Former POW Moe stumps for McCain in Belmont

BELMONT, Ohio - As war and a financial crisis plague the United States, former Vietnam prisoner of war Tom Moe told Belmont County Republicans on Tuesday he knows just the man to lead the nation during trying times.

It is his former fellow POW presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"The nation is calling," Moe said. "And the man picking up the phone is John McCain."

A group of more than 40 McCain supporters turned out to the Belmont County Republican headquarters in Belmont to hear from Moe who was imprisoned alongside McCain for more than five years at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton."

Moe is now retired after 30 years in the military and is a resident of Lancaster, Ohio, southeast of Columbus.

"There are hard times we live in, and Washington is a mess," Moe said. "John has even suspended his campaign and taken some flack for doing so. But it is his job to be a senator. That's what the people are paying him for."

Moe pointed out that McCain's Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told his staff he would monitor the financial situation presently before Congress "by phone."

Moe urged voters to look past the glitz and glamour of political candidates.

"John McCain is a good guy ... but he's not pretty," Moe said of his fellow POW a man he remembers set his own jaw after it was broken by prison guards.

"'Pretty' these days gets a lot of press," moe added. "And John McCain admits it. He is not the greatest orator."

Another president who wasn't pretty was Theodore Roosevelt, Moe noted.

"Lets face it ... if he were to run today, he would be struggling," Moe said of the former "Rough Rider." "We have to look past the pretty."

Moe said when McCain first tapped Moe to run the Ohio Veterans for McCain Group, it was last year when McCain's campaign wasn't given much chance to be successful. But McCain isn't one to let adversity get the better of him, Moe noted.

"Look at how far he has come, and where he is today," he said. "He is just a few days away from the election. This is a man who can barely raise his right arm to salute the flag he fought to protect."

Moe said Vietnamese guards broke McCain's right shoulder with their rifle butts while he was a prisoner, and that it never healed properly.

Accompanying Moe to Belmont was former Belmont County Sheriff Richard Stobbs, a current candidate for the 6th District congressional seat. Stobbs is also a Vietnam veteran who is chairman of the Belmont County Veterans for McCain group.