I've now heard it countless times. McCain has used what appears to be an intensely personal moment in a prison camp as a reason to vote for him in a campaign ad. As he tells it today, it was the pivotal moment in his struggle to survive in the Hanoi Hilton. And yet, in his first thorough account of his time in captivity, in 1973, the story is absent. The story is also hauntingly like that recounted by Solzhenitsen, as told in Luke Veronis, "The Sign of the Cross":
Leaving his shovel on the ground, he slowly walked to a crude bench
and sat down. He knew that at any moment a guard would order him to
stand up, and when he failed to respond, the guard would beat him to
death, probably with his own shovel. He had seen it happen to other
prisoners.
As he waited, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly he looked
up and saw a skinny old prisoner squat down beside him. The man said
nothing. Instead, he used a stick to trace in the dirt the sign of the
Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.
As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt his entire perspective changed.
I have one simple question: when was the first time that McCain told this story?
McCain's "Cross In Dirt" Story Questioned Excerpt: In a book, at campaign stops and in an ad John McCain tells a story about a North Vietnamese prison guard drawing a cross in the dirt:In his 1999 memoir, Faith of My Fathers"We both stood wordlessly looking at the... Weblog: Seeing the Forest Tracked: Aug 17, 2008 8:02:50 PM
McCain's "Cross In Dirt" Story Questioned Excerpt: In a book, at campaign stops and in an ad John McCain tells a story about a North Vietnamese prison guard drawing a cross in the dirt:In his 1999 memoir, Faith of My Fathers"We both stood wordlessly looking at the... Weblog: Seeing the Forest Tracked: Aug 17, 2008 8:27:08 PM
Did John McCain Make Up the Cross in the Sand Story? Excerpt: I've now heard it countless times. McCain has used what appears to be an intensely personal moment in a prison camp as a reason to vote for him in a campaign ad. As he tells it today, it was the pivotal moment in his struggle to survive in the Hanoi Hi... Weblog: www.buzzflash.net Tracked: Aug 18, 2008 9:22:10 AM
No Common Ground Excerpt: The progessive blogosphere and Andy Sullivanbut I repeat myselfhave decided to accuse former POW John McCain of stealing a story from Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Russian sent to the gulags (forced labor camps) for writing ill of Stalin in a... Weblog: Confederate Yankee Tracked: Aug 18, 2008 10:55:15 AM
Who Won the Showdown at Saddleback? Excerpt: Pastor Rick was able to summon sides of the candidates we can't usually see in standard debates. Weblog: Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine Tracked: Aug 18, 2008 11:22:35 AM
Jeremiah Denton Must be Lying, Too Excerpt: As Andrew Sullivan, Jane Hamsher, Steve Benen, and other liberal bloggers try to discredit John McCain's story of compassion shown by a North Vietnamese prison guard as being stolen from a similar experience related between Russian author Solzhenitsyn ... Weblog: Confederate Yankee Tracked: Aug 18, 2008 4:16:45 PM
Is Obama Planning a Veepstakes Shocker This Week? Excerpt: After endless rumination and media speculation, Barack Obamas decision on a running mate is nigh. Nigh! Just how nigh, nobody is quite sure. Weblog: Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine Tracked: Aug 19, 2008 11:46:53 AM
John McCain's Gulag Archipelago Excerpt: After the Saddleback fiasco for Barack H. Obama, the first meme floated by Obama surrogates (in particular by Andrea Mitchell) was that the only way John S. McCain could have sounded so prepared, so confident, and so well informed was... Weblog: Big Lizards Tracked: Aug 19, 2008 6:47:08 PM
Site Meter 
