After reading the absolutely silly Owens article (reposted by Proof), this phrase, more than any other, stuck out:

But McCain is far superior to the Democratic contenders on the basis of character and virtue. For instance, once the North Vietnamese found out that McCain was the son of the U.S. military commander in the Pacific theater, which included Vietnam, they offered him the chance to go home before his POW comrades.

No one is denying McCain is a war hero, or a true American. This is not a sufficient reason to vote for him. Much of the article seems to read as a recount of his war record. But NO ONE is attacking this. If being a soldier was enough, we would’ve voted for Wesley Clark.

It is telling that Owens chooses to talk extensively about the past, and say absolutely nothing about McCain’s actual voting record…except to tell us that it’s no worse than Obama. That’s it? No worse?

So he’d be (maybe) a step above Obama or Clinton, or equal…BUT NO WORSE! Indeed, on immigration, taxes, abortion, class warfare, etc, he is no different. And on the war (one of the two areas he is claimed to be superior), he consistantly voted with Kennedy, Clinton, and Obama to close Gitmo, to offer terrorists access to our courts, and offered a non-binding resolution that demanded Iraqis make certain benchmarks or risk losing American support.

The idea that he’s a huge hawk is misleading at best.

Likewize, it is pure fantasy that McCain would appoint conservative judges. Much as when Guiliani was promising to appoint conservative judges, McCain’s promise flies in the face of reality that he has consistantly not only voted against conservative principals, but has taken great delight in pissing off the conservative base in doing so.

McCain may have character, and may vote on principal, but that principal is not anything remotely conservative. And his character is little more than a shield to deflect criticism of his abysmal record.

In short Owens is playing the military infallibility card that failed to get Kerry elected in 2004. Hopefully it’ll fail just as badly this time…but in the primaries.