Nothing qualifies one to be president. It is a one-of-a-kind job.
Therefore, we can say that there are jobs one has, positions one holds, experiences one undergoes, that give unique opportunity to learn skills, test character, etc.
In that case, being a POW is one of those remarkable experiences from which one can learn skills and test character. Also, IIRC, the ranking person in a POW setting is by law the commander. I'm guessing that part of the reason McCain was beaten so brutally while a POW was that from time to time he, a LtCdr when downed, was the ranking individual.
Do you think learning to forgive those who were personally brutal to you would be a excellent experience for a president to have had?
Actually, I am very glad they went over McCain's experience in the POW camp. I had never heard the story told or shown before. If I, a retired soldier, had not seen, then surely many others had also not seen.
I am not sure if he was the ranking POW. LtCdr is equivalent to a Major (O-4). You may be thinking LtCol (O-5).
I am sure they tried to make an example of him after he refused them. It was pure revenge. I am surprised he survived. The bastards would not have answered to anyone had he died. And ten years later we had diplomatic relations with Vietnam. It's really pathetic.
Like I said, he has character and he made a heroic decision in Hanoi. That doesn't mean his other choices in life were of equal merit, or a guarantee that they will be of equal merit.
I disagree with McCain's liberal stand, and on a number of domestic and foreign policy judgments. I have no issues with his character, his bravery, his suffering or his patriotism.
I think it's been a brilliant strategy on the Republicans' part. Weeks ago, there were rumblings by Obermann and Blitzer and Cooper and all the liberal talking-heads (redundant) that McCain was beginning to talk "too much" about his war experience.
But instead of pulling back on the story, McCain has shoved the facts of those five long years in captivity at the hands of a brutal enemy right into their pasty, smug, powered and coiffed faces.
Soon there won't be a person in the world who hasn't learned what McCain endured for his country. That's smart.