Yes, the military has a Code of Conduct during wartime, but one also has to put certain things into perspective. I'd like to ask the individual of the last comment, if he/she was ever in the military and, if so, was he/she ever been a POW in North Viet Nam or anywhere else. If this individual really knew anything about the Code, they would know that under interrogation captured military personnel should evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. There's a world of difference between what you see on CSI or Law & Order and what John McCain went through during his years as a POW. As a member of the U.S. Army for over 21 years, who knows a little more about the Code of Conduct, I kindly ask the individual who posted the previous comment to become more educated about the matter rather spout off at the mouth. One should also remember that Sen. McCain's father was also the Pacific Commander during the timeframe of his capture, so whether he asked for it or not, would determine some of the medical care he received. The North Vietnamese tried to use John McCain as a bargaining chip, which proved to be unsuccessful. If you want to criticize, maybe you should join the military and really learn what it's all about. Hooah!
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Belittling Palin?
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Our ears don't hear Biden's "good looking" comment as dismissive. To the contrary, it's clearly a self-deprecating remark made in joking about himself and his looks. And by the way, the ad shows a picture of Obama next to the "good looking" quote, but it was Biden, not Obama, who said that.
Marching Orders?
The ad continues to imply sexism by claiming that "they said she was doing 'what she was told.' " Presumably "they" are the Democrats. But no one said anything close to that. Rather, the McCain ad took a fragment of an actual statement by an Obama adviser and carefully added language to alter the meaning.
The ad cites a Sept. 4 report from Ben Smith's blog at Politico.com in which he interviewed Obama adviser David Axelrod about Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention.
The full quote reads:
Axelrod, quoted by Politico, Sept. 4: "She tried to attack Obama by saying he had no significant legislative accomplishments — maybe that's what she was told — but she should talk to Sen. Lugar, talk to Sen. Coburn, talk to people across the aisle in Illinois where he passed dozens of major laws to expand health care reform welfare, reduce taxes on working families."
Axelrod's statement, as reported, was about information that Palin was given: "maybe that's what she was told." The McCain-Palin campaign manipulated the phrase to make it sound as though he was alleging that Palin took orders: "doing what she was told."
The rest of the interview actually included some praise from Axelrod for Palin. For instance, he said she is a "skilled politician."
And, again, the quote used in the ad wasn't said by Obama, either – though his photo appears next to it.
Speaking of Dismissive
The ad wraps up by saying Obama and Biden "desperately called Sarah Palin a liar." And it adds, "How disrespectful."
The reference is to an ad the Obama-Biden campaign released in which it criticizes Palin for saying she was against the infamous Bridge to Nowhere when she had previously been for it. (We called into question Palin's comments on the bridge last week.) The Obama ad says, "Politicians lying about their records. You don't call that maverick, you call it more of the same." It then quotes an item from the liberal magazine The New Republic, which called the claim that Palin stopped the pork-barrel bridge project "a naked lie."
As we're fond of saying, we can't read minds. So we can't determine whether the McCain campaign means to say that calling a woman a liar is disrespectful – or whether it's just disrespectful to say that of Palin. But in either case, "disrespectful"? Wait a minute. Isn't this politics?
For more on another now well-known McCain-Palin ad alleging sexism, see our Wire item, "Pigs and Pit Bulls."
Clarification, Sept. 11: This ad aired on a Denver station on Sept. 10, prior to its official release by the McCain-Palin campaign. It was recorded by the Campaign Media Analysis Group, a unit of TNS Media Intelligence. Our original story did not include a date that the ad had aired. We do not have any information suggesting it aired on Sept. 11.
Reprinted with permission from Factcheck.org.
Sources
Smith, Ben. "Axelrod on Palin." Politico, 4 Sept. 2008.
Tapper, Jake. "Oh, That Joe! (Number 4 in a Series) -- Biden on Difference Between Him and Palin: "She's Good Looking." ABC News Political Punch, 31 Aug. 2008.
© 2008
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