http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/in-pennsylvania.html
Asked what first comes to his mind when he thinks of Pittsburgh, McCain chuckled, "the Steelers. I was a mediocre high school athlete but I loved and adored the sports but the Steelers really made a huge impression on me particularly in my early years."And then McCain told a rather moving story about his time as a P.O.W. "When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the pressures, physical pressures on me, I named the starting lineup, defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron mates.""Did you really?" asked the reporter."Yes," McCain said."In your POW camp?" asked the reporter."Yes," McCain said."Could you do it today?" asked the reporter."No, unfortunately," McCain said.Here's one reason he likely couldn't do it today -- the Steelers aren't the team whose defensive line McCain named for his Vietnamese tormentors. The Green Bay Packers are. At least according to every previous time McCain has told this story. And the McCain campaign just told ABC News that the senator made a mistake -- it was, indeed, the Packers.
There are more details in the linked article, but this seems egregious to me. I'd put it in the same ballpark as Hillary's made-up story about dodging sniper fire, but IMO, it's way, way worse for at least two reasons: 1)McCain's POW experience is a central theme of his personal story, it's a big part of why many people respect him and honor him, and he portrays it as a pivotal and defining moment in his life, 2)He seems to be modifying that story simply to pander to a specific geography.I simply don't buy the "honest mistake" excuse. This is something he has talked about many, many times. It's in his memoirs, it's in multiple speeches, it's in a movie -- and then somehow he just magically forgets that it was the Packers and not the Steelers? And he does so while in Pennsylvania?!I think this is really bad, but look at how the media is (not) covering it. Pretty amazing. Hillary gets caught lying about sniper fire and it's freaking front page news and on every major broadcast -- some of them for days. McCain gets caught lying about his POW experience in order to pander to Pennsylvania, and it's an "honest mistake" or a "non-issue."Fox News: http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/11/mccain-mixes-up-packers-and-steelers-in-pa-interview/MSNBC: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/11/1194785.aspx(The irony of this one is right in MSNBC's coverage they say, "Imagine if Al Gore or John Kerry had changed the facts of a story they told forever in order to appeal to whatever swing state they were speaking in..." Uhm, hello?! You're freaking MSNBC...instead of imagining it, why don't you cover it the exact same way?!None of CNN, ABC, or CBS have it as a "news item" at all. If you can find it on any of their sites, it's only in the "blog" sections or on message boards. UNBELIEVABLE. Actually, it's all too believable and that's what has me frustrated about it.None of these, btw, are even on the front page of the "Politics" section of their websites, let alone front page of the entire site. I only found them because I specifically did a "McCain Packers" search on Google News and the websites themselves -- and even then most of those results turned up pages that just coincidentally were mentioning both McCain and the Packers (mostly because of Favre) on the same page, not this actual story.
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