Here's Where Time Magazine Screwed Up

Much buzz going on, out on the World Wide Web, over an interview conducted by Time Magazine's James Carney and Michael Scherer, of Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain.

On board the Dead Campaign Express, they describe the Fly Boy from Arizona as "prickly"

It was on the 13th question (or exchange) that their fatal error occurred;

Jumping around a bit: in your books, you've talked about what it was like to go through the Keating Five experience, and you've been quoted as saying it was one of the worst experiences of your life. Someone else quoted you as saying it was even worse than being a POW ...

That's another one of those statements made 17 or 18 years ago which was out of the context of the conversation I was having. Of course the worst, the toughest experience of my life was being imprisoned, so people can pluck phrases from 17 or 18 years ago ...

I wasn't suggesting it as a negative thing. I was just saying that ...

I'm just suggesting it was taken out of context. I understand how comments are taken out of context from time to time. But obviously, the toughest time of my life, physically and [in] every other way, would be the time that I almost died in prison camp. And I think most Americans understand that.

Do you see it? ... Can you spot it?

They asked, directly, a question of him about his POW-POW-POW status.

You would have thought that two veteran reporters would have caught on by now.

If you ask him directly, he has nowhere to go with it.

He needs something else, anything else, in which to trigger the POW-POW-POW stuff ...

It's been clear, for some time, that anything can be the Manchurian Candidate Queen-of-Diamonds for Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny, and his POW-POW-POW stories, but never, never a direct question about it.

Ask'em if he heard the questions, or cheated, at the Saddleback Show... BANG, you get the the POW-POW-POW.

Make a joke about him forgetting how many houses he has ... BANG, you get the POW-POW-POW.

Ask him directly (and offered a million dollars) how many houses he owns ... BANG, you get the POW-POW-POW.

Besides, The Garlic already exposed what's going on with the POW-POW-POW thing, in our Mas Que Nada ... McCain Goes Pow Pow Pow - Again! Or: Donate To John McCain, and Be Included In The Telling of His Next POW-POW-POW Story;

Not only that, but he's added a "fish story" element to it, an umbrella of sorts, extending the magic POW-POW-POW powers to his father-in-law.

I think he's on to something here, that, maybe, he shouldn't have let out of the bag like that ...

Fundraisng!

We know he's been living, high-off-the-hog, on Cindy, her Daddy's scratch, but why settle for that?.

The Rove Rats, and Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain Campaign's next step can be to offer, for a certain-level donation, that "Senator McCain will include you in his next telling of his POW-POW-POW experience.

Christ, they let loose with that, and it will make Obama's prodigious fundraising look like lunch money.

NeoNitWits and jingoistic jackasses will come out of the woodwork, cash-in-hand, lapping it up like happy soup.

A little more than two-months left of campaigning, a POW-POW-POW story, a day (hey, you don't want to dilute it, after all) ... Charging a premium if he does it in an interview, national media, versus local ... Cable news versus network news ... Newspaper or magazine ...

This Time Magazine interview shows how well the Rove Rats have programmed him.

Who knew, they had a "Cone of Silence" on the Dead Campaign Express?

Media, be warned, he might give a little taste, now-and-then, but he's not going to give the POW-POW-POW cow away for free any longer.

Jeepers ... Time Magazine ... And they couldn't figure that out ....Or come up with some big bucks (or a box of donuts) to pay for it?


Bonus Stumblin' Bumblin Here's Johnny Riffs

The Ultimate McCain POW Song

Brilliant at Breakfast: John McCain = 4 more years of secretive, unaccountable government

Wonkette: Nasty McCain Now Just Yelling At People To Buy His Books

Steve Benen: THE PRICKLY TALK EXPRESS...

No More Mister Nice Blog: THE DON'T GET SUCKED IN -- HE'S FAKING IT

Greg Sargent: Prickly McCain Refuses To Define "Honor" In Interview

Think Progress - McCain: Iraq is ‘A Peaceful And Stable Country Now’

Mas Que Nada ... McCain Goes Pow Pow Pow - Again!

