And via Patrick Hynes through the power of email, what would it look like in 2013 if Obama was president?

The Navy has released to the public the military records of John McCain. See photos and a video of McCain as well as read more about his military records below.

John McCain

The way a man conducts himself in times of trial are a measure of the man. The military records of John McCain were released to the public yesterday and reveal a great deal of the character of the man who will be our next President.

The AP is reporting.

McCain, now the Republican Party’s likely presidential nominee, was taken prisoner in October 1967 after he was shot down while on a mission over Hanoi. He wasn’t freed until March 1973, after the United States signed peace agreements with the North Vietnamese. His captors tortured him and held him in solitary confinement. Still, he declined an offer of early release until those who had been at the prison longer than him were let go.

That decision earned McCain a Navy Commendation Medal. Although McCain was ‘crippled from serious and ill-treated injuries,’ he steadfastly refused offers of freedom from those holding him prisoner. ‘His selfless action served as an example to others and his forthright refusal, by giving emphasis to the insidious nature of such releases, may have prevented a possibly chaotic deterioration in prisoner discipline,’ the citation says.

The Vietcong called John McCain ‘the Prince’ because his father was the Commander of the Navy at the time. They felt they had a real bargaining chip when they captured McCain. They offered him an early release in order to use his release to demoralize the other prisoners and to use it for propaganda. McCain new what they planned to do and therefore refused their offers.

Those that think its cool to vote for someone based on race and/or gender or think they want to make a statement by voting for someone based on race and/or gender, might consider voting for someone based on character and what is best for the country. If race and/or gender don’t or shouldn’t matter, then vote for the man who is a leader, who loves the country and who has proven himself in the field of battle.

I want a President who will lead us. I want a President who I know can stand the pressure and will do what he feels is best. I truly believe that nothing scares John McCain. How could it? He has faced the devil and looked him in the eye. He has done his time in hell. What could possibly scare him now? He is a man of character and a man who loves our country. THAT matters more … so much more … than whether he is male or female or what ethnic group he belongs to.

John McCain - Photos

Via the official McCain Blog

Via The Jawa Report

A coalition of American Muslim groups is demanding that Sen. John McCain stop using the adjective “Islamic” to describe terrorists and extremist enemies of the United States.

Muneer Fareed, who heads the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), told The Washington Times that his group is beginning a campaign to persuade Mr. McCain to rephrase his descriptions of the enemy[…]

Steve Schmidt, a former Bush White House aide who is now a McCain media strategist, told The Times that the use of the word is appropriate and that the candidate will continue to define the enemy that way.

Anyone else think that Obama would have folded like a cheap Armani suit to the groups. Not that BHO would ever say it in the first place.

Good for the McCain campaign, telling this Islamist groups to piss off.

Over at John McCain’s campaign site

FOX NEWS’ MEGYN KELLY: “Senator, one of the criticisms of General Petraeus yesterday and of some Republicans on the Hill is that no clear exit plan in Iraq was laid out. Indeed, earlier in the week that had at least one Democrat calling you a ‘warmonger’ because there is no clear, quote, exit strategy. Your reaction to that?”

JOHN MCCAIN: “Well, I think those kinds of comments are very unfortunate, and if Senator Obama is going to wage the kind of campaign that he says he is, I hope that he will, he personally, will repudiate that kind of language. The exit strategy is success of the surge, continued Iraqi ability to take over their security, requirements to have the democratic process go forward. It’s the classic counterinsurgency strategy. There has been significant improvement. But we’ve seen in the events in Basra in the last few days with the attacks on the Green Zone that this is still a tough fight. There’s still plenty of difficulties ahead. That’s why General Petraeus, I think portrayed a very balanced view yesterday of the situation on the ground. And I think most Americans trust him. I certainly do.”

From the Washington Times:

The striking thing about Sen. John McCain’s series of speeches this week was how often he apologized for or explained youthful indiscretions, his temper or his bad congressional votes.

On his “Service to America” tour, Mr. McCain repeatedly touted his military service and bipartisan credentials and talked about the heroes who shaped his personal life and politics.

But it could just as easily have been called the “imperfect public servant” tour — words he used to describe himself to students at his former high school on day two of the tour — as he found himself apologizing for not always living up to what those heroes expected: (read the story for what he was apologizing for)

To me, McCain is sounding more like a person who truly cares, rather then a business as usual tell the people what they want to hear (otherwise known as pandering) kind of politician. It’s something we do not hear in politics much at all anymore, and it is refreshing. A politician that actually tells it how it is.

Or so the headline implies to me. Perhaps I am reading way too much into it, knowing the liberal/progressive/surrender monkey tendencies of the NY Times

Mr. McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee, has staked his candidacy on the promise that American troops can bring stability to Iraq. What he almost never says is that one of them is his own son, who spent seven months patrolling Anbar Province and learned of his father’s New Hampshire victory in January while he was digging a stuck military vehicle out of the mud.

Afterwards, getting the politics out of the way, it is a rather nice story on Jimmy McCain, one which the McCains declined to be interviewed on and asked the Times not to print. Why? The Times says it themselves

Mr. McCain has largely maintained a code of silence about his son, now a lance corporal, making only fleeting references to him in public both to protect him from becoming a prize target and avoid exploiting his service for political gain, according to friends. At the few campaign events where Lance Corporal McCain appeared last year, he was not introduced.

Captain Ed puts it a bit better then the Times

However, as the controversy that surrounded the reporting on Prince Harry in Afghanistan shows, it comes at a cost. It would make Jimmy McCain and his unit a bigger target for terrorists and insurgents if they return to Iraq. The focus unfairly highlights the efforts of the younger McCain and the burden on his parents more than the same efforts and burdens facing all of our Marines and their families.

I doubt the Times really cares, though.

Anyhow, I offer a prayer up for Jimmy McCain, along with all the other brave men and women serving.

Mark Steyn, regarding the latest Hillary 3am ad

Jeepers, will all business during the Clinton Administration be transacted at 3 AM? Is it some union-negotiated flex-time deal? “Home foreclosures mounting”? We’d better wake the President. There are now so many foreclosures the banks can no longer foreclose on everyone they need to foreclose on during normal banking hours. “The First National Bank of Dead Skunk, Maine has begun issuing midnight foreclosure notices, Madam President.”

“Okay, nuke ‘em.”

“Er, well, maybe this can wait till the regular afternoon meeting.”

It’s 3 AM, and your children are safe and asleep. But there’s a phone ringing in the White House. And ringing and ringing and ringing. Kim Jong-Il’s No Dong missiles are heading for every major West Coast city, but the President’s not picking up because at 2.57 AM the Secretary for Soccer Moms called to alert her to the growing crisis caused by the lack of federally mandated children’s bicycle helmets. When the powder keg goes up, who do you want in the White House? Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose customized MCI Friends & Family & European Foreign Ministers & Overseas Dictators plan allows her to receive unlimited incoming calls between 2 AM and 4 AM? Or John McCain, who’d bawl out the White House operator for waking him up to take a call from the Director of the Federal Bike Path Agency?

Hillary’s 3am ads are the gift that keeps giving, much like every time Howard Dean opens his mouth.

Previously: McCain’s response to Hillary’s 3am ad 

Hillary video below the fold

H/t Stop The ACLU