Remember When Liberals Were Claiming McCain Wasn't a Hero?
"Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president"
The media is very conveniently joining in the outrage over Trump's comments. Like most media outrage, it relied on a very short attention span. Until fairly recently, comments about McCain not being a hero were most likely to come from liberals and the occasional Paultard.
Here are a few sample titles from progressive outposts like DailyKos and Democratic Underground.
John McCain Is NOT a 'War Hero'
John McCain American Hero?
It's Time To Stop Pretending John McCain Is A "Hero"
They recite most of the same talking points that were part of the Obama whispering campaign against him back in '08.
Then again there was the Chris Rock joke, "He a war hero that got captured. There's a lot of guys in jail that got captured. Sh*t, f**k that. I don't want to vote for nobody that got captured. I wanna vote for the mothe____ that got away."
The origin of Trump's line turns out to be Chris Rock. But don't expect the media to acknowledge that.
Dems used cleaner versions of this a s attacks back in '08.
"Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president," Wesley Clark said.
Rand Beers, Sen. John Kerry’s, D-Mass., top national security adviser during his 2004 presidential run, said that because McCain was in an unfortunate state of “isolation” during much of the Vietnam War, his national security experience is “sadly limited.”
Beers said the McCain limitations are reflected in “some of the ways he thinks about the ways in which US forces might be committed to conflicts around the world.”
Wink-wink.
But the media has only loved McCain when it can use him to sell its narrative about Republicans. The moment he's an obstacle, it gives him both barrels. And so the same people who mocked McCain and Bob Dole's disabilities suddenly pretended to be outraged on McCain's behalf. Much like outrage over sexism, it's highly selective.
After spending decades mocking Bob Dole's disability, liberals suddenly feigned outrage when Republicans didn't pass a bill on disabilities that he wanted. This is more of the same. |
