More Pinocchio McCain

More Pinocchio McCain

by dday

This is the kind of ticky-tack nonsense that defined the 2000 election.

Walter Isaacson asked John McCain about McCain's inexplicable love for ABBA. McCain played the POW card:

“If there is anything I am lacking in, I’ve got to tell you, it is taste in music and art and other great things in life,” McCain joked. “I’ve got to say that a lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane and never caught up again.”

What? McCain was shot down in 1967. ABBA began making music in 1972.

That would be a two-week story on Al Gore, with much chortling to be had by all.

Not to mention the all-timer, a combination of lying and pandering that went down the memory hole so fast you couldn't even see it:

While visiting Pittsburgh, John McCain said that while he was captured, he really loved the Steelers! The 1967 Steelers were 4-9-1. (thanks to Scarce)

"When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information… I named the starting lineup, defensive line, of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron-mates!” — Sen. John McCain

McCain also said the same thing about the 1967 Green Bay Packers. McCain was a POW from late 1967 to early 1973 [...]

In McCain’s best-selling 1999 memoir “Faith of My Fathers,” McCain writes:

“Once my condition had stabilized, my interrogators resumed their work. Demands for military information were accompanied by threats to terminate my medical treatment if I did not cooperate. Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant. Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron. When asked to identify future targets, I simply recited the names of a number of North Vietnamese cities that had already been bombed.”

In 2005, A&E ran a movie version of “Faith of My Fathers.”

And McCain discussed that precise clip on CNN.

The actor playing McCain, asked to name the men in his squadron, says: “Starr; Greg; McGee; Davis; Adderly; Brown; Ringo; Wood.”

Cut back to real life. The CNN anchor asks McCain: “For those who don’t know the story, were those NFL football players?” “That was the starting lineup of the Green Bay Packers, the first Super Bowl champions, yes,” McCain responded.

It would be irresponsible not to speculate that the accumulation of these lies and exaggerations bespeaks a craven personality that cannot be trusted as a world leader.

Cokie, take note.

...by the way, John McCain is extremely reluctant to talk about his POW status. Discuss.

...in the interest of being fair and balanced, I will note that Obama did take his shirt off at the beach. This was the actual subject of a McCain campaign attack yesterday. It's true, shirtless at the beach - he's just not like you and me.