Co-worker is voting for McCain because he served his country

[louis c]

In a workplace debate, after I stripped a co-worker of any reasonable argument to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket, he hit me with that old stand-by. McCain served in Viet-Nam, was shot down and spent 5 years in a POW camp.

My response was this. "I respect his service. I honor his sacrifice. That's why he, and others like him, deserve to go to the top of any civil service list. But, that alone does not qualify him to be President of the United States. Oh, and by the way, veterans' preference on civil service lists was the Democratic Party's idea, just in case you wanted to know."

[Nia Zuri]

1. Isn't Obama preferred by military men at this point?

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. SHHHH you are letting the secret out of the bag

they also voted for Kerry in droves.

[Obamanaut]

24. He certainly is by this military retiree. nt

[mitchum]

2. Ask him if he voted for John Kerry in 2004

[d_b]

5. haha.

^^ what he says.

[TomInTib]

4. Yeah, well let him pay the country back for the planes he crashed.

He was a shitty pilot who, without his familial connection, would've been stripped of his wings long before he got to the Forrestal.

[lonestarnot]

7. And I guess that what 5th from the bottom OTS didn't help him much with

common sense either, bottom feeder. I think he should give up about 12 of his cars and 16 houses for those planes. :evilgrin:

[TomInTib]

15. And he could buy me a new guitar.

One that I can tune after listening to Palin's voice.

[lonestarnot]

20. Ackety. Can stand to listen to her voice, don't know how I'm going to stand Thursday evening!

I'll have a few tipped to tolerate! :toast:

[TomInTib]

28. I'll be either tipped or too far gone to care.

Watch it for me, will you?
T.

[mcctatas]

6. Show him this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS1_uw_N2Wg&eurl=http://www.crooksandliars.com/

[tazkcmo]

8. I served, vote for me n/t

[pennylane100]

9. You might want to point out that Hitler also served his country.

[TheCowsCameHome]

10. His reason is so lame

What does it have to do with anything going on today?

[KewlKat]

11. Tell them if they vote McInSane then they need to put on a

uniform. They're going to need lots of folks to fight more wars, more wars, more wars.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PdJUCU1UH2w

[Doodler71]

12. Here... hand this information to your co-worker

http://www.nationinstitute.org/p/schanberg09182008pt1

McCain, the war "hero" intentionally and knowingly abandoned 1,000 plus soldiers in POW camps in Vietnam.

Included in the evidence that McCain and his government allies suppressed or sought to discredit is a transcript of a senior North Vietnamese general's briefing of the Hanoi politburo, discovered in Soviet archives by an American scholar in 1993. The briefing took place only four months before the 1973 peace accords. The general, Tran Van Quang, told the politburo members that Hanoi was holding 1,205 American prisoners but would keep many of them at war's end as leverage to ensure getting war reparations from Washington.

(snip)
For many reasons, including the absence of a political constituency for the missing men other than their families and some veterans' groups, very few Americans are aware of the POW story and of McCain's role in keeping it out of public view and denying the existence of abandoned POWs. That is because McCain has hardly been alone in his campaign to hide the scandal.

(snip)
The Arizona Senator, now the Republican candidate for President, has actually been following the lead of every White House since Richard Nixon's and thus of every CIA director, Pentagon chief and national security adviser, not to mention Dick Cheney, who was George H. W. Bush's defense secretary. Their biggest accomplice has been an indolent press, particularly in Washington.


The research and article are by Sydney H. Schanberg, a Pulitzer Prize winning international journalist for nearly 50 years. He has written extensively on foreign affairs--particularly Asia--and on domestic issues such as ethics, racial problems, government secrecy, corporate excesses and the weaknesses of the national media.

The 1984 movie, The Killing Fields, which won several Academy Awards, was based on his book The Death and Life of Dith Pran - a memoir of his experiences covering the war in Cambodia for the New York Times and of his relationship with his Cambodian colleague, Dith Pran.

If your co-worker reads this article, he may have a very different opinion about the title of "hero" being bestowed on McCain.

[karynnj]

17. This is not very reputable information

The committee engaged in the most detailed investigation for any war on this - and the number of missing is far less than in the Korean war.

THis was John Kerry's committee and nearly every Vietnam Vet in the Senate was on it - and they all agreed to the conclusion. (I think the current total of missing is less than 1000.

The people feeding this lie are people like Shapley who was shown to have raised money to investigate it - but most of the money was not used to do so.