Or: Donate To John McCain, and Be Included In The Telling of His Next POW-POW-POW Story

We told you so ...

In our post Sunday, "The Ultimate McCain POW Song", we said it would come again ("don't worry, it will be soon, very soon").

And, we didn't have to worry, or to wait much more than, roughly, 24-hours.

Hit with 'houses' on Leno, McCain cites POW experience and more

LENO: Welcome back, Sen. McCain, for one million dollars, how many houses do you have? (Jay laughs, McCain squirms and chuckles)

MCCAIN: You know, could I just mention to you, Jay, and a moment of seriousness. I spent five and a half years in a prison cell, without—I didn’t have a house, I didn’t have a kitchen table, I didn’t have a table, I didn’t have a chair. And I spent those five and a half years, because—not because I wanted to get a house when I got out. And you know, I’m very proud of Cindy’s father, he was a guy that barely got out of high school, fought in World War II in the Army Air Corps, came home and made a business and made the American dream and so somehow. You’ve had Cindy on this show ...

We spend our time in a condominium in Washington, a condominium in Phoenix, some time over here in the state of California, and then we have a place up in northern Arizona,’’ he said. And my friends, I’m proud of my record of service to this country, and it has nothing to do with houses. What it has to do with putting Americans in houses and keeping them in their homes.’

Jesus ...

In a softball setting like 'The Tonight Show', rather than banter, or shoot back a zinger to Leno, he stumbles and bumbles into robot-mode with the POW-POW-POW bullshit.

Not only that, but he's added a "fish story" element to it, an umbrella of sorts, extending the magic POW-POW-POW powers to his father-in-law.

I think he's on to something here, that, maybe, he shouldn't have let out of the bag like that ...

Fundraising!

We know he's been living, high-off-the-hog, on Cindy, her Daddy's scratch, but why settle for that?.

The Rove Rats, and Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain Campaign's next step can be to offer, for a certain-level donation, that "Senator McCain will include you in his next telling of his POW-POW-POW experience.

Christ, they let loose with that, and it will make Obama's prodigious fundraising look like lunch money.

NeoNitWits and jingoistic jackasses will come out of the woodwork, cash-in-hand, lapping it up like happy soup.

A little more than two-months left of campaigning, a POW-POW-POW story, a day (hey, you don't want to dilute it, after all) ... Charging a premium if he does it in an interview, national media, versus local ... Cable news versus network news ... Newspaper or magazine ...

Once again, as much of his life, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain falls up the ladder.

He can go home, burst through all seven front doors and shout out "Cindy ... Honey ... You don't have to steal recipes anymore ... We hit the jackpot!"

Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 - Mas Que Nada

The Ultimate McCain POW Song

I was looking to take it easy today.

A rough day, or two, on the homefront, and even worse, in the Allergy Department (I am beginning to resemble the Our Gang dog, Petey, with a black circle blossoming around my left eye, from rubbing and scratching it).

But these guys just don't get it.

I mean, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, and his gang of Rove Rats, just don't get it.

I believe we are entering the territory of, if it's a cloudy day on the campaign trail, for the Dead Campaign Express, they'll make some reference to McCain's POW status, like "He'd be grateful for a cloudy day ... He didn't get to see many clouds for nearly five-years, while he was in his prison hole ...".

On Saturday, newly-minted Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden lobbed a great zinger in his speech Saturday, squarely at Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny;

Ladies and gentlemen, your kitchen table is like mine. You sit there at night before you put the kids -- after you put the kids to bed and you talk, you talk about what you need. You talk about how much you are worried about being able to pay the bills. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It's a pretty hard experience. He'll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.

