By John Rowan 

Yesterday, while stumping for Hillary Clinton, feminist writer Gloria Steinem shamelessly decided to take a swipe at John McCain's service record:

“Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience.

…“I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.”


…
“I am so grateful that she [Clinton] hasn’t been trained to kill anybody. And she probably didn’t even play war games as a kid. It’s a great relief from Bush in his jump suit and from Kerry saluting.”

To the Observer, Steinem insisted that “from George Washington to Jack Kennedy and PT-109 we have behaved as if killing people is a qualification for ruling people.”

Sorry, Gloria, but knowing how to defend your nation is a qualification for ruling people. One of the jobs of the President is to be Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces (of the most powerful military in the world). And in my book, that means that military experience is a great asset.

I have some reservations about McCain, but his military service isn't one of them. He spent about five and a half years in captivity, two of those years in solitary confinement. He suffered dysentery, and was tortured repeatedly. Today he walks with a limp and can't raise his arms above his head because of the poor medical treatment and the beatings he received. And in all this, the man loves his country so much that he spent more than four years as a POW than he had to - he refused an early release unless all the prisoners captured before him were released as well.

To explain this point: during the war, there was an informal prisoner code that prisoners would only accept release in the order they came into captivity. Since McCain's dad was an admiral (chief of all Naval operations in the Pacific) they wanted a propaganda victory by releasing him early and showing the world that in the United States, elites get preferential treatment. McCain refused, rather than denigrate his country. This decision must have been very painful for him; on top of everything else, he had a family and a child he had never even seen.

And if you thought she couldn't be any more wrong here:

Steinem has been a Clinton supporter for several years—even though, as she reminded me, she protested against Bill Clinton’s welfare reforms outside the White House.

The welfare reform she is referring to was the 1996 "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act", which was a huge success, and one of the better bills that came out of the Clinton era. It gave states more flexibility on welfare programs, reduced people on welfare rolls by a whopping 57%, and lowered child poverty rates overall.

Donklefant puts this in a category of "dumb things said by smart people". I'm not sure I would give her that much credit. The reaction from other pundits has been far less generous.

Say Anything:

Steinem, whose only act of heroism that I am aware of, was to submit to her third face-lift, went on to laud Clinton

Weasel Zippers:

I don't care how much of brain-dead liberal/anti-war/goon you are, if you can't even respect that a man gave five and a half years of his life being tortured while protecting our country than you don't deserve to live here. Get the f*** out, I don't care where you go, just not here. This is one of those instances where I'm fighting the urge to use that word women hate more than any other word…..

Why am I quoting these other blogs? Because those are the only ones I found! Strangely, far-left sites like "Talking Points Memo", "Media Matters", "Crooks and Liars", and "Balloon Juice", who feign outrage whenever they feel guys like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly denigrate the military in the slightest, had absolutely nothing to say over this.

Ms. Steinem may have done more harm to Clinton's bid than good. To their credit, the Clinton campaign was very, very quick to offer this statement (although it may have been from fear of a backlash):

"Senator Clinton has repeatedly praised Senator McCain's courage and service to our country. These comments certainly do not represent her thinking in any way. Senator Clinton intends to have a respectful debate with Senator McCain on the issues."

Source:  Red State