One of the most recent campaign ads running with Sen. John McCain as its target is the footage of a young mother with her toddler son on her lap. In the ad, she talks about her son being her everything, and how each day is a new adventure. Then, with a snippet from a McCain speech, she says “John McCain, when you were talking about us being in Iraq for 100 years, were you talking about Alex (the toddler), because if you were, you cannot have him!!” Of course, what is more gripping than a mother’s love!

The ad brings up several key points. First, it shows how things can be twisted to say something completely opposite of the speaker’s intent. In this case, John McCain DID say it wouldn’t matter if we were in Iraq 100 years. But the FULL statement went on to say that we’ve been in Japan for 60+ years, in Korea for 50+ years, and we can be in Iraq for 100 years SO LONG AS our soldiers are not being injured or killed. But the last part NEVER makes it into the rhetoric of the Democratic Party.

The other point that the ad brings up, and one that I believe is highly significant, is that John McCain, as our Commander in Chief, would not be asking the American soldiers and their families to do ANYTHING that he would not ask of himself. This, in my opinion, is what sets John McCain’s leadership capabilities far above those of Barack Obama. (A side note: Obama’s charisma does not translate to McCain’s leadership values).

By now, unless you have been living under a rock, John McCain’s heroic story as a POW in the Vietnam War is well documented. McCain’s grandfather, John Sr. and his father, John Jr. were both military officers. Now, with troops on the fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, McCain has made an extremely conscious decision NOT to allow his campaign to publicize that his two youngest sons are both serving in the military. Jack McCain attended the US Naval Academy, and Jimmy McCain, now 20, enlisted at 18. Like their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather before them, they are proudly serving there country. And like thousands of wives, mothers, fathers, husbands, children, siblings across our great nation, the McCain family worries about their sons.

So, yes, John McCain hopes that “Alex” might want to serve his country, in whatever capacity he might be drawn to in his adult life, but, as I said, he will not ask any more of the American people than he himself would be willing to do.