Tikkabik

So there's some question about whether John McCain heard Rick Warren's questions before he appeared on stage with him Saturday night. And the McCain campaign, predictably, is playing the "POW" card. And I'm sick and fucking tired of it.

"The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous," Ms. Wallace said.

This is just the latest example I've seen where McCain's camp feigns outrage that anyone impugns his character and falls back on his days at the Hanoi Hilton as a "get out of jail free" card, if you'll pardon the expression.

Earlier this week Gen. Wesley Clark was excoriated for saying, in essence, that McCain's experience as a fighter pilot and as a P.O.W. didn't prepare him for handling national strategic issues. It broke open wide in late June, but in reality Clark has been saying the same thing for months.

"If Barack Obama wants to question John McCain's service to his country, he should have the guts to do it himself and not hide behind his campaign surrogates," Smith said.

So thats what you have to look forward to if you vote for McCain, folks -- any dissention will be met with whining about what a great American he is and how impeccable his credentials are because of his P.O.W. and Vietnam fighter pilot experience.