Bill Clinton and Ex-P.O.W. John McCain

UPDATE, July 8, 2008: McCain Brushes off Bill Clinton Claim that Former POWs Can Snap at Any Time
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Jeffrey Goldberg points out what could be interpreted as some very odd remarks made by Bill Clinton on Saturday at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Clinton was speaking about Nelson Mandela and then suddenly he weaves the mental status of former prisoners of war into his comments.

Was he taking a swipe at John McCain?
Say Anything links to the video.

In describing his discussion with Mandela about his years of imprisonment and his feelings toward his captors, Clinton relayed:

He said, 'I felt anger and hatred and fear. And I realized that if I kept hating them once I got in that car and got through the gate I would still be in prison. So I let it go 'cause I wanted to be free.'

There is a... Every living soul on the planet has some often highly-justified anger. Everybody. And just learning that you have to... And by the way, I said this at his birthday, I'm probably one of the few people who's actually seen him mad on more than one occasion.

You know, it's just like if you know anybody who was ever a P.O.W. for any length of time, you will see that you go along for months or maybe even years and then something will happen that will trigger all those bad dreams and they'll come back, and it may not last 30 seconds... That's the thing that makes his life so monumental. It's not like all that stuff just went away. But he disciplined himself and his mind and his heart and his spirit to always work to constantly overcome it every day.

Yes, it's strange that Clinton would bring up being a P.O.W. because he has to know that his comments could be construed to be a reference to John McCain.

But did Bill Clinton really suggest that John McCain is unstable because he was a P.O.W.?

I don't think so.

Taken in context, Clinton is talking about Mandela's time in captivity. It's not that strange for Clinton to mention being a prisoner of war.

He says that Mandela had to work through his anger, but he did.

Clinton is saying how much he admires Mandela, not dissing him for spending so much of his life as a prisoner.

I don't think his comments were directed at voters and meant for them to question the mental stability of John McCain.

Clinton was discussing that EVERYBODY has "some often highly-justified anger," every living soul.

That can hardly be seen as a slam on McCain.

I think it's terrible the way Barack Obama's flunkies have gone out and dissed McCain military experience and tried to turn his time as a P.O.W. as reason to be concerned about McCain's mental stability and judgment.

I just think it's a stretch to say that Clinton was doing the same thing in this case.

If anything, I got the feeling that Clinton was talking about his personal experiences and his own anger, finding inspiration in Mandela's ability to come to terms with his feelings of hatred for being a political prisoner for decades.

In short, I don't think Clinton pulled off a slimy attack on McCain while talking about Mandela, a man he greatly admires.