New national GOP frontrunner: McCain is a hero, and if there was a misunderstanding,

Hot Air.com ^ | July 21, 2015 | ALLAHPUNDIT

[Kaslin]

The Journal calls it Trump’s attempt to make peace with the GOP after two days of heavy breathing over the McCain comments. It’s not an apology, but Mediaite is right that it’s probably as close as he gets to an apology. Which is good, because only RINOs apologize.

He insists here that he didn’t really say what everyone heard him say this past weekend about McCain, which is interesting given that Trump fans have spent the last three days claiming that what he said was correct. Trump keeps pointing in interviews to this “fact check” by Sharyl Attkisson, who took issue with WaPo’s characterization of Trump’s remarks. It’s not true, notes Attkisson, that Trump said “McCain was not a war hero because he was captured.” He said he was a war hero because he was captured. That’s right — and that was obviously sarcasm, which is why Trump fans enjoyed it so much. Go watch the clip yourself, which takes all of 15 seconds but which Attkisson never links to. Trump starts by saying McCain’s not a hero, then he tries to roll out his wiseguy remark about being captured and gets halfway through the sentence before Frank Luntz interrupts him by mentioning McCain’s five and a half years in captivity. So Trump starts over: He’s a war hero — because he got captured. He’s mocking the idea of celebrating someone who ended up in enemy hands by supposedly screwing up in getting shot down. WaPo recognized his sarcasm and relayed Trump’s point accurately. The reason their characterization of his remarks used the opposite of the actual words Trump used is because, guess what, that’s how sarcasm works. If you want to defend his original comments as not having been a shot at McCain, at least focus on the bit at the very end, after his wiseguy point, where he allowed that “perhaps” McCain is a hero.

Everyone, most of all his own fans, knew what Trump meant, and it had nothing to do with McCain’s alleged callousness to veterans’ issues, which itself is a dubious claim. Peter Spiliakos sums it up:

One of the things I hear from Trump supporters is that he tells it like it is. Whether it is promising to get Mexico to pay for a border fence, or saying that McCain was not a war hero for enduring torture rather than accepting special privileges, or later pretending that his McCain comments were about Trump’s deep interest in the welfare of underserved veterans, it is obvious that Trump doesn’t tell it like it is, and that some of his fans like that about him.

Trump’s rhetoric is about wounding people that his fans despise. It doesn’t have to be true, and, on some level they can accept collateral damage inflicted on others. Trump’s McCain comment was a collective insult against POWs who served honorably, but Trump’s fans also know it was intended to insult one politician and his media enablers. Nothing personal, all you other POWs. Likewise, his promise to get Mexico to pay for a border fence is the inverse of a bipartisan political establishment that pretends building a border fence is some kind of physical responsibility.

He meant to denigrate McCain but he he took so much flak for it later that he felt obliged to pretend that he’d said something else. (Apologizing wasn’t an option, of course.) Pretty straightforward. Can we all settle down about l’affaire Maverick now? I mean, I realize Rick Perry’s eager to get a foothold in the polls, but c’mon:

Inbox: "ICYMI: GOV. PERRY: “I'M GOING TO STAND UP TO [TRUMP], JUST LIKE I WOULD STAND UP TO VLADIMIR PUTIN”

— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) July 21, 2015

Trump and Putin are night and day, buddy. After all, the latter’s worth a lot more than the former is.

O’Reilly Confronts Donald Trump over McCain 'No Hero' Remarks: 'You Picked the Wrong Guy'

[Kaslin]

The rest of the title is I would take that back

[Red in Blue PA]

I wish anyone of these clowns would stand up to Obama like they are standing up to Trump.

Perhaps then they might have some support.

The stupid party strikes again.

[theDentist]

Well, I expect any American who was held captive 5 years as a POW is heroic.
However, I also look at his Political life, and find he has become a RINO, self-absorbed, and cares not for the Vets as much as he claims.
He should have retired LONG AGO.

[Jane Long]

I think someone on Trump’s campaign reads our posts. FR had the Atkinsson piece posted, with lots of comments, lickedy split.

