“Courage without conscience is a wild beast.”

I do not want to diminish the high regard I have for what John McCain endured as a prisoner of war for five and one-half years; nor do I want to imply that this Nation should regard him as anything other than a legitimate war hero for his service. When one of the major television networks aired his story in a moving made-for-TV movie, I e-mailed his Senate office and told him how much I appreciated his service and how much I admired his strength and perseverance.

But there comes a time when we have to say, “Enough is enough.”

We have to ask the question, “How is McCain’s five and one-half years as a POW better preparation for being President than Barack Obama’s life story?” The simple answer is, “It’s not.”

We can have all the sympathy and respect for what McCain endured, but all his experience really shows is that he has a strong instinct for survival. That he made it back alive with injuries with which he has had to live the remainder of his life is admirable. But so did hundreds of thousands of other brave men who saw the killing fields of Vietnam.

And while this Nation has seen fit to turn its back on so many of those who returned from Vietnam maimed and wounded, we are now being asked by the Republican Party to revere John McCain for his suffering.

We are told time and again that John McCain is the best candidate for the Presidency because he was a POW. If his POW status qualifies him to be President, then I submit that those who were held as POWs longer than he was and those who returned missing limbs or in wheelchairs are eminently more qualified than is he.

Joe Biden made the comment that Rudy Giuliani, in his run for the Republican nomination, used mostly sentences of the form, “a noun, a verb and 9/11.” Now John McCain is sounding much the same. His every response to any policy question seems to take the form of “…I was a POW;” as if, while a POW, he somehow accumulated the wisdom, integrity and intellectual capacity to be President.

Both McCain and his organization have played the POW card so many times that it has become trite. And in doing so, they have dishonored all of those other brave men who served just as valiantly and suffered just as much, or more, than John McCain.

By his record of voting against increasing Veteran benefits, John McCain, himself, has helped disenfranchise the men and women who have served every bit as faithfully and with as much bravery as did he.

Most of us feel for those who are less fortunate than ourselves. Our hearts go out to those who suffer painful physical and mental afflictions, to those who have their lives inexorably altered through a tragedy not of their making. And, where we can, we try to give a helping hand. But we see many examples of brave individuals who somehow find the strength to overcome their circumstances and get on with their lives.

John McCain has certainly overcome his tragic circumstance. Yet, while he continues to play the POW card and somehow expects us to believe he has special status that should elevate him to the Presidency, John McCain has turned his back on his fellow servicemen. He has somehow concluded that his POW experience makes him more special, more qualified, more deserving than anyone else. And in doing so, he has cheapened his own special story.

“…I was a POW” is not an answer to the issues facing the next President of the United States of America.