Word: mccain
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Twenty-six years later, McCain has returned to the same tactic, but some critics say he is overplaying his trump card. At several points over the past two weeks, the McCain campaign has raised his military service in efforts to defuse political attacks, even when it seemed to have little if any bearing on the issue at hand. When the Obama campaign laid into McCain for not knowing the number of houses owned by his family, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post that "this is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years...
...McCain campaign is unapologetic about the tactic, which speaks to the complex ways that McCain has referred to his military service over his career. On the one hand, his time in captivity in Vietnam was clearly the most defining experience of his life, but he has often been hesitant to discuss the experience at length. He has always made clear, including at the start of this presidential run, that he wanted to move beyond the experience, something he has done with great success...
Mark Salter, a close McCain adviser and biographer, says there is nothing wrong with the growing role McCain's military service is playing in the campaign, a biography that is sure to be on full display next week at the Republican Convention in St. Paul, Minn. "Every nominee tells their story," Salter says. "Obama talks about his service as a community organizer. Neither we nor the press begrudge him that. And John gets to tell his story of service. Why anyone would argue he shouldn't is beyond...
...critics say the issue isn't the McCain campaign's use of biography per se, but rather how and when they bring it up. By turning to his POW experience in order to deflect any question, be it about his character, wealth or memory, McCain appears to risk trivializing his own heroic personal story in much the same way that Rudy Giuliani's constant invoking of 9/11 became the butt of jokes during his presidential campaign...
...course, the McCain campaign may simply realize that, when it comes to such a moving tale of personal sacrifice as the candidate's years of captivity, there is no danger of going to the well too many times. As conservative commentator Pat Buchanan remarked on MSNBC earlier this week, they keep doing it because it keeps "working...