Footage of John McCain Interview With French Reporter Francois Chalais Being Aired, Dirty Way to Gain Sympathy Votes

I have the utmost respect for anyone who has served in our armed forces, but it seems very suspect that footage of John McCain's lying injured in bed and smoking a cigarette during an emotional interview with French reporter Francois Chalais is making its way around just days before the presidential election. Are we supposed to feel sorry for what happened to John McCain? Wasn't this an outcome that all soldiers fighting in any war hopes never happens? Whoever did this is pandering for votes at the expense of really focusing on the issues that confront every American today. I am sorry that he was captured, but hey, it is time to move on and deal with the issues confronting us today. In case they haven't noticed, the stock market plummeted by 500 points on recession worries. His POW days cannot help him at this point.

French reporter Francois Chalais conducted the interview. His widow says the online release this week of four minutes, 33 seconds of footage is the fullest distribution of the interview since it first aired four decades ago. The video shows McCain shirtless and unshaven, smoking a cigarette. Answering questions from Chalais, he spoke about being shot down over Hanoi on Oct. 25, 1967, and parachuting into a lake.

The French national audiovisual archive INA is posting the interview on its Web site, for one week. It was first broadcast on French television program Panorama in January 1968.Mei Chen Chalais, the reporter's 56-year-old widow who holds the legal rights to the footage, said that some excerpts of the black-and-white footage are widely available mostly unauthorized in cyberspace, and have been used by television networks in France and the United States.

Her lawyers are seeking payment from at least seven broadcasters in France and the United States that used the footage without authorization, said one of her attorneys, Jacques-Georges Bitoun. I don't blame her one bit and I hope she collects money from the McCain campaign too because their web site features a few seconds of the footage, which is has said was done without her approval.

The McCain campaign will resort to the lowest tactics to get votes. John McCain, we have honored you repeatedly for your military service, it is time to move pass that and get with the program. Quite frankly, I don't care about your military service right now. People are losing their homes to foreclosure. Jobs are being lost in record numbers and banks, as well as many companies, are collapsing like dominoes, so I don't mean to sound callous, but your days in Hanoi don't add up to a hill of beans, in the grand scheme of things.