Easy Answers

"Was John McCain Brainwashed by his North Vietnamese Captors to Destroy this Nation?" No, he wasn't.

The entire Vietnam Veterans Against McCain site seems so preposterous that I almost hope it's a deliberate effort to generate a sympathy vote for McCain. I suspect, though, that it's meant in earnest. What's more, it's so preposterous that it doesn't even rise to the level of smear. If you were trying to think of damaging rumors to make up about McCain, you'd surely come up with something more plausible than this. Instead, the sad reality seems to be that some folks are unhinged enough to actually believe this kind of thing.

Comments

This is absolutely disgusting. But personally, I'd feel a lot more shocked & upset about it if it weren't so familiar, both from the "Wouldja vote for McCain if ya knew about all his black babies" calls and for the ever-continuing Sh*t Floats Veterans for Dupes' smearing of John Kerry. Seems to me like SOP for right wingers now, whether a local 'grassroots' effort or a covert hit team, so what else is new?

Posted by El Cid | January 16, 2008 11:56 AM

Hey, it worked on Kerry.

Posted by Anthony Damiani | January 16, 2008 11:56 AM

"the sad reality seems to be that some folks are unhinged enough to actually believe this kind of thing."

Bingo. You win the gold star (or perhaps in light of Mitt's win yesterday, just you win the gold).

Looks like a made-to-order South Carolina hit piece. Don't know why they bother (same reason Nixon did?) 'cause Huckleberry's got Jesus Land in the bag.

Posted by gonzone | January 16, 2008 12:19 PM

This sh*t worked very well in 2000, along with the "McCain fathered a black baby" McCain, I think, is actually in a better position to win SC this time around than in 2000.

Posted by Adam | January 16, 2008 12:24 PM

There are several members of my family, conservative people mind you, who believe that McCain's time as prisoner of war made him dangerously unstable and ineligible to be president. I think attacks of this kind are more effective than you give them credit for.

Posted by mad6798j | January 16, 2008 12:25 PM

But I thought McCain teamed up with Rambo and Baby Jesus to kill all of the commies.

Seriously, this is like accusing a rape victim of being biased and a feminazi on gender relations. You don't have to like his politics, but he was fucking tortured for years.

Posted by Reality Man | January 16, 2008 12:30 PM

If McCain were that kind of brain-washed zombie, he'd probably try to entangle the country in expensive and useless war. That's the about the most effective tactic a mole could use, nowadays. It's certainly worked for Bush.

And of course, that's what McCain wants to do. That hardly proves he's a zombie, though: probably he's just a fool.

Posted by gcochran | January 16, 2008 12:33 PM

Jerry Kiley and Ted Sampley, crazy fuckers.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | January 16, 2008 12:47 PM

mad6798j is absolutely right.
i've heard people on right-wing radio make the same claim.
when are folks going to understand that this stuff actually works.
it puts the target of the smear in a "trick bag".
if they ignore it, it continues to swirl around in the atmosphere and a certain percentage of uninformed voters will believe it, because it is not refuted.
if they address the smear and try to knock it down, the very fact of repeating and then knocking it down gives it air, brings it to the attention of voters who may not have heard about it previously. and a certain percentage of voters may either believe the smear, or be troubled enough by the smear so that they may not vote for the victim of the smear.
if a candidate is amoral enough - as bush was in 2000 and as romney appears to be now - to use this tactic, it can be extremely effective. it can eat away enough support to turn an election.
it may only influence 3-5 percent of an electorate, for instance, but that may be the differnce between first and second place. or the gold and the silver, in mittspeak.
pooh-poohing the tactic because it appears to be ridiculous on its face is a huge, huge mistake.
just ask john kerry.

Posted by frankie d | January 16, 2008 12:51 PM

My brother-in-law, who's a Marine, also believes the Manchurian candidate charge. Our conversation on the subject went something like this:

"You know he was brainwashed by the communists when in the prison camp."
"Really?"
"He's a Manchurian candidate."
"You're joking, right?"
"Nope."
"You must be."
"And Obama wants to kill thousands of babies that are within days of being born."
"You forgot that he's a secret member of AlQaeda."
"Don't even get me started on that."

