McCain Asks Obama To Apologize For Rockefeller’s “McCain Was Just A Jet Pilot” Comments

The Whistler • April 9, 2008

I’ve said before that attacking McCain’s military record was going to backfire for the Democrats, but they just keep doing it anyway.

(CNN) – John McCain’s campaign called on Barack Obama Tuesday to condemn a comment from one of his Senate supporters that the presumptive Republican nominee, a naval aviator during the Vietnam War, “was a fighter pilot who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit.”
“What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground?” Sen. Jay Rockefeller said in an interview published in Tuesday’s Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette. “He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues.”

One wonders if Senator Rockefeller remembers that, during his service in Vietnam, McCain was shot down from 35,000 feet and spent five and a half years in the Hanoi Hilton being brutally tortured by North Vietnamese socialists.
I have my problems with John McCain and his policies, but I think he’s well aware of what happens to the “lives of people” on the ground in war.

Tags: Asshats, Politics, The Loony Left, War On Terror

http://www.ski-blog.com/ sayanything-24

He became aware when he hit the ground.

One would assume that he was aware before that point, but indeed, his 5.5 years in captivity provided a perspective of what happens on the ground that Rockefeller has absolutely no idea of. To talk of McCain not knowing the difficulties of war is absolutely disgusting from a man who spent his entire life living in privilege derived from the wealth of his family.

Rockefeller is not only not aware of the horrors of war, he is also not any more aware of the difficulties of poverty than Kennedy or Kerry. These Dems have lived a life of wealth and privilege and it is ironic that they would attack McCain simply because he fought Communism in war time while Rockefeller ran around hob-knobbing with the Kennedy’s and playing in the Peace Corps.
Bat One

I’ll remember that the next time one of you attacks Kerry’s or Gore’s service.

Hawk,

Shame on you!! Your attempt at equivalence is pathetic, betraying the contemptibly simplistic mindset of both liberal Democrats and their favorite special interest group, the trial lawyers.

To his credit, AlGore has never made any sort claims about his Vietnam service. He was there, mostly safe out of harms way. The he went home. And except for an occasional bit of self-deprecating humor (“…I was tied up at the time!”) neither does John McCain.

John Kerry, however, has yet to tell the truth about his abortive 3 month “tour of duty” and his lies are fantastic, voluminous, and the very basis for his entire campaign, as heaven knows he has no other “accomplishment” to show for his entire career in public service.

If you can document any such lies by John McCain about his military service, I’ll be more than willing to re-examine the question, but absent anything substantial I’d suggest that your glib equivalence is every bit as sleazy and insulting as the remarks for which your fellow liberal Democrat, Jay Rockefeller, was forced to apologize yesterday.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Gore was one of the best typewriter jockeys in all of Viet Nam.

I don’t think we should criticize his assigned job duties as you take the job the army gives you. If you do you have served honorably.

However I think we can tease him a bit as being the only private soldier with a bodyguard.
http://www.ski-blog.com/ sayanything-24

to attack people because of wealth, privilege and refusing to serve.

I am not attacking him because he is wealthy and did not serve in the military. I am attacking him because he took a completely disgusting swipe at McCain that he later apologized for. He should not have attacked McCain’s service in the manner that he did. And given his own lack of service, it was disgusting.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

I’ll remember that the next time one of you attacks Kerry’s or Gore’s service.

How about if we merely damn them with faint praise?

Gore was one of the best typewriter jockeys in all of Viet Nam.
Kerry bore his “rose thorn” wounds like the man that he is!
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Laser guided bombs? In 1967? And I don’t think that the A4 was ever set up for precision guided bombs.

Not only is Rockefeller an ass he’s a moron besides.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/entry/homosexuality_is_wrong_-_a_compendium move_zig

Prolly not definitive:
Can the A-4 skyhawk use GBU laser guided bombs?

The Texas Instruments BOLT-117 (BOmb, Laser Terminal-117), also known as the GBU-1/B[1] was the world’s first laser guided bomb (LGB). It consisted of a standard M117 750-pound bomb case with a KMU-342 laser guidance and control kit. It was commissioned by the United States Air Force in 1967 and successfully completed a combat evaluation in 1968. Only a limited number of BOLT-117 bombs were produced before it was discontinued in favour of a more powerful LGB, the 2,000-pound GBU-10. The larger bomb had proven twice as accurate and had far more explosive power.

The impact of the BOLT-117 on airpower was revolutionary. Laser guidance kits turned standard “dumb” ordnance into “smart bombs,” yielding a 100-fold increase in effectiveness compared with free-falling, unguided bombs.

Even so, probably not in use while McCain was driving a fast mover.

The Soviets and Chi-Coms were supplying the North Vietnamese with air defense.

The United States enjoyed total air supremacy over South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. There was nothing we could not do with the aerial weapon had we wanted to do so. We had air superiority over North Vietnam, although we occasionally had to fight for it. Air superiority was only sometimes challenged by hostile fighter aircraft. But, even over the North, we had certain rules that we did not often break because to break them meant a sure increase in the loss rates. This was against an enemy whose defenses, even in December of 1972, were toward the lower end of the spectrum of sophistication.

