Richard Nixon claimed to have a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam. Of course, once he was elected, his secret plan was to escalate the war. Senator McCain has taken a page from Nixon's playbook. Last Saturday, he hinted at a secret plan to capture Osama Bin Laden.
Much has been already been written about Saturday's Faith Forum (Cone-of-Silence-Gate, Cross-in-the-Sand-Gate, Rich-is-$5-Million-Gate), but nothing so far on John McCain's bellicose grandstanding shout-out to Osama Bin Laden. When asked about the presence of evil in the world, McCain repeated his threat to git 'im and git 'im good:
If I'm President of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the Gates of Hell, I will get Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice. I will do that and I know how to do that. I will get that done."
Wouldn't it be great if someone in the media (or the Obama campaign, for that matter) bothered to challenge McCain on that claim? I could suggest three pertinent questions:
- Where exactly are the Gates of Hell?
- Will Senator McCain be leading this Special Ops mission himself or will he send Senators Lieberman and Graham?
- If he really knows "how to do that", what in God's name is he waiting for?
It seems to me that if John McCain has some super secret information regarding the whereabouts of Bin Laden that he should "put America first" and share that information now rather than waiting until he's elected president. Or would he rather win an election than catch America's Public Enemy #1?