Senator has been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste in music. The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads. But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in is explaining loud and clear that being a does not qualify McCain to lead our country.  

Dr. Phillip Butler knew McCain as a fellow POW.
Watch and listen!

We are sure this video will draw an onslaught of right-wing attacks, even though its the truth and are issues that should be given national attention. As Dr. Butler has said, McCain does not have the temperament to have his finger near the red button.  

The mainstream press has already begun to call out McCain for overusing his POW story. And it’s cut across all political persuasions.  

·        "Whether he’s deflecting criticism over his health-care plan or mocking a tribute to the Woodstock music festival, Senator John McCain has a trump card: the Hanoi Hilton. - Edwin Chen, Bloomberg  

·        "Noun, Verb, POW" - Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Monthly  

·        "The McCain campaign’s constant invocation of the candidate’s POW past is weird bordering on irrational…" - Ana Marie Cox, TIME  

·        "I think they are going to it way too many times." - Howard Fineman, Newsweek  

Remember how Joe Biden got the press to refer to Rudy Giuliani as "A noun, a verb, and 9/11"? Well, let’s actually take Andrew Sullivan’s lead here and get the media to boil McCain down to a similar phrase: "A noun, a verb, and POW." Considering how often the McCain campaign invokes his POW story, isn’t that what they’re already doing?  

AROUND the BLOGOSPHERE:  

Wes Clark and McCain’s POW status comments - One of the criticisms directed at Clark was that McCain didn’t use his POW to sell his presidency possibility. Well, McCain himself seems to have spent a considerable amount of time pimping his POW experiences at the convention during …

Please Stop Shoving McCain’s POW Status Down Our Throats - I hope for the rest of the campaign McCain’s POW status wont be used as a tool to gain votes, but just as biographical information. What the RNC did during this past week was disgusting, but you know as well as I do nobody had the guts …

Fred Thompson’s Big Lie to RNC on McCain POW Story - McCain is playing on his torture history as POW in his run for the presidency. On Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, also-ran former Senator Fred Thompson gave a speech lauding McCain, and describing the …