In news of the obvious:

Jane Fonda, the actress and ardent anti-Vietnam War advocate who visited North Vietnam during those hostilities, has endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president.

Priceless. Surely it’s no surprise to anyone that Hanoi Jane would support Obama and NOT John McCain. Support for the Black Panthers? Check. Support for McCain’s captors/torturers? Check.

The problem for those of a certain generation that endured the Vietnam War and the sometimes violent domestic conflict that accompanied it at home is that during Fonda’s controversial wartime visit to North Vietnam, she was photographed at a Communist anti-aircraft gun battery.

According to the photo caption distributed at the time, she joined North Vietnamese soldiers there in singing an antiwar song while preparing to shoot at attacking Americans.

This earned her the nickname Hanoi Jane (indeed, that’s the TMZ headline this afternoon) and an enduring image as a polarizing figure, especially regarding patriotism.

As it happens, the Republican presidential candidate this time is Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was one of those American fliers shot down over that same city by those same anti-aircraft forces, tortured and spent nearly six years in a POW cell while Fonda returned home.

Sickening.

Fullosseous Flap

(cross-posted)