How did McCain not know of Dr. King's history? The "I have a dream" speech was during the 1963 March on Washington. The Selma-to-Montgomery march was in 1965. Martin Luther King was killed in April 1968.
John McCain wasn't living in the US during that period. He was deployed overseas after graduating (Navy) flight training in 1960. By 1966, he was in the Pacific flying missions over Vietnam. He was shot down and captured in 1967 and remained in a North Vietnamese prison until 1973. Prisoners at the "Hanoi Hilton" had no access to the news and didn't receive mail for years, or not at all.
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Factcheck.org: McCain's Misleading Mailer
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Were You at Woodstock?
McCain's mailer somewhat inflates his role in killing a proposal that would have allotted $1 million to New York state's Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the proposed site of a museum celebrating the 1969 Woodstock music festival and its effect on American culture. It was, as the McCain mailing says, supported by Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton, as well as other members of the New York delegation. And strictly speaking, it's true that "John McCain said NO" to the proposal, in that he was one of three who cosponsored a proposed amendment to strip the project out of the appropriations bill.
But McCain wasn't present for the key vote or the floor debate on his measure. He was on the campaign trail.
$700 Million in Tax Increases?
We also have a small quibble with the mailer's claim that "Romney raised taxes by $700 million" in Massachusetts. That's not strictly true. Most of the added state revenue for which Romney was responsible came in the form of fees, not taxes. And not everybody agrees on the total.
According to an estimate by the Massachusetts Department of Administration and Finance produced by the Romney campaign, increases in fees amounted to $260 million a year, and elimination of corporate tax "loopholes" brought in another $174 million a year. But the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation puts the total of increased fees and corporate taxes at $740 million to $750 million per year.
McCain Comments
McCain denied that his mailer constitutes the sort of "negative campaigning" that he has complained about when aimed at him. On the campaign trail in Michigan, he told reporters that he was just responding to earlier attacks by Romney. As quoted by MSNBC, he said:
McCain: It's not negative campaigning. I think it's what his record is. ... [W]e will point out those matters of record. It's a tough business. I said it in the debate the other night. It's a tough business for all the candidates that are running. When millions of dollars are spent attacking us, we are going to have to respond.
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