And, as on cue, less then 24-hours later, we have Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny, brushing off his dementia of not knowing how many houses he has with this;

From Greg Sargent, at TPM;

McCain slipped a reference to his war captivity into an interview McCain did with CBS that's airing today. He appeared to be referring to Joe Biden's crack yesterday that McCain has trouble considering people's kitchen table issues because he has to decide which of his own seven kitchen tables to use...

"I am grateful for the fact that I have a wonderful life," McCain said. "I spent some years without a kitchen table, without a chair, and I know what it's like to be blessed by the opportunities of this great nation...So the fact is that we have homes, and I'm grateful for it."

To which Sargent also noted;

But the "McCain-as-POW" currency the McCain camp is printing at such a furious rate -- and throwing wads of at every controversy that comes along -- is now losing value faster than the German Mark after World War I.

POW-POW-POW hyperinflation alert!

POW-POW-POW ...

It didn't take me long to A) slap myself upside the head and, B) start searching for the Ultimate McCain Pow Song, found very quickly.

Mas Que Nada!

It's a classic, covered by a bevy of folks (younger readers will likely believe it came from the Black Eyed Peas), and while I knew who did the original hit (posted below), I was hoping to find the Dizzy Gillespie version of it - he really puts some good chops into it.

One of the things that makes this the Ultimate McCain Pow Song is its meaning;

From Wikipedia;

In Brazilian Portuguese slang "mas, que nada" means something like "yeah, right", "don't be silly", or "no way, man". Literally the words mean "but, that [is] nothing".

Fits rather nicely into picture here.

So, hum and, sing along if you can

Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 - Mas Que Nada




And the next time (don't worry, it will be soon, very soon), Stumblin' Bumblin John McCain throws out the POW sob story, to excuse one of his miscues, flubs and gaffes (an ever-growing list), just start humming or singing 'Mas Que Nada'.

Much more pleasant to have this tune in your head, then the voice of "Whispering John" (H/T Barry Crimmins), bleating out another POW-laced excuse.


Bonus POW-POW-POW Links

kubla000: MoDowd Nails McCain's POW-POW-POW Defense w/ New Example ~ Updated: POW Ad Coming!

Maureen Dowd: Too Much of a Bad Thing

The Jed Report: A noun, a verb, and...

Ana Marie Cox: In His House There are Many Mansions

Sam Stein - Fineman: McCain Is Trivializing His POW Past

Steve Benen: A NOUN, A VERB, AND P.O.W...

Kagro X: McCain Eats the Seed Corn

No Sooner Had I Finished ...

"The insinuation, that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, doesn't know how many houses he has, is outrageous!"

McCain Waves The POW Flag

No Sooner Had I Finished ...

And, sure as you-know-what, satire gets usurped by reality.

THE POW CARD

After posting earlier today, we went out to the World Wide Web (Memeorandum), and, lo-and-behold, there was a McCain-sized-definition-of-rich number of posts, crying out the use of the POW Card, to explain away (or at least a finger in the dike), the complete ridicule Fly Boy was receiving, over his cluelessness on how many houses he owned.

When the post was written, I could think of a number of push backs the Stumblin Bumblin McCain Campaign may go with, but pulling out the now-getting-dog-eared POW Card was not one of them, and that is showing far more problems with the campaign (and candidate) then the MSM will ever admit.

As we alluded to in our previous post, this is getting embarrassing.

The gaffes, misspeaks, and just plain ignorance are bubbling up, more-and-more.

This is now the second time in less than a week, the Stumblin Bumblin' John McCain Campaign is hiding their bathrobe-clad, Slim Jim-juice-drooling candidate behind his POW experience.

And, in a bizzaro-world way, McCain's "how many houses do I own" gaffe, was somewhat of a silver lining.

Had he not blurted that gem out, the Stumblin' Bumblin McCain Campaign would have had a different conflagration to deal with, their candidates endorsement of establishing a draft again.

Small favors, huh?

Maybe questions need to be asked, if he is still, some 40+years later, crippled by that awful experience, perhaps, then, he needs to be in a Vet hospital, and not on the campaign trail.

