Is McCain Now Copying Solzhenitsyn?

[Lt_Ripley]

Is McCain Now Copying Solzhenitsyn?

By Taegan Goddard | August 17, 2008 8:23 PM

Last week, a speech by Sen. John McCain had phrases that were likely lifted directly from Wikipedia.

Now it seems McCain may have lifted another story last night at megachurch pastor Rick Warren's Faith Forum. According to a very persuasive Daily Kos diary, the anecdote McCain told about a North Vietnamese prison guard making a cross in the dirt as a sign of solidarity -- or as he said , "just two Christians worshiping together" -- is very similar to a story about Alexander Solzhenitsyn and his times in the Soviet Gulags.

"As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt his entire perspective changed. He knew he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet he knew there was something greater than the evil he saw in the prison camp, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that hope for all people was represented by that simple Cross. Through the power of the Cross, anything was possible."

Steven Waldman notes that McCain's recounting of this story has changed over the years and "has gradually morphed from being about the humanity of the guard to being about the Christian faith of the guard and John McCain."

Andrew Sullivan says that McCain's early accounts of his years as a POW do not even include this story.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/politicalinsid...g-solzheni.html

Edited August 18, 2008 by Lt_Ripley

[Guardsman Bass]

That's possible (and it honestly wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened; Reagan would do the same thing), although keep in mind that he may simply have been not that religious when he wrote his memoirs, so the incident never struck him as that important at the time.

[Lt_Ripley]

That's possible (and it honestly wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened; Reagan would do the same thing), although keep in mind that he may simply have been not that religious when he wrote his memoirs, so the incident never struck him as that important at the time.

lol please . that's like believing Obama sat in church with that minister and was unaffected by it. He may not have taken it to heart especially being half white , but of course some of it rang for him. how could it not ? I'm not saying it makes him racist but I do wonder what he really feels . If he can put that aside than fine. but also lets get honest ... there is no way that there hasn't been a president that hasn't been racist or sexist or some kind of ist in some way or other. no one is immune to it.

Edited August 18, 2008 by Lt_Ripley

[bathory]

its also possible that two similar events occured for both McCain and Solzhenitsyn...

its not particularly remarkable, or out there

certainly not like coming under sniper fire in kosovo or spending christmas in cambodia...

Edited August 18, 2008 by bathory