Apologizing for Telling the Truth
Twice this past week or so Obama supporters have had to apologize for telling the truth about McCain. Last Friday talk show host Ed Schultz called McCain a "warmonger." The Obama campaign repudiated the remark, and repeated its line that it honors McCain's service to the country and considers him a genuine hero. The yesterday Jay Rockefeller pointed out that McCain's war service was actually not that sweet a line of work:
OK, isn't this true? Ought we not put him back in the cockpit and ask him what it was that he thought he was doing there? Instead, we get an apology from Rockefeller and a reiteration of the "honor the hero's service" line from the Obama campaign. Hasn't McCain in fact supported every use of military force since he's been in the Senate? And didn't he in fact call for a substantial commitment of ground troops in Kosovo? Sure, he hates war. I don't doubt that. He especially hates losing wars, and is mortified that he's been an instrument in the two grandest military failures in US history. But let the record speak for itself.
On this point, where's the press? Has anyone in the national media investigated the truth of either of these claims? That's what journalists are for. Journalists should be writing detailed assessments of McCain's military service in the context of the Vietnam War. They should be demystifying the memory of the air war and examining the circumstances of McCain's capture and imprisonment. They might, too, if some well organized Swift Boat crew starts running ads that gain attention, or if the Obama campaign gets off its "hero" talking points, or if Clinton's campaign decides to do something risky for a change.
Instead of showing initiative and enterprise, the campaign press has treated such issues as debates over campaign decorum. So Ed Schultz is framed as the Democratic equivalent of talk show host Bill Cunningham, whom McCain repudiated for overuse of Obama's middle name. And calling McCain a warmonger is treated as the moral equivalent of race-baiting. Peace-baiting? Well that's an idea whose time has come.
Twice this past week or so Obama supporters have had to apologize for telling the truth about McCain. Last Friday talk show host Ed Schultz called McCain a "warmonger." The Obama campaign repudiated the remark, and repeated its line that it honors McCain's service to the country and considers him a genuine hero. The yesterday Jay Rockefeller pointed out that McCain's war service was actually not that sweet a line of work:
McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit.What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues."
OK, isn't this true? Ought we not put him back in the cockpit and ask him what it was that he thought he was doing there? Instead, we get an apology from Rockefeller and a reiteration of the "honor the hero's service" line from the Obama campaign. Hasn't McCain in fact supported every use of military force since he's been in the Senate? And didn't he in fact call for a substantial commitment of ground troops in Kosovo? Sure, he hates war. I don't doubt that. He especially hates losing wars, and is mortified that he's been an instrument in the two grandest military failures in US history. But let the record speak for itself.
On this point, where's the press? Has anyone in the national media investigated the truth of either of these claims? That's what journalists are for. Journalists should be writing detailed assessments of McCain's military service in the context of the Vietnam War. They should be demystifying the memory of the air war and examining the circumstances of McCain's capture and imprisonment. They might, too, if some well organized Swift Boat crew starts running ads that gain attention, or if the Obama campaign gets off its "hero" talking points, or if Clinton's campaign decides to do something risky for a change.
Instead of showing initiative and enterprise, the campaign press has treated such issues as debates over campaign decorum. So Ed Schultz is framed as the Democratic equivalent of talk show host Bill Cunningham, whom McCain repudiated for overuse of Obama's middle name. And calling McCain a warmonger is treated as the moral equivalent of race-baiting. Peace-baiting? Well that's an idea whose time has come.
posted by jnerone at 8:55 AM
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