It seems that John McCain’s presidential campaign thinks that thus far they’ve “underused” the subject of McCain’s Vietnam service. Apparently, using it as a response to every criticism isn’t good enough so I guess that means they’ll be mentioning it in light of all McCain’s positive proposals, too. “I was held prisoner in Hanoi and tortured by Communists who wouldn’t approve of giant tax cuts slanted to the wealthiest citizens and that’s how I know that tax cuts for the rich is just what this country needs.” Or something. At any rate, once upon a time McCain was criticizing John Kerry for talking too much about Vietnam, saying he essentially invited the swift boat attacks by doing so:
McCain said that he urged Kerry sometime ago not to talk about Vietnam during his campaign. “I did advise John. I said, ‘Look, you shouldn’t talk about Vietnam because everybody else will. Let everybody else do it.’ His advisers figured that was probably not enough, that he had to emphasize that in his campaign. In my campaign, as you know, I didn’t talk about it because I didn’t need to.”
Now McCain talks about Vietnam when people ask why he can’t remember how many houses he owns, when they ask why he likes Abba, etc., etc., etc.