Or, is the campaign using the POW Card as code, for his age?

They can't, very well, come out, throw up their hands and shrug "It's just another "senior moment" guys ..."

And all this is happening in the Dog Days of August ... Deadsville on the campaign trial, with vacations, and such, and, especially this year, with the Olympics going on.

You, practically, have to light yourself on fire to get any possible coverage, typically.

Christ, what's going to happen next month, after the VP choices, after the conventions?

We'll need one of the stat counters, like they use in boxing, to keep count of the jabs/punches-thrown in a given round, to have any hope of getting a count on Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny's stumbles and bumbles.

When they go to the debates, they'll have to add an extra scoreboard, with a running count of McCain's flubs and miscues.

Vegas will have to start issuing Over/Unders on this.

In fact, just to hedge my bets, I'm putting a marker down, here

It won't surprise me, if at the Republican Convention, Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain flies into Minneapolis as the "presumptive nominee", but a wee bit of monkey business goes on, and Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain flies out of Minneapolis with a ailment, ironically, like those old Russian leaders used to get, when it was their time to go.

Then again, the GOP knows (thanks to the inhabitants of the Bush Grindhouse) that they are completely fucked in November, and they might as well let Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain absorb the drubbing - at least, that way, they won't have to deal with him in 2012, mounting, "one more time", a presidential campaign.


Bonus House of Mirrors Links

Architectural Digest Visits Senator and Mrs. John McCain

Brandon Friedman: John McCain Needs to Lay Off the POW Talk

Spencer Ackerman: Use It Tonight

Marc Ambinder: McCain Is To Houses What GWBH Was To Grocery Store Scanners?

Sam Stein: McCain Camp Plays POW Card On House Gaffe

"The insinuation, that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, doesn't know how many houses he has, is outrageous!"

Or: Looking A Gift House In The Mouth

NARRATOR
Legendary was the Xanadu where Kubla Kahn decreed his stately pleasure dome - (with quotes in his voice) "Where twice five miles of fertile ground, with walls and towers were girdled 'round." (dropping the quotes) Today, almost as legendary is Florida's XANADU - world's largest private pleasure ground. Here, on the deserts of the Gulf Coast, a private mountain was commissioned, successfully built for its landlord. Here in a private valley, as in the Coleridge poem, "blossoms many an incense-bearing tree." Verily, "a miracle of rare device."

One hundred thousand trees, twenty thousand tons of marble, are the ingredients of Xanadu's mountain. Xanadu's livestock: the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, the beast of the field and jungle - two of each; the biggest private zoo since Noah. Contents of Kane's palace: paintings, pictures, statues, the very stones of many another palace, shipped to Florida from every corner of the earth, from other Kane houses, warehouses, where they mouldered for years. Enough for ten museums - the loot of the world.

Oh ... Wait a minute ...

That's from 'Citizen Kane'...

She's a brick----house
Mighty might just lettin' it all hang out
She's a brick----house ...

No ...No ... That's The Commodores song...

Man, I getting all confused, and I don't have a staff I can refer it to, but I think it was Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain talking about how many houses he owns.

Expect, he couldn't remember how many houses he owns ...

He's back, walking around in the bathrobe again, mumbling incoherently, dripping the Slim Jim juice...

McCain unsure how many houses he owns

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

"I think - I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told us in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you.

Well, if he's throwing it back to his staff, I expect, if it hasn't happened already, that Nicole Wallace will reprise her sterling defense of Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny, of his cheating at the Saddleback Show, and get all plump-in-the-face, firing out a "The insinuation, that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, doesn't know how many houses he has, is outrageous!"

Actually, I am pretty stunned that he had to throw it to his staff to come up with the answer.

Where was his Mini-Me?

Why wasn't Joe Lieberman standing behind Stumblin' Bumblin' John, to step up and answer the question correctly?

About the only defense I think they can come up with, is that the interview in which Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny gave this response, is that the interview must have taken place before 7:30AM, as in, unless he sleeps in, by his own admission, he's not exceptionally sharp that day.

Now, just in the not-to-distant past, Stumblin' Bumblin John McCain didn't know the difference between the Shiites and Sunnis, thought (at least twice), that Czechoslovakia was still a country, benighted as to the price of gas, confused Iraq-Pakistan Border, and, to mix things up a little, whored his wife out to a bunch of bikers.

So, he gets tossed a softball question of how many houses he owns, and he starts acting more befuddled than an Ed Wynn movie marathon.

If it hasn't crossed the line yet, it sure-as-hell is inches away, on how embarrassing this is, for the country, to have a presidential candidate that is such a stuttering fool.

Instead of hiring all the Rove Acolytes, maybe they should have reached back and brought in The Gipper's crew - at least they had the skill to hide his dementia until after he was elected.

Jesus, and we still have a little over two-months left ....


Bonus House Hunting Links

Michael Tomansky: Manna from heaven

Wonkette: John McCain Does Not Know How Many Baronial Estates He Has

John Cole: Coming to a Commercial Near You

Libby Spencer: McClueless

The Jed Report: Ooomph

John Aravosis (DC): Obama releases new ad over McCain "I don't know how many houses I own" gaffe

Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller: People Who Live in Seven Glass Houses….

If He Really Wanted To Scare'em, He Would Have Named Big Daddy Lipscomb ...

Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain likes to talk about his military service.

He's made a career of it.

It's not cool when other people talk about his military service, that it doesn't qualify him for office, or that it is full of potholes and hype.

In the "Irony Department", shortly after the manufactured outrage over General Wesley Clark's comments, the Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain campaign put out a new ad, leaning heavily on - you guessed it - his military service.

John McCain TV Ad: Love

You should get a laugh, with the attempt to paint Obama with "The Summer of Love", complete with Haight Ashbury, tie-dye footage, but the kicker in this offering is the money line - "Don't hope for a better life, vote for one ..."

And, with his General chief Economic Advisor calling us all "whiners", I suppose we can't whine about hoping to have a better life.

We are, if we follow the directives of the SB McCain campaign ads, to be silently hopeless.

Well, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain put out his own version of hopelessness the other day.

And the spin isn't a good one.

He's either losing his memory, getting confused ...

Or, it was outright, nauseating, obsequious pandering

We speak of this;

McCain Exploits the Steelers. Now the Man Has Gone Too Far

Here's the deal. John McCain tells a story from time to time (it's in his 1999 memoir "Faith of My Fathers," for example) about how under pressure as a POW in Vietnam to give up vital information, McCain pretended to hand over the names of his squadron mates by reciting the starting lineup of the Green Bay Packers. The kicker was McCain's CO, Ray Nitschke.

It's an incredibly admirable story and it reminds you that underneath the artifice of campaigns that we spend so much time trying to peel away here at MoJoBlog, there are men and women of character who seek to lead the country.

But John McCain has thrown this story into the political ring. In an interview with KDKA-TV, a Pittsburgh CBS affiliate, McCain professed his boyhood love for the Steelers and retold the charming POW story. But this time he inserted the Steelers where the Packers had been.

Any sports fan will tell you, that's just not cool.

On Countdown last night, "More Lies About Viet Nam From McCain's Double Talk Express"

(You can go to the full interview here)

What makes this an incredible faux pas, the Pittsburgh Steelers of 1967, when SB John was shot down and captured, sucked.

Yet, in the interview, McCain emphasized the "defensive line", inferring, no doubt, putting into the minds of the viewers, the infamous, Super Bowl-winning Steel Curtain (which, of course, didn't come to fame until the early 70's, long after McCain was released and out of Viet Nam).

Yet, he's on the record, multiple times, in his book, in the television movie of his book, interviews, etc, of telling this story, as noted above, using the powerhouse Green Bay Packers of the day.

