Originally Posted by Bruzilla  1. Sorry, I usually don't bother reading your posts as you don't write much that's worth my taking time to read, so I never saw the link. Post it again and I'll check it out.
2. You're confusing statements. What I said was that my opinion is what a guy does in a POW camp should be off limits unless he starts using his POW status as a reason to vote for him. In the past, especially during the 2000 election, McCain was very quick to downplay and dispell any mention of his time as a POW. This time around he isn't. He has referenced his time as a POW on several occasions, so I think it's now fair to take a closer look at exactly what his statement "I violated the Code of Conduct while a POW" actually means.
As to his being uneasy, actually uncomfortable, talking about his time as a POW, go back and watch video from the 2000 campaign. He would be looking right at an interviewer or the camera when he was being asked about everything else, but when questions about his POW time came up, he starts looking down, he fidgets, he shifts his upper body... all signs that someone is uncomfortable discussing something. Could this be a natural reaction to being POW? It could be, but I've talked to a lot of POWs at work, the VFW, guest speakers, while on active duty, etc., and I've never seen a guy act this way except for McCain. Also, these guys will usually talk your ear off about what happened (I talked to a doctor who had been on the Bataan Death March for close to six hours last Veteran's Day). They seem to feel a need to pass their experience on to others so everyone knows what they went through and what the enemy did. McCain has never done that in any interview I have seen. He just gets fidgity and starts talking about how this is a personal issue and one that he won't talk about, how he's forgiven his captors, etc. That's unlike any POW I have ever talked to, but then again... these guys never violated the Code that I know of. McCain did, and what he did is what (I think) makes him uncomfortable. By the way, that doctor I was talking to was an invited guest at the company I worked for, and was a very distinguished cardiac surgeon and very respected in the medical community. He got up to start addressing about 500 professional employees, and was very soft spoken and cultured in his language. But when he mentioned the Japanese, he would say "Nips", "Fuc4ing Nips", "Jap Bastards", etc. I asked him when we were talking afterwards if he realized he had used those kinds of terms in front of employees of such a diversity-focused company (the guy is in his 90s), and he said he was very aware of it and he was just calling the SOBs what they were. That's the typical reaction to talking about guys who tortured you for years, not the "live and let live" attitude McCain has.
3. I don't think McCain is evil at all. McCain is just a guy like many others I met in the service and in business, with severe personality flaws. From what I've read he inherited them from his father. I don't like these folks, but I don't see them as evil. They are self-serving, they are willing to sacrifice anyone and anything needed to get what they want, they have no loyalty, and they are quick to anger when they don't get what they want. I hold nothing against any of them as I have learned that these folks usually get what's coming to them in the end. Where I do have a problem with these people is when they actively pretend to be team players, to look out for their people, i.e., be someone they are not.
You want to look at the guy and see a fine, upstanding and credible guy, go ahead. You'll just see what you want to see. I voted for McCain in the MD primary in 2000 because I saw what I wanted to see, but since then I've taken off the rose-colored glasses and really looked at what he has done his whole life, and I find him to be contemptable... but in no way evil.
I'm also a human performance analyst by trade, and I know that people always do something for a reason. When I look at the stuff McCain, Obama, or anyone else does, I'm always interested in why they are doing it. As I have said already, I doubt Obama has any interest in bringing POW remains home. I think he wants POWs to be an issue. And if that's the case... why? There were a lot of people raising issues about McCain's POW time in 2000, but McCain just kept refusing to discuss the matter and the MSM, who desperately wanted McCain to defeat Bush, never did any investigating. So now we have Obama mentioning POWs out of the blue, why? Could it be because his campaign knows there's dirt to be found there? Maybe, maybe not, but what's for sure is he had a reason for mentioning POWs. |