1) Explain what Vietnam gets out of secretly hiding men - feeding, sheltering and garding them - but never using them as bargaining chips to get anything.

2) Explain why men Like Kerry and Kerrey would cover for the Nixon administration that Kerrey hated and Kerry was trashed by. (Explain why Kerry was simultaneously exposing the Reagan/Bush administration on the Contra drug running and investigating corruption at BCCI)

[Jawja]

13. Your co-worker needs an excuse NOT

to vote for Obama and that's the only one he has. He wouldn't vote for Obama under any circumstances.

[JonLP24]

14. Getting shot down in a fighter jet is not a qualification to be President

That is what I would say and I'd have a 4 Star General backing me up.

[coalition_unwilling]

16. Obama served his community, and thereby

served his country.

[amandabeech]

18. This person is not going to vote for Obama.

You've tried, but I fear that you're only pushing this guy further away by keeping at it.

There is only so much time left before the election, and you live in Massachusetts which is going Obama anyway.

Anything you can do to help in a swing state would be a better use of your energy.

[JaneQPublic]

19. By that reasoning, he should have voted for Kerry over GWB...

...and Gore over GWB.

And if he votes on the basis of military service in general, then he should have voted for Carter over Reagan.

And McGovern over Nixon.

Unless he did, then his argument fall through.

[KamaAina]

22. But, but, but Bush** did so serve his country!

I mean, did you ever stop to think about why the Viet Cong never invaded Texas? Or Alabama? It was because of men like Bush** who were brave enough to fly obsolete aircraft to defend them, that's why!

:sarcasm:

[UTUSN]

21. Yip, most of my fellow vets drive me batty. Among the batshit "reasons" they give for being wingnut

* VFW types, who are very "in" to scarfing down compensation have said, "We do better with them (Rethugs)." Uh, no.

* A-hole vet wingnuts who are not by definition "chicken"hawks, prefer chickenhawks and AWOL Shrub over genuine vets who are Dems.


*Then there was this prize in '04. I had just known this Vietnam vet for a few months coming up to the election. Inevitably we started talking politics. He had been homeless, then started getting the maximum VA plus Social Security disability benefits. So he said he had never voted and never will, but that he liked Shrub. For a couple of b.s. sessions we went round and round. The bottomline "reason" he put forth for liking Shrub was that he had started getting the benefits when Shrub was pResident. We had gotten to a stage where I could be very VERY blunt and I told him this was a totally ridiculous non-reason, that the president didn't have personal control over individual cases. I gave him history lessons about the Dem programs--Social Security and the rest. Nothing would budge him. It worked on my mind and the next time I saw him I said, "Wait a minute, when did you first start getting your checks?" He said it was in 2000. I said, "AHA!1 Shrub wasn't pResident in 2000!1 CLINTON was!1" (I had sunk to his level of "reasoning".) His "reason" was evaporated. But what was left? Nothing. He still luerves Shrub and doesn't give a reason.


QUOTE FROM T.E. LAWRENCE, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom," Anchor Books Edition, paper, p. 188: "...until a comparison of Kuhne and Foch disgusted me with soldiers, wearied me of their officious glory, making me critical of all their light."

[Mnemosyne]

23. Tell him to look up 'Songbird of Vietnam'. n/t

[Arugula Latte]

25. Do, did he vote for Kerry, then?

[lunatica]

26. The one I use that works every time

Is when, in front of reporters he said to Cindy, "At least I don't pile on makeup like a trollop, you cunt." simply because she teased him about his thinning hair.

It sucks the wind right out of their sails, and even if they pretend it doesn't matter, it really does, because it stays with them. They will think about it every time they see her, which is every time he's on.

http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2008/04/straight-talk-e.html

edited to add link

[Mz Pip]

27. People serve their country in many different ways.

How does this service translate into experience? It doesn't, really. Look at what the GOP did to Max Cleland. Ask your co-worker if what the GOP did to him, a vet who lost 3 limbs, makes them the party of patriots.

McCain has been rewarded many times over for his service. It doesn't entitle him to the top prize.

[Stellabella]

29. I assume he voted for Kerry, then?

And Carter, over Reagan, if he's that old?

[shadowknows69]

30. Because helping a downtrodden community and being a legislator

And inspiring tens of thousands of people to vote for the first time isn't serving your country right? Unless you did it with a uniform and slung a rifle.