick from John Kerry. Too bad he didn’t notice how it worked out for Kerry.
August 29th, 2008 at 2:38 am
“Democrats think government can better decide where I spend my dollar than I can.”
Well, if you’re one of the one-tenth of one percent of people who make so much money that you might actually have to pay more taxes under Barack’s plan, there’s really only one thing I can say:
You win some, you lose some.
Your pal Georgie got us so deep in debt we’ll be paying the bill for the next five hundred years, and, personally, I think it’s only fair that all the people who profited from Georgie’s extravagances with MY money should have to pony up a little extra.
August 29th, 2008 at 2:45 am
I trust the compassion of the American people. I just don’t trust the compassion of Neocon Republicans as I’ve experienced it from my nearest and dearest.
Republican sons cheating their mothers out of their living and then acting as if nothing happened. Republican parents firing their offspring, leaving their son’s families destitute. Republican in-laws who attend church 3 times a week, and disparage fags, “niggers,” jews and “spics” at the dinner table.
God save us from compassionate conservatism.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Jimmy Carter was 18 in 1942. He did not enlist, instead he wrangled his way into the Naval Academy until he graduated in 1946. In 1953, in the middle of the Korean conflict he resigned from the Navy. I do not see how he is qualified to judge John Mccain who placed himself in harms way in service of his country and paid a dear price for it.
August 29th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
He learned the “I was in Vietnam” trick from John Kerry. Too bad he didn’t notice how it worked out for Kerry.
The difference is that those that were POWs with mcsame aren’t speaking out against him like those that served with kerry.
And something to remember about the swiftboaters, john o’neil was saying the same stuff back in 1971. Both kerry and o’neil appeared on the dick cavett show.
Democrats hate admitting that john o’neil was against kerry for decades before john ever ran for president. It doesn’t fit their narrative of kerry being attacked.
August 29th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I trust the compassion of the American people. I just don’t trust the compassion of Neocon Republicans as I’ve experienced it from my nearest and dearest.
Any specifics?
August 29th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain, and Ted Samply have always been speaking out against McCain,they just never got the coverage because as Sumner Redstone said,
“from a Viacom standpoint, the election of a Republican administration is a better deal. Because the Republican administration has stood for many things we believe in, deregulation and so on. The Democrats are not bad people…. But from a Viacom standpoint, we believe the election of a Republican administration is better for our company.”
I think they, and the swiftboats are all the same, and they are ALL vile and sordid.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
What about the tens of thousands of young soldiers who came home in body bags? Yes, Mc Same’s experience was horrendous, but would he trade it for a bodybag? Those dead soldiers in the Vietnam era and also the 4000 who have died in the joke called the Iraq war on terror never got the opportunity to live “the American dream.” So shut up-he’s luck to be alive. I for one would like to see him stop exploiting an issue that does not qualify him to be president.
August 29th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
“What about the tens of thousands of young soldiers who came home in body bags?”
Thank you bethetruth. This is what I am most concerned about, but it seems the conservatives are only interested in talking about anti-abortion. They have no regard for our dead young soldiers. It’s as if they never existed.
August 29th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
BETHETRUTH,
My son in law has been in the middle east for three years by choice, including all the soldiers with him. They know the risks, and the possibility of never returning home. They put it all on the line for a skum bag like you, and you call it a joke?
August 30th, 2008 at 1:38 am
I am so sick of everyone before they put McCain down have to praise his service in the military. It is getting old. Everyone knows what he went through. The tears have been shead. Move on.
August 30th, 2008 at 8:55 am
The problem with feel good sentiments like ‘They are fighting for YOUR freedom”, is it ALWAYS assumes the righteousness of the mission, AND by proxy, the righteousness of the government who sends them on the mission.
It does not allow for the opinions of those like Gen. Smedley Butler who after a long military career, came to the conclusion that war is racket, designed to use young men to make old rich.
From The Charge of the Light Brigade :
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d:
Their’s not to make reply,
Their’s not to reason why,
Their’s but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
It is precisely Because THEIR’S is NOT to reason why…..that ours IS to reason why, and anyone who calls that unpatriotic, is either lying, doesn’t understand patriotism, OR is the MOST irresponsible and unpatriotic of scoundrels.
August 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pm