It is time for military surrogates for Obama to expose McCain for being a traitor as POW

[zulchzulu]

Here are the talking points:

• ]ohn McCain crashed five planes, including the one where he was flying too low when he was trying to bomb a factory full of women. He is partly responsible for the 130+ deaths on the USS Forrestal.
  
  
• John McCain denounced his country within 72 hours of his capture and was involved directly with helping the enemy with military information that killed countless Americans and participated in propaganda films that not only denounced America but also gave away military secrets to the enemy. He admitted that he did so in the 1973 US News and World Report interview. He also admitted a partial collapse of his military duty in his acceptance speech.
  
  
• McCain has proven that he is not a friend of military veterans with ratings of D or lower from assessments from US veterans organizations.
  
  
• John McCain is a childish whiner that is not a maverick due to proof that he plays along the ruse that the incompentent Sarah Palin isn't tough enough let alone is a coward that can't handle a
  simple interview with the mainstream media. He is a coward and his carelessly and woefully unexperienced VP selection is even worse.
  
  
• McCain has completely flip-flopped on every major issue, because as he was a traitor and a yellow-tailed "Johnny Songbird" when he ineptly crashed his plane and became a POW, he has given up any credibility that he might have had by bowing down to the Religious Reich, for which he is now a clownish stooge for.
  
  
• McCain is so-called "pro-life" and has hired Sarah Palin, a women who was for the Bridge To Nowhere before she was against it and thinks that America's daughters should have the baby from a criminal who climbs into her home and rapes her underneath the Christmas tree and should be forced to have the baby in time for the Labor Day family picnic.
  

[Beregond2]

1. Every time I've brought up the fact that he turned traitor,

I get shot down here. It is beyond me why that is out-of-bounds.

[TheKentuckian]

2. It's too big a leap all at once

but we can slowly build right to it, or close enough.

[Marsala]

3. Save it for the end

And only use it if it's needed.

[Oldtimeralso]

4. K & R

Use it now, especially the part about his lack of support for out vets benefits and care

[zulchzulu]

5. I would start planning the seeds this week

People need to know that McCain is a traitor. Why wait?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

6. In January, USNews put ONLINE the 1973 McCain confession you mentioned--at LINK

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2008/01/28/john-mccain-prisoner-of-war-a-first-person-account.html

Also, did you know an ad with fellow POW Philip Butler exposing McCain's "POW" claim on the Presidency already is online? See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6931737 .

Other good resources are Jeffrey Klein's article for The Nation at http://www.nationinstitute.org/ifunds/79/mccain_s_secret_questionable_record

a DU thread at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6879910&mesg_id=6879910 ;

and DailyKos diaries searchable at http://www.dailykos.com/tag/POW . particularly http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/28/114523/989/295/577363 .

[zulchzulu]

7. If US News and World Report publishes McCain's denouncing, why can't we?

We need to have it out there. I'm sure there's a few pissed off generals willing to do the right thing...

[ProgressiveEconomist]

8. Wesley Clark already (10 weeks ago) slammed "POW" as qualification for President--on FTN

Video links to General Clark's "Face the Nation criticism" of "POW" as qualification and to
the McCain ad responding to Clark are in
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=27726 and
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=28292 .

[Bubbha Jo]

9. Don't go after his POW time

This veteran would never hold anything that anyone did in captivity against them. I don't expect people in inhumane situations to act as they normaly would.

There's plenty of activity since that timeframe to go after him about.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

13. Author of new book on McCain says there could be Russian blackmail material in McCain's

Russian blackmail material in McCain's POW secrets--IMO, that's a national security reason to demand that McCain expose them before he possibly becomes President and thus vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
From http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7022474

"It made me wonder if McCain is also withholding information about what really occurred during his 5 1/2 years as a POW. (I was also able to obtain four obscure documents-- published in Hanoi and Havana--of interviews he gave during his captivity that contradict McCain's claims in his later and multiple autobiographies.) McCain adamantly refuses to release his POW records. He adamantly refuses to release his Navy Service records.

I've got to wonder what is he afraid of and what is he is trying to hide. Maybe there's nothing there, but I'd like to see for myself. At the moment, we're relying on John McCain as the only source and those records may contain information that may influence how the American electorate votes in the upcoming presidential election. Certainly, Vladimir Putin (the Soviet Union ran the Hanoi Hilton), the CIA, and North Vietnam have these documents. What makes the request for full disclosure so urgent is that if they contain compromising or damaging information on McCain, and if he were to become president, he might well be in a position to be blackmailed. The implications are unsettling, to say the least."

[suston96]

10. John Kerry's service was trashed by Republicans without any qualms about patriotism...........

....why should John McCain get a pass.......?

Politics, like war, is hell.

[IndianaJones]

11. McCain violated code of conduct. he is, arguably, a traitor. nt.

[Overseas]

12. I'd like an earnest ad from veterans groups. A few guys, like Paul Rykoff,

state their military service info, then discuss McSame's voting record on veterans' issues. Discuss how it feels to hear him promote himself as a POW and military expert. Then share their doubts about a McSame presidency.

One of the ads could just end there. Theme being how weird it is to have JSM III promoting himself as a military guy and voting against veterans' issues. Strange and dishonest hanging in the air as the ad concludes.

Or it could go on to mention Obama's record on veterans' issues. Then mention the distinguished military officials and veterans' groups who support his candidacy.

[nichomachus]

14. It's too late -- the myth has already been created

The people for whom it's important already have a core belief about McCain's "honor." You have a two-fold task -- and the first step is getting them to unbelieve what they now believe. That is almost impossible.

Everything you say may be true, but it's not going to fly (sort of like any plane that McCain was piloting).

[creeksneakers2]

15. This is bullshit

Leave it alone.

[PresidentObama]

16. We should attack him for his record on veteran issues, as a former veteran, but this is too low.

We shouldn't go that low to take him out.

His time as a POW should be left alone, we have TONS more to go after him with.