Enough already!

John McCain's status as a POW in Vietnam does not qualify or disqualify him to be president of the United States. Using it as a sole, or even major, criteria defies common sense.

Here's Richard Cohen.

But here is the difference between McCain and Obama -- and Obama had better pay attention. McCain is a known commodity. It's not just that he's been around a long time and staked out positions antithetical to those of his Republican base. It's also -- and more important -- that we know his bottom line. As his North Vietnamese captors found out, there is only so far he will go, and then his pride or his sense of honor takes over.

In other words, McCain's courage in the face of torture 40 years ago means that he will have the courage to do the right thing as president.

That argument is bunk! Forget the fact that people and their ways of thinking change over 4 decades. It is a well documented fact that their level of courage changes over time too. If you don't believe me take a look at the car insurance rates for teenagers, twenty-somethings, and forty-somethings. There's a SIGNIFICANT difference. Why? Teenagers will take much greater risks than twenty-somethings who will take much greater risks than forty-somethings.

In addition, courage in one situation does not translate as courage in another situation. My brother will pick up and remove spiders from his house without killing them but just try to get him up on a roof. Can't be done. He's terrified of heights. A mutual friend of ours, a police officer, would have no problem getting up on a roof and daily faces the dangers of his job but I've literally seen him run off like the proverbial frightened little girl when a teeny spider shows itself.