[ETL]

"...[former Rep. Robert Dornan (R-CA)] said there were transcripts of other POWs reacting to McCain’s false statements, saying, 'Oh my God, is that Admiral McCain’s son? Is that the admiral’s son? Is that Johnny, telling us that our principle targets are schools, orphanages, hospitals, temples, churches? That was Jane Fonda’s line.'..."

John Mccain Exposed By Vietnam Vets And Pow's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hr37eE0nO8

[austinaero]

This was yesterday’s news. This is all a big *yawn* now.

Not poking at you,,poking at the media.

[Hostage]

I’m sorry but I have searched everywhere I can to find out what was it that McCain actually did that made him a war hero. And I have yet to find out exactly what concrete things he did that saved lives, that were crucial to strategic military victories or that inspired men to fight for freedom. I just don’t see it.

So I disagree with Donald Trump who calls McCain a war hero.

I call McCain a person who suffered greatly as a POW but there were many others who did the same, in fact there were tens of thousands that suffered greatly in that war and more than 50,000 of them paid the ultimate price. I see McCain as someone that survived against great odds but there were many who did the same.

Please if I am wrong, tell me exactly what McCain did that was so extraordinary that it resulted in saving lives or winning key military victories.

I do know of one person whose acts of heroism are clear and transparent:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3314592/posts

[Melinator]

Wow! McCain! what a fag!
New topic.... Unemployment.
Iran axxholes?
Obama the Jihadi?
Hillary the Felonious Lesbian?
Sanders the hardcore Commi?

What’s wrong with this picture?

[DoughtyOne]

Comment of the day.

Damn shame they only have a back-bone against us isn’t it.

[DoughtyOne]

I wonder who that was...

= ;^)

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

There is a reason the commanding officer (James stockdale)at the Hanoi Hilton put out the order that they all go home together. That’s also part of the story you will never hear. Read up on it.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

BINGO! This is why mcnutts is trying to get past all this when he says Trump does not owe him an apology,lets move on.Damn, Trump is smart.

[TomGuy]

Now that we have 16 (and possibly more coming) in the Republican race so far, it may be time who start a new game:

Who will be the first Republican to drop out?

Extra point: When?

Closest correct answer will win something like a 6-pack of microwave popcorn.

[Kaslin]

Actually there are 32 declared Republican candidates. Sixteen of them however are unknown. 17 declared rat candidates and if you add the 13 Independents as they vote mostly with the rats anyway that makes it just 2 less than the Republican candidates

[dforest]

I watched this on BOR. BOR was the one apologizing for him. BOR was doing his usual “Come on, Come on, you didn’y mean it.” crap.

Then when it is over, BOR says Trump apologized, LOL

[Jane Long]

Ooops...sorry...I couldn’t remember in the haste of my post :)

I do think they’re reading our threads.

[DoughtyOne]

Well, someone else could have linked her in too.

No problem at all Jane. I don’t expect you to remember who posted everything you read here. I can’t.

[familyop]

"...it is obvious that Trump doesn’t tell it like it is, and that some of his fans like that about him."

As some of them also show by lying about what Admiral Stockdale said about McCain. Here's the truth of the matter.

John McCain in the Crucible
New York Times
By JAMES B. STOCKDALE
November 26, 1999
[Excerpt:]

And I consider it blasphemy to smudge the straight-arrow prisoner-of-war record of a man who was near death when he arrived at Hoa Loa prison 1967: both arms broken, left leg broken, left shoulder broken by a civilian with a rifle butt.

He was eventually taken to the same rat-infested hospital room I had occupied two years earlier, and, like me, he had surgery on his leg. By then the Vietnamese had discovered that his father was the ranking admiral in the Pacific Fleet, and he received an offer that, as far as I know, was made to no other American prisoner: immediate release, no strings attached. He refused, thereby sentencing himself to four more years in a cell.

[familyop]

Notice the glee that they display after eliciting disgust from real conservatives, and see the following to know what their goal is.

Washington Post-ABC News poll, July 16-19, 2015
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/politics/washington-post-abc-news-poll-july-16-19-2015/1778/

Q: If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination for
president would you definitely vote for him in the general election for president in 2016, would you consider voting for him or would you definitely not vote for him?

Definitely would vote for

14

Would consider voting for

20

Definitely would NOT vote for

62

No opinion

4

=================================

Hillary. That's their goal.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

I was thinking the same