I think this deserves its own thread.
If you’re not familiar with the story, here’s a McCain political ad recounting it.
He has told this story many times, though the recent Rick Warren forum brought it back to the forefront again. There are several reasons to believe that McCain is indulging in some historical revisionism, fabricating an anecdote with overtly religious overtones that (one might surmise) would help him with the Christian evangelical vote, which has had a hard time getting enthusiastic about his candidacy in GOP circles.
The evidence:
(A) The earliest recorded instance of this story is in McCain’s co-written book Flags of Our Fathers. The earliest Nexis story dates to 2000. (cite). This dovetails nicely with the start of McCain’s first, failed run for the Oval Office.
That these are the earliest incidents of the story would not be so unusual if his captivity had not been already so thoroughly recounted. McCain’s lengthy account in U.S. News & World Report, published in 1973, doesn’t include the incident. It’s also not included in the book The Nightgale’s Song (cite), which was published as late as 1995 and specifically dealt with Christmas-in-captivity stories (including McCain’s).
(B) The story is similar in a few critical details to one told by the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago:
This story, from a best-selling book, is hardly an obscure one. Ex-Watergater Chuck Colson included the story in his book Loving God, and that book recounts how the story made the rounds in evangelical circles (including Rev. Billy Graham’s telecast) and political functions (a Reagan prayer breakfast) in the 1970s.
McCain himself appeared on Meet the Press in 2005 and wrote an obituary of Solzhenitsyn just two weeks ago, citing his familiarity with that book specifically both times.
(C) Contradictions in the story have arisen over time. In the original Flags recounting, the action was done with the guard’s shoe, but more recently, McCain claims it was with a stick.
In a separate incident, where a guard allowed him to rest after being forced to stand uninterrupted for a prolonged period, McCain described him in the U.S. News story as “the only real human being that I ever met over there”. But the cross incident happened months later in a different facility. Was this the same guard, transferred along with him? Or must we question “the only real human being” comment, if McCain’s cross story is true?
McCain has also revised his description of his friendly captor over the years. And he has had other anecdotes of his imprisonment contradict themselves in politically expedient situations.
So, do you think McCain made the story up (or perhaps even convinced himself over time that it happened in actuality)? If so, should it matter (particularly in light of the Swiftboating of John Kerry’s Vietnam experiences four years ago)? Given that such an anecdote is inherently unprovable, should the MSM pursue a story that many might consider political dynamite? If this does build up steam in the press, what should the McCain campaign do about it?