The McCain Thread

[Shifty]

French Archives Release Footage of McCain's Vietnam Captivity
Footage from 1968 French TV documentary shows McCain interviewed as prisoner of war in Vietnam

AP

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The French national archive has released footage of John McCain as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, showing him lying injured in bed and smoking a cigarette during an emotional interview with a French reporter.

French reporter Francois Chalais conducted the interview. His widow says the online release this week of 4 minutes, 33 seconds of footage is the fullest distribution of the interview since it first aired four decades ago.

The video shows McCain shirtless and unshaven, smoking a cigarette. Answering questions from Chalais, he spoke about being shot down over Hanoi on Oct. 25, 1967, and parachuting into a lake.

At times, when speaking of his family, McCain's lower lip trembles and his voice breaks.

"I was on a flight over the city (Hanoi) ... and I was bombing and I was hit by a missile or anti-aircraft fire, I'm not sure which," he said, adding that his plane "went straight down."

After landing in the lake, McCain said he "was picked up and taken to the hospital, where I almost died."

In the interview, McCain said he was treated well by his Vietnamese captors. Asked about the food, he told his French interviewer, "It's not like Paris ... (but) I eat it."

The exact date of the interview is not clear, but it appeared to be taken in late 1967.

The French national audiovisual archive INA is posting the interview on its Web site, for one week. It was first broadcast on French television program Panorama in January 1968.

Mei Chen Chalais, the reporter's 56-year-old widow who holds the legal rights to the footage, told The Associated Press that some excerpts of the black-and-white footage are widely available — mostly unauthorized — in cyberspace, and have been used by television networks in France and the United States.

Her lawyers are seeking payment from at least seven broadcasters in France and the United States that used the footage without authorization, said one of her attorneys, Jacques-Georges Bitoun on Wednesday.

Even McCain's campaign Web site features a few seconds of the footage, which Chalais said was done without her approval. Chalais' lawyers have sent a letter on the rights issue to McCain's campaign team.

[YT]MvcuEqGUwmc[/YT]

 

[Bathead]

Can someone confirm or refute this story?
Supposedly McCain criticized Obama for taking a couple of days off from the campaign, only to have to apologize when he was told it was to visit his dying grandmother. True or not?

 

[Superman]

http://www.patterico.com/2008/10/12/obama-rallies-turn-ugly/

After a thorough re-reading it is obviously a joke piece, though it does contain reports I have heard from other sources.

I am checking to see if I these incidents the other sources reported were valid or simply stemmed from that site.

EDIT: The article as a whole is a joke, the incidents listed are not.

I read it, though I will admit I was openly looking for an article that listed a few incidents I had heard from other places.

If you click on the links in the story about the incidents, it takes you to non-comedic websites that collaborate it.

OK sorry to take so long to get back to this, It's been a very long day, But I won't get into that.




Now, Looking past the fact that this whole article that you posted is just a joke like you said Norm, You also say that the the incidents listed are real.

This may be true but once again, I'm looking for things that have happend at the Obama rallies that compares to people at McCain's rallies saying things like "Kill Him" or "Terroist".

I'm sorry Norm but being booed at a hockey game, Wearing a T-shirt saying “Sarah Palin is a c*nt” or vandals spray-painting a local GOP headquarters just doesn't cut it. Again Norm you are trying to change the subject from what I'm asking to what you want to answer. Palin may get away with that but it's not going to work here.

Only one of those "examples", The T-shirt thing, MAY have happned at a rally {I've yet to see proof of it} but you yourself said it happed at a Palin rally not an Obama rally like I asked for. Plus, Like I told you before about this, I don't see how a T-shirt compares to people yelling "Kill Him" or "Terroist" at McCain's rallies.

As for the other two... Well since neither one of them even comes close to what I asked for I'm not going to get into them.

The only example in your whole post that MIGHT come close to what I'm asking for is the Obama supporters that was outside a Palin rally yelling “Let’s stone her, old school!”

Now, Looking past the fact that it supposedly happend at a Palin rally and NOT a Obama rally, I'm still finding it hard to believe because the link you gave to the story went to Michelle Malkin's site. Malkin is a notorious Right Wing Neo-Con who I trust about as much as Bill O'Reilly.

Norm, All the examples in your post either came from Right Wing sites, Something I asked YOU not to do, Or they didn't compare in the slightest to people at McCain's rallies yelling "Kill Him" or "Terroist".


Now I'm going repeat what I said one more time....

