Ryan Gill ([info]montieth) wrote,
@ 2008-09-26 18:43:00
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Red Herrings....
How many of my military friends who've seen combat or 'stressful situations' (or not) would view the following with a bit of distaste? Lets expand that to EMS responders and Cops. You've seen death and destruction, therefore, you're more likely to crack and THUS more likely to be unsuitable for positions of critical responsibility.

"John McCain's being a POW does not make him more qualified to be our president, it makes him LESS qualified."

Basically the gist is that his treatment in Vietnam as a POW makes him more likely to crack and use the Football in ways not appropriate. ie he has latent PTSD that makes him unfit for his presidency.

Discuss.

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[info]libidoergosum
2008-09-26 11:02 pm UTC (link)
His time as a POW makes him a bit more of a wild card. He's got a hot temper, but he's got enough judgment to keep it pretty much in check and just insult people or fume.

I firmly believe that the fact that his sons serve (including one enlisted Marine) he has a vested interest and a keen awareness of what war is like and that, I believe gives him the edge in that respect over Sen Obama.

The problem with the Presidency is that we really won't know how effective they will be in the job until the get into it. I think that in this current situation, his abilities in regards to handling the economic situation is far more of a concern than his ability to handle the football. That is not to say that his handling of nuclear assets is not important, but I doubt very seriously that he will be the first President since WWII to use or openly threaten to use "The Bomb". Although I could be wrong in that fact as I think Kennedy openly threatened to use the bomb in the Cuban Missile Crisis, but my memory is a bit fuzzy.

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[info]aggression
2008-09-26 11:05 pm UTC (link)
Ok, I'll chime in here.

I'll start by saying "No two apples are the same."
I don't think I have to clarify that.

Everyone handles stress in a different way.
I did two combat tours but people in Nam would say that what I saw was nothing.
People in WWII would say the same about Nam.
Etc, etc.

I don't think anyone can truly qualify or disqualify on someone's past but that's just me.
I DO think that if he was going to "crack," he would have done so by now.
It's not like Congress is this ultra easy no stress job.
PLUS we have a system in place that keeps him from being able to just pick up a phone and yell, "NUKE EM NOW!"

In closing, I think it has little to no bearing at all honestly.
Military =/= automatically make President leadership material.

That's my .02 at least.

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[info]roninspoon
2008-09-26 11:11 pm UTC (link)
I don't view the statement with distaste. I also don't think his time as a POW has any bearing at all on his qualifications as a candidate.

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[info]notgruntled
2008-09-26 11:23 pm UTC (link)
It's a pretty sleazy tactic, if it's really being presented like that. McCain's short temper is a legitimate issue to bring up based not on an assumption because he was a POW, but on observation.

I've seen the claim that McCain was psychologically damaged by his POW experience floated on the fringes, notably in a classic Karl Rove whispering campaign in 2000, but I'd be shocked if anyone with a reputation to protect stepped out onto that limb.

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[info]johnbutler
2008-09-26 11:31 pm UTC (link)
cf. Fallacy of Composition

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[info]catness
2008-09-26 11:33 pm UTC (link)
The claim itself, horseshit. But as noted above, everybody handles stressors differently. Also, signs of that kind of debilitating stress would have likely shown up previous to now.

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[info]daddygod
2008-09-26 11:35 pm UTC (link)
I was diagnosed with PTSD after an incident in '94 but if anything it made me even better able to handle something similar instead of a "loose cannon".

I second what has already been said that PTSD is not a blanket diagnosis that affects everyone the same so there is no way to tell if McCain would tweak if put into a stressful situation although his track record would suggest that he wouldn't. I think the postulation of this is just grasping at straws.

On another note, would you mind dropping me a line at the email in my profile? I've just obtained my first Enfield and I've got some questions.

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[info]eviltwin2
2008-09-27 12:17 am UTC (link)
The 'logic' in the argument could be extended to any US President who swwe combat, with an emphasis on death up close and personal.

You know.

Like Kennedy.

[/argument]

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[info]oreithyia
2008-09-27 02:16 am UTC (link)
That could go either way. It could either make him more sympathetic to soldiers in the military and less likely to send them out, or completely vengeful about the whole thing and want to take out any possible threat. or some third (most likely) more balanced perspective.

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[info]sydneyrodriguez
2008-09-27 02:35 pm UTC (link)
Like the others have said, it depends on how he has reacted to and coped with having gone through that, but that he served in war and was a POW has no bearings on his qualifications.

I do wish they would stop using his status as a POW, for or against him, though.

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