It's feasible that the situation over the story told by McCain regarding Crosses in the Sand is an example of errors in his memory, him absorbing things that happened not just to him but to other prisoners. It's possible it's a whole cloth creation. It's also possible it's true. There is really no way to prove or disprove it, no matter how much research is done in any blog, the only people who will ever know with 100% certainty - and even that is questionable - is McCain and the guard himself.
But the one thing I know for certain: while it makes for great fury in the blogs, it's terrible politics to anyone who isn't already voting for Obama.
First, I say this not to dissuade or to criticize those who make the argument about McCain's story. It's absolutely your right, and as I've said, I have no reason to believe or disbelieve any side of this story.
But to a passive outsider who hears this argued repeatedly over the veracity of the story, there is one part of this story that will get repeated over and over and over again.. and that is that McCain was a combat POW.
Yes, that doesn't politically mean a ton; but there are lots of people who are not as politically attuned as everyone else. And when they hear those things, the first things they will think of are these, if polling data is correct: honor, patriotism, valor. In that order.
No matter if the Crosses in the Sand story is an absolute fabrication, or if you believe it to be, the generally public by and large DOES NOT CARE.
I say this with all the seriousness I can muster. I don't mean that it doesn't mean something to people who will read Kos and they will put it aside and discuss with those that are already geared up to go vote for Obama, but for people who are already leaning McCain or fence sitters, hearing a story about how McCain has a memory of something positive religious happening in a POW camp, but you/we/I/anyone think it's false doesn't do anything to persuade them.
The human mind sorts all of that out, like this:
You say:
John McCain, a POW in Vietnam, tells this story about Crosses in the Sand, about how a prison guard one day did this religious thing that seems to be a sign of him losing memory or just making stuff up..
And Joe Public hears:
John McCain, A POW in Vietnam, tells this story (mersh mersh mersh), about a prison guard (mersh mersh mersh), and he may be losing memory (mersh mersh mersh)
They by and large have you zoned out.
Again, others have pointed out the eery resemblance to stories by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the Gulag experience.
And, again, I say.. this could validate the point, a big hurrah! But I don't perceive of this helping Obama net a single vote with anyone on the fence. Not one. And debating a POW over his memories over his experience generally is a bad place to go - even if they are 100% wrong. For pete sake, Reagan mistook parts of his life with movie roles, and people who were in the middle knew about it - because it had coverage and more people watched nightly news - and no one gave a damn.
So, I appreciate the hard and dedicated work being done here by bloggers who've put in tons of research effort and work.
I will absolutely steal this from tonight's "Mad Men". Now isn't so much the time to debate McCain's prison memories. Instead, we'd all be a lot better served debating not what he remembers but what he envisions. People care very little about the reliability of his memory of a prison camp, except it reminds them of his service, but they care a great deal about what he plans to do from here.
The more focus is put on that, the easier it is to communicate with fence sitters, and believe me, there are far more of them then we care to think about.