Your post was mostly the usual straw men, the usual twisting of what I'm saying. All the bloviating doesn't change two facts:

1) McCain is running on his having been a POW, and constantly flogging the argument that that experience qualifies him to be commander in chief. If McCain weren't putting forth the proposition at every opportunity, nobody would be examining and challenging it. There is absolutely nothing improper about examining a candidate's only claim to competency.

2) Bud Day has been brought out of retirement to join the McCain campaign. We're not talking about a superficially-separate Web site like Floyd-the-Brown-Stain's, we're not talking about a 527, we're talking about the McCain campaign staff. Budday was a central mover in SBV"T", whose enduring legacy is the verb "swiftboat", meaning "to smear"...a verb used as casually and with the same meaning by Republicans and Democrats alike.

Any questions?

You have yet to address, let alone rebut, my observation that smears are SOP for Republican campaigns. I had a solid case before Bud joined McCain's campaign, but I appreciate such a stark illustration of my point.