It is not just sophistication that counts, of course. What made Hanoi the “most defended piece of territory in the history of aerial warfare” was not sophistication, but mass: the sheer number of AAA guns and, later, SAM sites occupied and firing. Mass and redundancy are possessed more by them than by us.
pparets

Rockefeller issued a formal apology this afternoon and called McCain.
Bat One

Rockefeller’s idiotic comment is as classless as asking the Senator just how pretty his sister-in-law was… before she was brutally murdered.

Jay Rockefeller is an arrogant, self-righteous pig!
http://insanereindeer.blogspot.com/ Kenny

Are you saying you cannot comment on somebody elses service unless you have served? Sounds like you are making a chicken hawk argument to me.

The chicken hawk argument is that you cannot comment on the war unless you have served. The argument put forward is that a non-military person cannot criticize someone else’s military service. Not a chickenhawk argument. Not that you can see a difference..because you’re stuck on stupid.
ollie-B

Amen to that, Brother Rob.
Hawk

he is also not any more aware of the difficulties of poverty than Kennedy or Kerry.

Or Bush. How very unrepublican to attack people because of wealth, privilege and refusing to serve.
Hawk

Senator McCain should ask Senator Rockefeller for an apology. Unless the person is acting in an official capacity for a campaign he should not be asked to apologize. That goes for both sides. That would take too much time.
Jeffrey

You ignorant liberal bastard sluts know NOTHING about anything—-except for this internet spawned spume of rumor, myth, and lies that you and your slimy Dem’ buddies wallow and feed in.
Lestat

He should not have attacked McCain’s service in the manner that he did. And given his own lack of service, it was disgusting.

Are you saying you cannot comment on somebody elses service unless you have served? Sounds like you are making a chicken hawk argument to me.
Bat One

Are you saying you cannot comment on somebody elses service unless you have served?

Lestat,

Not at all! You are free to comment, however stupidly, on whatever you choose. But commenting on the military service of another when you have no idea what you’re talking about does have its pitfalls… as Senator Rockefeller was forced to acknowledge with his apology.

Besides, Rockefeller’s comments weren’t about McCain’s military service, ignorant though those comments were. They were about his character, an area where Jay Rockefeller has no business criticizing anyone else!

Still, those of you on the Left, all of you, have a huge investment in commentary about subjects of which you know absolutely nothing… foreign affairs, economic and tax policy, military affairs, just to name a few.

You are free to continue making fools of yourselves with your commentary, just as those of us in/on the Right are free to point out your abysmal ignorance.
http://www.ski-blog.com/ sayanything-24

He should not have attacked McCain’s service in the manner that he did

I think you lack any reading comprehension:

Are you saying you cannot comment on somebody elses service unless you have served? Sounds like you are making a chicken hawk argument to me.

That is to say that if I were to call you ignorant and semi-literate based on your response to my comments, that would be an appropriate manner to characterize your comments. What would be an inappropriate way to comment on your response would be to call you a chicken fucking inbred retard.

See, either way, I am free to make comments about your lack of intellect and off topic crap, BUT IT IS THE MANNER THAT I INSULT YOUR PARENTS BEING BROTHER AND SISTER that determines whether I am out of line or not, just as it is the manner that Rockefeller attacked McCain that is the problem, not the “chickenhawk” argument.
Hawk

I’ll remember that the next time one of you attacks Kerry’s or Gore’s service.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

but anyone serving in Vietnam was on the front lines

From what I’ve read Gore, the Senator’s son, was strictly a REMF.
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

There is a delicious irony in Senator Rockefeller–who has never worn a uniform–presuming to lecture a decorated combat veteran and POW on the after-effects of war.

Besides, as his fellow POW noted in the article, McCain was NOT at 35000 feet, nor had anyone invented the laser guided bomb at the time–things that Rockefeller MIGHT have known if he’d actually been PAYING ATTENTION at those hearings about military budgets for the past 23 YEARS.
Neiman

Gore was one of the best typewriter jockeys in all of Viet Nam.

I despise much about Al Gore the politician, and most military office staff choose that MOS and don’t enjoy the harder grunt lifestyle; but anyone serving in Vietnam was on the front lines, they could have been killed at their desks, so for just being there he deserves some credit. Now if he applied for a purple heart for a paper cut I’ll revise my remarks, but otherwise, I will not criticize those that served versus running to Canada.
Bat One

From what I’ve read Gore, the Senator’s son, was strictly a REMF.

So was Heisman trophy winner and Dallas Cowboy and NFL Hall of Famer, Roger Staubach, who served at the Navy Supply Depot at Danang.

Both were in “protected” slots, but neither made a big deal about their Vietnam service, as did, dishonestly, John Kerry.

To suggest some sort of equivalence between Kerry’s abortive 3 month “tour” in Vietnam and McCain’s service is a grotesque insult.
WOOFX

He became aware when he hit the ground.

aware of what happens to the “lives of people” on the ground in war.

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McCain Asks Obama To Apologize For Rockefeller’s “McCain Was Just A Jet Pilot” Comments

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