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McCain: As a Former Prisoner of War, I Like ABBA

Okay, so I know I'm treading in dangerous waters. But I found a great example of how John McCain's claim that he would never exploit his prisoner of war experience is more than a little bit phony.

McCain recently said that Dancing Queen, by ABBA, was his favorite song. Questioned by an incredulous reporter after making the selection, McCain pointed to his war service as the explanation:

Walter Isaacson: "What were you thinking?"

John McCain: "If there is anything I am lacking in, I've got to tell you, it is taste in music and art and other great things in life. I've got to say that a lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane and never caught up again."

Yes, I realized he's joking around. But McCain "impacted a surface-to-air missile" in 1967.

Dancing Queen was recorded in 1976.

The claim that McCain is a stoic war hero, too scarred to talk about his time overseas and too principled to exploit it for political gain, is a media narrative that has gone unquestioned for too long.

PS — Want to make clear that McCain has the right to talk about his war service all he wants, just as John Kerry did in 2004. But we collectively have to put to rest this myth that McCain chooses not to in an admirable and principled act of self-denial.

Posted by Jonathan Stein on 08/18/08 at 7:03 AM | Comments (1) | Email | Print

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