"I keep hearing people from the McCain camp, And McCain himself has even said it a few times whenever somone brings up the crowds yelling "kill him" or "terrorist" at McCain's rallies, I keep hearing them say that there have been people at Obama's rallies that are saying similar things.

My question, What EXACTLY is being said at Obama's rallies that compares to people at McCain's rallies yelling "Kill Him" or "Terroist"? "

Like I said before I only ask this because McCain keeps saying that similar things to "Kill Him" or "Terroist" have been said at Obama's rallies. I want to know what exactly it is he's talking about.

It's a simple question. I'd like a simple straight forward answer without being sidetracked with stuff about boos at a hockey games or being linked to Neo-Con sites that I can't trust.



Sidenote: I do hope this post made sense, It's 5:43 in the morning and like I said it's been a long day.

 

[Spider-Bite]

I don't know but that video above is very disturbing. I can't imagine his pain both phsyically and mentally.

 

[redfirebird2008]

McCain is a pervert:

 

[jaguarr]

Can someone confirm or refute this story?
Supposedly McCain criticized Obama for taking a couple of days off from the campaign, only to have to apologize when he was told it was to visit his dying grandmother. True or not?

I think that was Rush Limbaugh that happened to.

jag

 

[Paradoxium]

From the Counter-Terrorism Blog

Al Qaeda's Propaganda Aims to Affect US Election and future Strategies
By Walid Phares

A recent Associated Press report and a Washington Post article reported that al Qaeda's web sites have expressed a strategic preference of their organization for the next President of the United States. The Washington Post analysis, observing that multiple sites and commentaries close to the Bin Laden group expressed a similar point of view, concluded that this indeed is al Qaeda's agenda: that a John McCain Presidency would benefit the Jihadi goals.

A first quick reading of the site's claim may appear to be an endorsement of the Senator from Arizona. A thorough reading of the posted material in original Arabic, however, and an analysis of the global strategies of the Jihadist movement along with the psychological war efforts by al Qaeda and their allies around the world, tell us a different story and it is the antipode of the Washington Post conclusion.
Here is my reading of the Jihadi postings:

1) Methodologically: When translating and analyzing material posted by al Qaeda or operatives close to the group, or pretending to do so, one has to keep track of the big strategic picture. Al Qaeda doesn't favor one American politician over another; rather it uses images and slogans to derail the global U.S. response to al Qaeda, regardless of who occupies the White House. It doesn't rely on a left wing/right wing parameter.

For example, al Qaeda (and the Iranian regime) attacked Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair because he joined the U.S. in the offensive in Iraq and praised French Conservative President Jacques Chirac for opposing that campaign. The Jihadists accepted support from the U.S. when they were fighting the Soviets and are now in sync with populist Marxists in their fight against America. In short there is a "Jihadi agenda" and what they care about is how to advance it.

2) Strategic goals: The Salafist networks, including al Qaeda, want a defeat of U.S.-led efforts in Iraq and in Afghanistan. The Jihadi war room (part of it is within the top tier of al Qaeda and other parts are connected to ideologues and propagandists situated in various circles in the region and beyond) has a plan for a McCain Administration and another plan for an Obama Administration. It doesn't operate based on the socio-economic agendas of the two candidates but on their assumed national security policies and beliefs.

If McCain is elected, al Qaeda knows that there will be different teams of advisors to wage a different type of campaign. The Jihadists are very knowledgeable about American and European intellectual debates. They also know the thinking process of the counterterrorism teams under Obama. Hence, there is a difference between what al Qaeda's decision-makers and their analysts know, and what their propagandists wish to instill in the U.S. election debate. What they state should be translated and understood only within the greater picture of what they want to achieve.

3) Al Qaeda's propagandists operate within the realm of what the Jihadi machine has created in terms of political culture over the years. The main ideas are that the U.S., under President Bush, tried but failed to destroy al Qaeda; hence, the Jihadist narrative says that any next U.S. President who continues the policies of the Bush Administration will give victory to al Qaeda. Inserting their arguments in the ongoing Presidential debate, this means that the candidate who advances Bush strategies will be better for the goals of Bin Laden. Hence the site's assertion that al Qaeda welcomes a McCain victory (in a sarcastic style).

4) But this tactic used by the Jihadi propagandists is part of a reverse psychology. It aims at sending a message to the American voters: if you want al Qaeda to win, vote for McCain. The Jihadi web sites cannot state it otherwise, such as if you want the U.S. to win, vote for Obama, because in Jihadi war doctrines there cannot be a victory for America, under any President. Hence, what al Qaeda seems to be attempting to achieve is to affect the perception of the undecided voters by stating to them that the strength of McCain in the war on terror is not really strength. Therefore, in the end, the move is aimed at sinking the chances of the former U.S. Navy Pilot by crumbling the support among undecided voters who might ultimately have come to his camp as late as D Day.

