McCain pulls POW card on Leno

As much of an Obama supporter as I am, for a number of years I was also big on McCain. While there are some serious issues I disagree with him on, I felt he was a no bullsh*t guy with lots of integrity, more a Republican by default than effort. Even when he announced he would be running for President I was rather excited, thinking that for once, if a Republican won I’d at least feel like it was someone trustworthy.

Unfortunately, McCain has repeatedly deepsixed his “straight talk” image, the most recent evidence of this being the cheap misuse of his experience as a Vietnam POW.

On the Tonight Show last night, Jay Leno brought up McCain’s recent failure to answer a reporter’s question of how many houses he owns. McCain’s response, in part:

“I spent 5 1/2 years in a prison cell without — I didn’t have a house. I didn’t have a kitchen table. I didn’t have a table. I didn’t have a chair,” he said.

“I spent those 5 1/2 years … not because I wanted to get a house when I got out.” [from Reuters]

This isn’t the first time McCain or his campaign have used his POW history to shallowly dodge an issue, and don’t expect it to be the last. There is also some indication that the use of this experience, which he used to rarely bring up, is actually on the direct advice of Karl Rove… indicating, again, that if McCain is elected the next four years will be a repeat of the last eight.

That McCain served his country deserves respect, and that his survival as a prisoner of war in Vietnam builds his character up greatly. However, using this experience to deflect issues and questions that have nothing to do with an issue of war is not only beneath him, but anyone who should serve to lead as a senator, governor, or President.

Speculating Schwarzenegger’s next move

Edward Headington at Mayor Sam’s Sister City tosses out the possibility that Governor Arnold may be targeting a mayorship, or senate seat, after his second term in Sacramento ends. Heck, I’m still holding out for Arnold to play King Conan.

Headington points to what Schwarzenegger said on Leno a few nights ago:

I see myself as a public servant, not as a politician. I want to finish my term, and I’m absolutely convinced that if I do a good job, and a great job … we always will get a job after that.

If Schwarzenegger does pursue a mayorship or Senate seat, from what neighborhood? While the Los Angeles area seems like a natural, he did recently purchase 25 acres of land in Santa Barbara… let the guessing continue.

Clinton: “I was pinned down by sniper fire” on way into NBC’s Burbank studios

After the New York Senator took a seat next to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show set (airing tonight) she said, “It is so great to be here, I was so worried I wasn’t going to make it. I was pinned down by sniper fire.” [via My Way News]

While she was kiddingly referring to recent “mistatements” she recently made about a trip to Bosnia while her husband was in office, Angelenos may have thought she was referring to the growing number of shooting on L.A. area freeways and a seeming rise in gang warfare… or perhaps the city’s rejected 40 hour ban on murder.

Either way, I wonder if some hypersensitive pundits will call her “sniper” joke particularly insensitive considering tomorrow is the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination?