So McCain himself is now using the POW line to deflect his embarrassments on the campaign trail. I admit I thought it was just his handlers doing so before. I suppose McCain is becoming even more Republican, and he’s attempting to show there is nothing beneath him as a way of showing his GOP cred. Here’s a bit of a report about his appearance on Jay Leno, from ABC News and Jake Tapper:

“For a million dollars,” Jay Leno asked Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., today, “how many houses do you have?”

“Could I just mention to you, Jay, that, at a moment of seriousness. I spent five-and-a-half years in a prison cell,” McCain said. “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. And I didn’t spend those five-and-a-half years because, not because I wanted to get a house when I got out.”

The fact that he uses the excuse of being a POW for darned near anything is not news. The American people are getting tired of the constant McCain attacks on Obama and his trying to deflect questions with “a noun, a verb, POW” when called on his own words. So this story doesn’t excite me much. But, but, but. . . the comments in response to Tapper’s story are fun. It’s beginning to look like folks really are tired of McCain’s whiney excuses. Here’s a response that likens McCain to the old Batman TV series, but I highly recommend you browse all the comments for your reading pleasure:

McCain is becoming a one-liner, or rather a one-worder: POW!

He’s beginning to remind us of the old TV Batman series in the ’60s. You all remember Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin when they would get in their fights with The Joker, and The Penguin and The Riddler, and the rest. The cartoon signs would be inserted in big letters on the screen: BANG! BONK! DING! BOINK! POW!….I knew you’d remember….It seems John only remembers POW! and inserts GOP! occasionally…Not enough for a tv show, and certainly not enough for a sequel!

Yelling POW! every time he forgets where a country is, or how many homes he has, or whether Sunni’s and Shia’s and Kurd’s like each other, or why he never learned much about economics other than to marry into it, or why affordable healthcare and the housing and mortgage crisis mean something to middle income Americans and why their taxes should be lowered not the multi-millionaires, simply will not suffice as a convincing argument.

I respect your service; I respect your status; but you are treating it like a joke when you ignore issues and throw out the word POW! like it is your magic wand.

I learned more about military integrity and personal integrity from my WWII Dad who seldom even mentioned or talked about his war days. He kept his medals respectfully in a box. It was only late in life that we learned what his Bronze Star was for. His view as he raised us was he did what his country asked, no explanation or excuses needed, and no special treatment asked for; and then he firmly told all of us to go get an education so we could learn enough to prevent wars, and earn our way with our families, and provide the leadership for our kids when it was the next generation’s turn to lead.

I am guided by his words. It is time for the next generation to put that education to work and provide the leadership that will make the world a better place. I will work for Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States. Join in this effort. Make our nation proud!

Frankly, I never knew the ABC blog of Jake Tapper had attracted such literate folks. Few McCain supporters there, which is to be expected. crayons and keyboards don’t go together. (OK, sometimes it is hard NOT to take a cheap shot.)