Who Knows More About John McCain's Favorite Football Team? John McCain or Fred Thompson?
Last night, Fred Thompson tugged at the nation's heart strings, recounting John McCain very admirable and brave behavior while being beaten and tortured in a North Vietnamese prison camp. (On a slightly sideways note, I wonder how many other people wondered, as Thompson spoke, how our own prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are behaving under similar conditions.)
I actually was pretty moved by Thompson's retelling of McCain's story. But when he came to the part about McCain's favorite football team, my interest was piqued…
"John was beaten for communicating with other prisoners. He was beaten for not communicating with so-called "peace delegations." He was beaten for not giving information during interrogations.
"When his captors wanted the names of other pilots in his squadron, John gave them the names of the offensive line of the Green Bay Packers."
I could have sworn I heard a very similar — though not quite identical — anecdote before…
"When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the physical pressures that were on me, I named the starting lineup — defensive line — of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron-mates!"
To be clear, I don't think this is not a genuine issue. Whether it's Fred Thompson or John McCain who's talking out of John McCain's ass doesn't much matter to me. Politicians talk, and their talk only once in a while reflects reality. I'm okay with that.
What I'm not okay with, though, is that McCain never augmented his story to name the Philadelphia Eagles. C'mon, man! It's not like the Eagles sucked any more than the Steelers did in 1968! Can't a politician at least lie and pretend he's on our side?
And Ed Rendell doesn't count. Because he's a douchebag.
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EAGLES ROCK!
even though I don't really follow sports, I probably would have listed the characters in super smash brothers before I listed any sports people; "ummm, T.O. And, uhh, McNabb, and, ummm… Luigi?"
The dang two pick in a fantasy football league gets more vetting than Palin.
Olberman pointed out McCain was there for a while, so it could well have been both. Still, as Fred said, jus' being a POW don't mean you can jus' mosey on down and do some presidencin'.
john mccain could have named the lineup of the new york football giants, the cleveland browns, or the boston redskins. it does not matter. he is a war hero and most of our best presidents have been war heroes. look at washington. look at jackson. look at grant. look at mckinley. look at eisenhower. mccain is a hero.