So, if we follow his strategy, next time he's in Chicago, it will be he names the Cubs? ... Kansas City, the Chiefs? ... Boston, the Red Sox or Celtics? ... Hell, why not go for it all, and blurt out the "Murderers Row" New York Yankees?

Surely, things he, or his campaign could have Googled.

If the campaign wants to salvage this, they can fall back on the "he is aware of the internet".

Good for him - that means he's going to be aware what a jackass he's looking like for pulling this stunt.

But for my money, this is a loser, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain blew it, back in '67".

If he really wanted to scare-the-shit out of his captors, he should have named Big Daddy Lipscomb.






















Or, Chuck Bednarik

Round and Round and Round ...

Get ready for a dizzily, spinning week.

Between yesterday, and this morning, a handful of storylines have broken, that is going to generate forceful spinning, counter-spinning and blowback, likely enough to jar the needles on the Fujita and Saffir-Simpson scales.

Exhibit A - McCain's War Record/Qualifications for President

Dday, over on Hullabaloo, has a title for this - "Get Ready For The Mother Of All Hissy Fits"

It started yesterday, when retired General Wesley Clark, and Barack Obama supporter, questioned McCain's war record, saying (after giving Stumblin' Bumblin' John some props), that “I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”

John Aravosis jumped in, with the question that Brilliant at Breakfast didn't have to, of "Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?"

Let loose the hounds! ... Game On!

No doubt, the Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain Campaign will come out swinging on this one, despite the fact that their candidate, at nearly every conceivable opportunity, plays off his time in the service.

And, to bone-up for the ensuing gale winds, you can read TPM's Paul Kiel, from February, on Stumblin' Bumblin' Johns' tough stance on torture, and Ted Rall's "Puffing up John McCain, POW"

Update

From the time I wrote this, earlier today, all hell is breaking loose!

Go to Memeorandum, and check out the brewing dog fight on this one ...


Exhibit B - My Sister/My Daughter ... We're Attacking Iran/We're Not Attacking Iran ...

Sy Hersch provided the match-to-the-fuse yesterday, with his "Preparing the Battlefield - The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran", detailing we're already conducting Special Forces operations inside Iran, and it's just a matter of time before the whole thing explodes ...

And, if you have been paying attention, Little Billy Kristol has already predicted that the Bush Grindhouse will let the bombs fly, especially if it looks like Obama is going to take the election.

This drum has been beating for some time now .... If you have to go with one, or the other, bet on The Commander Guy donning the flightsuit again, and after they transform Tehran into the Flintstones' Bedrock City, another 'Mission Accomplished before passing on the baton (and if Stumblin Bumblin John McCain does manage to win, or steal, the election, then no baton passing, the bombs will keep dropping).


Exhibit C - My Sister/My Daughter ... We're Hunting OBL/We're Not Hunting OBL ...

The NYT kicks the dust up today, with their "Amid Policy Disputes, Qaeda Grows in Pakistan", detailing how the military has been set to rush through Afghanastan and into Pakistan to go get - now some 7-years after-the-fact - Osama bin Laden, and other top Al-Qaeda chieftains ...

But, the Big Cheeses in Washington won't pull the trigger.

Which leads Oliver Willis to observe, "Republicans Soft On Terror", and Jill, over on Brilliant at Breakfast, to question "You'd almost think they WANTED a stronger Al-Qaeda"

The Garlic speculates Vegas will post this one as a "Pick'em"

So, with the Lapel Pin orgy-of-a-holiday approaching, July 4th, expect the jingoistic fur to be flying, spinning and counter-spinning, and every tiny iota of it making it's way, blaringly so, at times, into your news.

If you need some help in getting through it, grab a dance partner ...

Perry Como ~ Round And Round (1957)

McCain Waves The POW Flag

Since you are the odds-on favorite at this point, to win the nomination, all I have to say is Watch Out, Barack Obama!

