Quote of the Day

"He's a war hero because he was captured.  I like people who weren't captured."

-- Donald Trump (R-Somewhere), on John McCain

I don't really have much to say about this.  Seriously, it doesn't need much, does it?  Mr. Trump was speaking on Saturday at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa.  Or he was doing whatever it is that qualifies as "speaking."

I think the only thing really would adding is just a clarification.  John McCain isn't a war hero because he was captured.  Lots of people in the military are captured during war and, while we honor them for their service and risk, we tend not to label them all heroes.  John McCain is considered a hero because, when he was shot down from his airplane and captured, he was subsequently tortured and refused to leave the men in his command, when given the opportunity.

There's so much that can be added, starting with Mr. Trump not serving in the war because of a variety of deferments.  But I don't mind that.  There were a lot of people at the time who didn't serve in the Vietnam War for perfectly valid reasons, not the least of which they believed the war was wrong.  (I do think, however, that if if you're going to explain to a reporter that one of your deferments was for "bone spurs," you probably shouldn't go out of your way belittling someone who was shot out of the sky, broke both arms and a leg, and given minimal hospital care while being tortured and kept a prisoner for 5-1/2 years.  It just sort of undercuts your standing as... well, a human.)

Most particularly over the past six years, I don't admire the politics of John McCain, who has shifted much too far to the right and pandered to the Republican base, all the while being spiteful and bitter towards "that one" who beat in the presidential race.  But that has absolutely nothing to do with Donald seems to be yammering about.

"Seems to" is the operative terms, along with "yammer," because in the same appearance, Mr. Trump -- the man who just a week ago had the floor collapse under him for claiming that Mexican trying to escape poverty and come to a better life in the U.S. were "murders and rapists" -- also said about John McCain at the same appearance, and in about as clueless way as one can imagine, "Perhaps he's a war hero, but right now he's said some very bad things about a lot of people."

This is a whole lot more than I intended to comment about Donald Trump's quote, which truly needs no comment other than letting the words yammer for themselves.

For years, Republicans loved having Donald Trump in their tent, and probably quietly enjoyed his pandering to racist birthers by having him slam the president over a fictitious birth certificate the mogul apparently found by never released.  Well...the bill always eventually becomes due.

And Republicans are now paying in full.