5) The savvy Jihadi operatives know all too well that any material they send out in these critical days preceding the U.S. election will be picked up by the media. They also know that any narrative that can be used by the critics of McCain will lessen his chances on November 4, and that is why the stories were run by AP and the Washington Post. If an "enemy" of the United States asserts that it prefers a particular candidate in the White House, al Qaeda may cause the voters to vote for his opponent. Therefore, the web sites’ material might be read in fact as encouragement for U.S. voters to defeat McCain, not the other way around. Experts in Jihadi strategies would then advance the thesis that a McCain Administration is perceived as more dangerous to al Qaeda's long term plans, which would be an additional 4 to 8 years of global efforts against the Islamist movement. This is why their goal is the psychological manipulation of the electorate.

By comparison, in October 2004, Bin Laden intervened directly via a videotape to threaten the states that vote for a Bush reelection, just a few days before the voting. Most probably, the tactics of the Jihadi machine had to evolve and learn from the previous election: if you threaten Americans with retaliation if they vote for the "tough" candidate, the voters will punish al Qaeda. But, four years later, if you welcome the "tough" candidate as a potential failure, the Jihadists may expect that American voters will punish the candidate, this time. If anything, the analysts of al Qaeda may have learned that the American public is resilient and wants success.

6) But would that mean that Bin Laden's organization prefers Senator Obama to be in the White House instead? It is not that simple. Al Qaeda knows all too well that the American public wants a victory over Bin Laden's network. The Jihadists aren't interested in who would save the U.S. economy or create jobs and opportunities in the land of the infidels. What they wish for is a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, a mess across the Afghani-Pakistani border and, above all, a cessation of any war of ideas against their ideology. You have to imagine al Qaeda - or the war room behind it - as cold blooded calculators of the options, not as emotional backers of either one of the candidates.

In 2004, they specifically affected the Spanish elections by blowing up the trains and boosting the opposition's arguments in the media. It worked, as Prime Minister Aznar was ousted. But this didn't mean that they considered his successor, Zapatero, as a good guy. Al Qaeda cells are still plotting inside Spain, and Madrid is still engaged against the Jihadists. The difference is that there are no Spanish troops in the Sunni triangle and there is little U.S.-Spanish cooperation internationally.

7) In the end, the Washington Post investigation is based on unofficial web sites’ postings rather than on an Al Qaeda public announcement which can still happen at anytime. Besides, the article rushed too quickly to a conclusion the Jihadist propagandists wished the American mainstream to conclude. In short, if this was a planned push by the Jihadi Salafi machine (and we don't know yet), it succeeded in triggering a mainstream journalistic reaction about the election debate.

When al Qaeda propagandist strikes occur, America must always respond with a unified front. Even at the peak of dizzying exchanges between the candidates, the two campaigns must strike back as one against the Jihadists, even if only one camp is attacked. For the ultimate goal of the terrorists is to defeat the United States, not one particular candidate.

****************

Dr Walid Phares is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and author of The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad

 

[WorthyStevens]

Wow. Freakin' wow.

McCain says Obama will 'say anything' to win

AP – Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. addresses supporters during a campaign rally …

ORLANDO, Fla. – Republican John McCain, taking a cross-state bus tour aimed at keeping vote-rich Florida from swinging to the Democrats, on Thursday accused rival Barack Obama of saying "anything to get elected."
The Arizona senator said Obama had added a work requirement to his proposal to grant a 10 percent universal mortgage credit. A top Obama aide said the campaign made the change two weeks ago to avoid charges that the proposal provided "welfare" to non-working Americans.

"Thirteen days to go, and he changed his tax plan because the American people had learned the truth about it and they didn't like it," McCain told a crowd at lumber yard in coastal Ormond Beach. "It's another example that he'll say anything to get elected."
An Obama spokesman accused McCain of distortion and said the Democrat's plan always included a work requirement, although it was discussed only within the campaign or to reporters who inquired about the particulars of the plan.
"Last week, Sen. McCain called Obama's tax cuts for working people welfare. Today he's claiming Sen. Obama doesn't do enough to help the unemployed," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor. "The only thing consistent about these attacks is how dishonest they are. All of Sen. Obama's tax credits only go to workers and they always have."

