Wow. McCain Camp Responds: But He Was a POW

by Jonathan Singer [courtesy of MyDD]

TPM Election Central's Eric Kleefeld makes an interesting catch:

The McCain campaign is road-testing a new argument in responding to Obama's criticism of his number-of-houses gaffe, an approach the McCain camp has never tried before: The houses gaffe doesn't matter because ... he was a POW!

"This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post.

For those of you who haven't kept track, the McCain campaign just recently cited McCain's POW years in explaining away the Miss Buffalo Chip gaffe, and in dealing with the allegation that he broke the rules and listened in on Barack Obama during the Rick Warren forum.

Ben Smith, writing under the headline "The POW Card", says it seems to him that the McCain campaign is "flirting with Giuliani/9/11 territory here, in which at subject that seems utterly immune to humor, used as a first resort, suddenly becomes a running joke among your political enemies and your late night comic friends." Steve Benen writes, "A noun, a verb, and `prisoner of war'". Sam Stein writes about the McCain campaign trying to use the candidate's POW experience as "a political trump card."

Here's the thing: John McCain gave a great deal to his country, and no one -- including his campaign -- should diminish that. But by using McCain's POW experience to combat any legitimate criticism of his candidacy, the McCain campaign is belittling the commitment he made and the horrors he went through. And that's a real shame.