John McCain just makes sh*t up

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

John McCain is either the biggest panderer on the planet, or he just makes sh*t up to tell a good story; or maybe its a bit of both.  In either case, you can’t believe a word this guy says.  His only defense is to plead he made a mistake, but this only draws attention to his advanced age and declining mental acuity (a concern for most Americans in poll after poll).

From Jake Tapper at the "Political Punch" blog at ABC News:

Yesterday in Pittsburgh, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., professed his love for the Steelers to KDKA-TV.

Watch HERE.

Asked what first comes to his mind when he thinks of Pittsburgh, McCain chuckled, "the Steelers.  I was a mediocre high school athlete but I loved and adored the sports but the Steelers really made a huge impression on me particularly in my early years."

And then McCain told a rather moving story about his time as a P.O.W. "When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the pressures, physical pressures on me, I named the starting lineup, defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron mates."

"Could you do it today?" asked the reporter.

"No, unfortunately," McCain said.

Here’s one reason he likely couldn’t do it today — the Steelers aren’t the team whose defensive line McCain named for his Vietnamese tormentors. The Green Bay Packers are. At least according to every previous time McCain has told this story.

In McCain’s best-selling 1999 memoir “Faith of My Fathers,” McCain writes:

“Once my condition had stabilized, my interrogators resumed their work. Demands for military information were accompanied by threats to terminate my medical treatment if I did not cooperate. Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant. Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron. When asked to identify future targets, I simply recited the names of a number of North Vietnamese cities that had already been bombed.”

In 2005, A&E ran a movie version of "Faith of My Fathers."

And McCain discussed that precise clip on CNN.

* * *

The Packers anecdote is not only a key part of the McCain biography, it’s part of his argument against torture.

Explaining why he thinks torture can result in erroneous information, McCain wrote in Newsweek in 2005, "In my experience, abuse of prisoners often produces bad intelligence because under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear–whether it is true or false–if he believes it will relieve his suffering. I was once physically coerced to provide my enemies with the names of the members of my flight squadron, information that had little if any value to my enemies as actionable intelligence. But I did not refuse, or repeat my insistence that I was required under the Geneva Conventions to provide my captors only with my name, rank and serial number. Instead, I gave them the names of the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line, knowing that providing them false information was sufficient to suspend the abuse."

Timothy McNulty at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes that the Steelers teams of the late 1960s were so unsuccessful that "few people outside their immediate families would claim knowing them."

You can hardly blame the senator for not knowing them. The biggest Steelers fan you know probably couldn’t name the defensive line of the 4-9-1 Steelers in 1967 — the year the Navy pilot was shot down over Hanoi — of Chuck Hinton, Ken Kortas, Ben McGee and Lloyd Voss.

* * *

The senator’s mix up with the Steelers "was an honest mistake," a campaign spokesman said yesterday. "If bloggers want to make fun of John McCain because he forgot which team he used under torture, that is their right." 

OK, I will. I find the "honest mistake" explanation unbelievable.  Any true cheese head Packers fan can recite the starting lineup of the World Champion Green Bay Packers from Superbowls I and II from memory. You were never a Green Bay Packers fan otherwise.

“Quarterback Bart Starr slides back for a pass while Elijah Pitts moves out as a possible blocker or receiver, and the offensive line stiffens to protect Starr in the World Championship game against the Chiefs in Los Angeles, Jan. 15, 1967.” In more detail, from left to right on the Packers’ side of the ball, we have #81 TE Marv Fleming, #76 LT Bob Skoronski, #63 LG “Fuzzy” Thurston, #15 QB Bart Starr, #22 RB Elijah Pitts, #57 C Ken Bowman, #64 RG Jerry Kramer, and #75 RT Forrest Gregg."

The "Steel Curtain" defense of the Pittsburgh Steelers first came to prominence in the 1974 season – after John McCain had returned home from Vietnam in 1973.  That is one big mistake (especially after telling the Packers version of his story on the campaign trail for the last 26 years and writing about it in his book).  Blatantly pandering to Steelers fans, in Pittsburgh no less, could cost McCain western Pennsylvania and the state.  Steelers fans are serious about their football legends.

Steelers "Steel Curtain" Defense: #78 Dwight White, #63 Ernie Holmes, #75 Joe Green, and #68 LC Greenwood.