While criticizing Obama, McCain also targeted his own party. He complained the Bush administration was not yet buying up mortgages so homeowners facing foreclosure could renegotiate them at a more favorable interest rates. The GOP nominee has proposed a $300 billion plan, but a similar one is included in the $700 billion Wall Street bailout recently passed by Congress. Both McCain and Obama voted for that plan.

"I call on the administration to act now and buy up these mortgages and keep people in their homes," McCain said before singling out Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. "And why is the secretary of the Treasury not ordering them to do that?"

They also came amid signs McCain was curtailing his effort in Colorado, despite plans to make two stops there Friday.
Republicans have slashed television advertising for McCain at the state's three largest television stations, according to the Denver Post. With early voting under way, McCain's campaign bought a total $305,550 worth of ads this week at KUSA-TV, KCNC-TV and KMGH-TV. That was down 46 percent from last week and down 56 percent from two weeks ago.

Obama is spending almost seven times what McCain is at those stations in the final days, The Post reported.

The criticism of Obama and the administration came at the start of a bus tour targeting blue-collar Florida workers who are like the Ohio plumber, Joe Wurzelbacher, who has become the central thematic element in speeches by McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

From Daytona Beach on Florida's Atlantic Coast to Sarasota on the Gulf Coast, McCain was criticizing Obama's tax plans and promoting his own proposals to cut taxes for individuals and businesses. After his stop at All Star Building Materials, he visited a dentist who said he faced the prospect of layoffs, and lunched at a Latino restaurant in Orlando. He was visiting a farm before ending with a rally.

"Whether it's Joe the Plumber in Ohio or Joe over here," McCain said, pointing into the crowd at All Star Building Materials in Ormond Beach, "we shouldn't be taxing our small businesses more, as Sen. Obama wants to do. We need to be helping them expand their businesses and create jobs."

Obama, speaking Wednesday in Virginia, rebutted such criticism, arguing that his tax plan would not raise taxes on small businesses and working couples earning less than $250,000 a year.

"Let's be clear who John McCain is fighting for. He is not fighting for Joe the Plumber. He's fighting for Joe the Hedge Fund Manager," Obama said. "If you make less than a quarter of a million dollars a year — which includes 98 percent of small-business owners — you won't see your taxes increase one single dime."

McCain's route covered the vote-rich "I-4 Corridor" through Orlando, in central Florida, and was intended to boost him in a state George W. Bush won in 2000 and 2004 but which Obama is threatening to seize despite a strong GOP machine and the Arizona senator's endorsement by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Florida offers 27 electoral votes, fourth-most in the country. A total of 270 is needed to win the presidency.

Recent polls show Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, with a slight lead over McCain. Nationally, an Associated Press-GfK poll shows McCain and Obama essentially even among likely voters, possible evidence of a tightened race 12 days before the Nov. 4 election.

McCain's first stop in Florida, for coffee with Crist and three business owners from the Daytona Beach area, proved fruitful. Mike Murray, owner of the Starlite Diner, said he was concerned about both candidates raising taxes but planned to support McCain on Election Day. "He's got the experience," Murray said as the candidate sat at a nearby booth. "I'm comfortable with him. I grew up knowing his name."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081023/ap_on_el_pr/mccain

I don't care who calls McCain out on this, I just want him called out. It could be Karl effing Rove for all I care, just someone do it, please.

 

[Raiden]

"Saying anything to win"? I think that fits McCain moreso than Obama, with his stream of flip-flops.

 

[jaguarr]

LMAO! "Joe the Hedge Fund Manager".

jag

 

[souvlaki]

Dept. of fraying tempers

John McCain's brother exchanged sharp words with a police operator after calling 911 to complain about traffic.

His call, and a call back to reprimand him for an inappropriate use of the service, were recorded by City of Alexandria Police, WJLA first reported.

Here's the exchange:

Operator: 911 state your emergency

Caller: It's not an emergency but do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95traffic is stopped for 15 minutes and yet traffic's coming the other way?

Operator: Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic? (pause)

Caller: "(Expletive) you." (caller hangs up)

The operator then called back, and received this message: "Hi this is Joe McCain I can't take this message now because I'm involved in a very ... important political project... I hope on Nov. 4th we have elected John."

McCain then apparently called 911 again, to complain about the message.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Dept_of_fraying_tempers.html

 

[danoyse]

Did anyone see Colbert last night? In addition to Joe the Plumber, he added Dora the Explorer, Bob the Builder, and Thomas the Tank Engine. He then used the the lyrics from the Sesame Street song "These Are the People In Your Neighborhood" to further his point.

 

[Gilpesh]

Is it too early to epic fail McCain's entire campaign?

