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Presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., recently granted exclusive video interviews on military, national security and veterans' issues to The American Legion Magazine. Some of their responses to questions on veterans, military and national security issues will be launched Aug. 19 on Military.com's "Debate 2008" Web site.
The historic interview - billed as "Debate 2008" - is a joint effort of The American Legion, with about 2.7 million members, and Military.com, with more than 10 million members.
Seven of the questions came directly from veterans or off-duty servicemembers who uploaded videos of their queries to Military.com, the largest online military membership destination on the Web. The candidates responded directly to those questions, including one from Linda Perham, who chairs the Legion's National Membership & Post Activities Committee. She wanted to know their views on a constitutional amendment to protect the U.S. Flag from physical desecration.
"I am for it. And I've always supported it," said McCain during an Aug. 9 interview in Las Vegas. "And could I just say, I had an experience in prison camp in North Vietnam, in Hanoi, where a young man who was named Mike Christian, made an American flag and sewed it on the back of his shirt.
"We pledged our allegiance to our flag in our prison cell. The Vietnamese took it out and beat him very, very badly, and then he, because he was a brave, brave American, sewed another American flag, so that we could pledge our allegiance. I have seen Americans literally shed their blood for this flag. I don't think it should be desecrated."
In Titusville, Fla., Obama shared his views on the same question in an Aug. 2 interview. "I believe that we have to revere and honor our flag; it is a symbol of all that is good in America. But I have historically believed that part of what we are protecting is our Constitution. And we don't modify that lightly.
"I recognize how important this is to American Legion members and anybody who has fought on behalf of this country under that flag. But I would also argue that, as a consequence of us teaching reverence and love and respect for that flag and for our country, most children, most young people, most Americans abhor the notion of defiling our flag. And so we don't have a lot of flag-burning going on out there."
"Never before has there been an online video Q&A between the presidential candidates that was focused on military and veterans' issues," American Legion National Commander Marty Conatser said, "This is the first opportunity of its kind for servicemembers and veterans to ask questions of their future commander-in-chief."
The candidates responded to questions about the global war on terrorism, deployment lengths for citizen-soldiers, border security, VA health-care funding and flag protection. The October issue of The American Legion Magazine will include a print version of the historic interviews, and an expanded video presentation - with additional questions - will appear on the Legion's Web site (www.legion.org) in late September.
The American Legion and Military.com have joined forces on many projects over the past three years, including promotion of Military.com-sponsored veterans career fairs.
To view complete responses by McCain and Obama on the flag-amendent issue, click on the links below.
To watch video clips of the questions after the Aug. 19 launch, and the candidates' responses, click on the "Debate 2008 Election Center" link below or go to http://electioncenter.military.com/. There, visitors can see video responses to the selected questions, along with other questions that were uploaded onto the site and comments from Military.com members.
VIEW VIDEO OF McCAIN AND OBAMA ON THE FLAG AMENDMENT
2008 ELECTION CENTER