Posted by NHCt | January 16, 2008 1:04 PM

Looking at the color choice of that site, I am compelled to blame the Jamaicans.

NHCt, your comment depresses me. This weekend I went to a party and had a short political debate with a bunch of Democrat-voting people, and I was really surprised to hear both women involved parrot every single HRC argument of why she is superior to Obama and prepared and why Obama is unqualified to be President, without any hint of skepticism. These were pretty smart people, but it was as if they had been brainwashed by Hillary.

Posted by blah2 | January 16, 2008 1:44 PM

you'd surely come up with something more plausible than this

Yes, like "he fathered a black baby" or "he murdered Vince Foster" or something.

Posted by jim | January 16, 2008 1:58 PM

"And Obama wants to kill thousands of babies that are within days of being born."

Days, before AND after! Don't forget that part!

Posted by DonBoy | January 16, 2008 2:05 PM

Well I was at a drinks function the other night and this drunk guy with a fake Texas accent told me the true story.

McCain really is a 'Manchurian Candidate', but his programmers were a bunch of CIA psy-ops specialists who'd done too much blow one night and bet their Section Head two bottles of JD that they could reprogram anyone he wanted into thinking he could become President.

I didn't believe him, until he pointed out that they also tried to kill goats just by staring at them. And that wasn't even on a bet. Those guys will try anything once.

Posted by Tony J | January 16, 2008 2:06 PM

Well, I don't know that I would call that page "disgusting", because as Matt says, they seem to really believe it. That just makes it sad, and maybe part of the argument for better mental health care in this country, and/or nuking the south.

On the other hand, it may be the sad truth that you can't win an election without engaging the crazy conspiracy theorist vote. A friend who has worked on a couple of big state-wide campaigns in one of the larger states, tells me that they absolutely had a strategy for getting these people out to vote. They had a phone script and everything for dealing with these people ("Yes sir, [candidate] will push for a bill to take the voices out of your head." "Yes, we're aware that George Bush is a lizard alien, and fighting the Zendrathii occupation is part of our secret platform.") If all else failed, they sent them over to the opposition's campaign to make trouble.

I'm not sure what my point is (besides to share that anectode), but I do have a vague generalized terror that nuts like this absolutely a significant role in our democracy. And if the nuts don't come up with these crazy Manchurian candidate scenarios themselves, there will always be a Karl Rove out there to come up with it for them.

Posted by ArtB | January 16, 2008 2:58 PM

I thought "Hussein" Obama wanted to go to Kuwait and throw babies out of incubators and then taunt very large navy ships in Hormuz with a small speed boat and two white boxes from Denny's.
These people got no imagination!

Posted by gonzone | January 16, 2008 3:01 PM

Clearly McCain has brainwashed himself into wanting to destroy the country.

At least Bush has a reason: to make money for his father's and his cronies.

This is why most of the Republican candidates are so poor: they don't even have normal criminal greed as their motivations - just total stupidity.

This is also why "anybody but Clinton" is a good idea - she has the greed down as well, so we KNOW she'll start a new war with somebody AIPAC doesn't like.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | January 16, 2008 3:17 PM

you'd surely come up with something more plausible than this
Yes, like "he fathered a black baby"
Well I don't know about McCain but I have some pretty shocking information: Obama fathered not one but two black babies. Wait for the attack ads about that.

Posted by Jacob | January 16, 2008 4:00 PM

No, not brain damaged; but something happened to him during captivity that is disabling. He seems to want to get back at the foreigns. To put it in 2000 election terms, he is "bitter" and "angry".

Posted by Where's Sally? | January 16, 2008 5:23 PM

He was brainwashed to destroy this country if he becomes president, but it wasn't the N. Vietnamese who brainwashed him. His family, the navy and whatever other bizarre factors that go into making someone an ultrarightwingnut are the responsbile parties.

(Oh, and you think GWB has issues with his dad--imagine being the first guy in 3 generations not to make 4-star admiral . . .)

Posted by rea | January 16, 2008 8:41 PM

Paul Weyrich was making this exact same claim in 2000. It's nothing new.

Posted by Shoshana | January 17, 2008 9:23 AM