My friend Dave made an excellent comment to my previous post about McCain’s potentially borrowed story about his time in a Vietnamese prison camp. He made two very valid points:
- McCain’s prison experience should be left alone
- None of this is relevant to a Presidential campaign
I should have pre-empted my previous post with the fact that I wish in no way to attack McCain’s time in the prison camp. Surely he suffered greatly at the hands of his captors; of that there is no doubt in anyone’s mind. My point was merely to point out that his story was potentially borrowed from another author. It was coincidence that the stories took place in a prison camp. That is why I added that I had felt that McCain and Hillary both should not have used fabrications in personal stories to pander to evangelical voters or add weight to their experience of foreign policy.
But Dave has hit the nail on the head by saying that none of this should be relevant to a Presidential campaign. Unfortunately in America we often elect personalities more than politicians or parties. We often put aside the real issues of the day because we like that person running for office. I believe that is a far worse epidemic in American politics than fabricating a personal story.