You start hitting Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain too hard, or with facts, or just strong opinion and he's going to go to his ace-in-the-hole ...

His POW status.

He'll whip that POW Flag out and start waving it in your face!

Today, on ABC's 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos' (you remember him, don't you? ... From the debate the other evening...), Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain wasn't getting all love pies from Little Georgie.

And it seemed, at times, early on in the interview, that Little Georgie had to hold back, pull his punches, when they were discussing SB John's lunatic Tax Plans... It's seemed like Little Georgie just wanted to shout back at him "You're absolutely a mad man, these plans are impossible!", or worse, smack him around.

So it wasn't smooth sailing when Little Georgie brought the conversation around to healthcare, and brought up Elizabeth Edward's criticism of SB John's plans.

Since we couldn't find the ABC transcripts, we give a nod to Crooks and Liars, for their "This Week: Bringing Up McCain’s Life-Long, Federally-Provided Health Care Is “A Cheap Shot”;

STEPHANOPOULOS: What’s wrong with government — what’s wrong with government-run health care?

McCAIN: And we continue to have these debates — what’s wrong with it? Go to Canada. Go to England and you can find out what’s wrong with it. Governments don’t make the right decisions. Families make the right decisions.

STEPHANOPOULOS: One of the points Mrs. Edwards made in the Wall Street Journal, she said that your whole life, you had government health care. You were the son of a Naval officer, a Naval officer, now a member of Congress. And her point is, why shouldn’t every American be able to get the kind of health care that members of Congress get or members of the military get?

McCAIN: It’s a cheap shot, but I did have a period of time where I didn’t have very good government health care. I had it from another government. (LAUGHTER) So, look, I know what it’s like in America not to have health care. We know that Americans are hurting there as well. We’ve got to make health care affordable and available. The difference, again, between myself and the Democrats, and with all due respect, Mrs. Edwards, I want the families to make the choices. They want the government to make the choices. That’s a fundamental difference, and we will continue to debate that issue.

Did you catch that?

"It’s a cheap shot, but I did have a period of time where I didn’t have very good government health care. I had it from another government. (LAUGHTER)"

It was an awkward laugh SB John let out with ... Like he expected everyone in the studio to fall over in hysterics, and when they didn't, he awkwardly continued with his answer.

So, that's how you're going to play there, hey, SB John?

When it gets too tough, when the questions get to hard, or (and you better get used to this), when people throw your plans back at you as idiotic, you're gonna wave the POW flag?

Are you trying to establish, that since you were a POW, you don't have to explain yourself, your policies, should the entire country go into brain freeze and actually elect you?

When Barack Obama, either on the stump, or in a debate, starts calling you out, running down your statements, punching holes in your policies, are you just going to respond in some glib, chippy manner, as you did today, and wave your POW flag?

Yeah, you got a bad deal in Vietnam - as did hundreds-of-thousands of other kids that got forced into going there ... Not to mention the 50,000-plus that didn't come home.

No doubt, you, and the RNC are going to exploit it six-ways-from-Sunday in the general election campaign, deafeningly echoed by the Right Wing Freak Show, in a blizzard of Flag Lapel Pins, but don't you dare start hiding behind it during this campaign, when it comes time to explain your policies and positions.

And we haven't even brought up that you - dismissively - called the questions of a woman suffering from incurable cancer a "cheap shot"?

Way to go there, SB John, that shows a lot of class ...


More Madcap McCain Riffs

Steve Benen: Senator Hothead

Washington Post: McCain: A Question of Temperament

Nicole Bell/C&L: Notice Anything? John McCain doesn’t wear an American flag pin on THIS WEEK

Melissa McEwan/Shakesville: McCain: At Least He Doesn't Throw Punches!

Perrin On McCain, Clinton and Pornographic Ringtones

John Amato/C&L: McCain bashes Obama on Ayers but stands by his association with anti-Catholic pastor Hagee