 

[jaguarr]

Is it too early to epic fail McCain's entire campaign?

Let's give it until November 5th, shall we? Just to be sure?

jag

 

[Gilpesh]

Let's give it until November 5th, shall we? Just to be sure?

jag

Oh, epically failing his campaign... doesn't mean he'll lose. Just means he sucks at campaigning... epically.

 

[jaguarr]

Oh, epically failing his campaign... doesn't mean he'll lose. Just means he sucks at campaigning... epically.

But it will be fully and truly, irrefutably epic if he loses and we won't know that for sure until November 5th.

On another note:

McCain will depart from election-night tradition

By BETH FOUHY – 5 hours ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Republican John McCain is not going to make his election night remarks in the traditional style — at a podium standing in front of a sea of campaign workers jammed into a hotel ballroom.
Oh, the throng of supporters will hold the usual election night party at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix on the evening of Nov. 4.


But the Republican presidential nominee plans to address another group of supporters and a small group of reporters on the hotel lawn; his remarks will be simultaneously piped electronically to the party inside and other reporters in a media filing center, aides said.


Aides said Thursday that the arrangement was the result of space limitations and that McCain might drop by the election watch party at some other point.


Only a small press "pool" — mostly those who have traveled regularly with the candidate on his campaign plane, plus a few local Arizona reporters and other guests — will be physically present when McCain speaks.
Thomas Patterson, a government professor at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, called the arrangement "unusual" but said the campaign may simply be bowing to the reality that the candidate's remarks are geared toward the televised audience rather than those in the hall.


"Addressing your supporters election night is one of those traditions in politics, like where you choose to launch your campaign," Patterson said. "Why wouldn't you want the energy of the crowd? And if you're going to lose, you almost need it even more."


With just 12 days left in the presidential contest, most polls show the Arizona senator trailing Democrat Barack Obama nationally and in most battleground states, although a new AP-GfK poll showed the race tightening a bit in the last few days.


Obama, by contrast, plans to address a giant outdoor celebration election night in Chicago's Grant Park. The event is free and open to the public, but the campaign was charging media organizations a hefty fee for close-in spots on the camera risers and platforms and for cable and wireless Internet at those spots.


The Obama campaign was also charging news organizations $935 per person for a spot in its press filing center, as opposed to $695 per person at the McCain gathering. But as Obama spokesman Bill Burton pointed out, "Anyone credentialed for our filing center will also be able to watch the event live and in person, unlike the McCain event."

He's setting this up so he can yell at everyone to "get off his lawn" on election night, I just know it!

jag

 

[Knives]

Is it too early to epic fail McCain's entire campaign?

Yes it is. Way too early. If he loses, THEN it's a big time epic fail and it iwll deserve to be ripped apart.

 

[Excel]

I wouldnt call McCains campaigns an epic fail at all; it its exactly what any realist person expected with the exception of the Palin pick. The only person who had a real serious chance at beating Obama was Mitt Romney because 1) its be hard to tie him to Bush and 2)he is superb with money.

Yes, nobody realized just how inept McCain would be, but did anybody ever expect him to be anything other than Bob Dole 2.0? I didnt. The race is not over yet, but so far I cant say I am surprised.

 

[Lightning Strykez!]

Dept. of fraying tempers



http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Dept_of_fraying_tempers.html

Ahhh...so erratic behavior appears to be an earmark for the McCain family. I knew it.

 

[Prison Mike]

did anyone see the video of McCain saying the "C" word at a rally by accident? It's hilarious.

 

[Marx]

SECOND MCCAIN ROBOCALL PAINTS OBAMA AS 'TERRORIST SYMPATHIZER'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/23/reports-of-new-anti-obama_n_137311.html

 

[BeserkerHilf]

i'm sure im not the only one who finds the joe the plumber ad really hilarious in all the wrong ways.

 

[souvlaki]

i'm sure im not the only one who finds the joe the plumber ad really hilarious in all the wrong ways.

I find Joe the Plumber hilarious in general. Joe the Plumber will be one of those thing that people will point and laugh about years from now.

 

[Excel]

Keep em coming Macdaddy, keep em coming! Obama is the Hulk, themore you attack, the stronger he gets (or more Presidential he seems)!!!

 

[sinewave]

But it will be fully and truly, irrefutably epic if he loses and we won't know that for sure until November 5th.

On another note:



He's setting this up so he can yell at everyone to "get off his lawn" on election night, I just know it!

jag

t: i'd be even better if he stepped up to the podium in a stained wife-beater, boxers and a bath robe with a broom in his hand.