Andrew Sullivan is not giving up and is linking to a Bud Day ad (Day was a P.O.W. with McCain and is a Medal of Honor winner) for John McCain that doesn’t mention the cross story in a effort to make the case that the cross-in-the-dirt story is made up. The Day excerpt:

“Christmas of 1971 was centered around scripture that John had gotten from the first Bible we had been able to get from the Vietnamese,” Day says in the first radio ad. “John composed an extremely compelling sermon that night about the importance of Christmas … I think it was certainly a shot to everyone’s morale to hear those Christian words in that very un-Christianlike place.”

I’ve already linked to another Bud Day story on McCain’s Christian beliefs. Rather then undercut the argument that McCain is a Christian, Sullivan and Co. are actually making the argument that McCain’s religious beliefs have a depth that most voters never knew.

Eventually this will pass. I look forward to moving on and discussing more pressing issues like health care. And when we do, in fact, move on, friends of Senator McCain, like Bud Day, can talk about McCain’s experience as a combat medic:

Mr. Day relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, “I told you I would make you a cripple.”The break was designed to shatter Mr. Day’s will. He had survived in prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and be able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a bone sticking out of his arm, and put him in a misshapen cast. This was done so that the arm would heal at “a goofy angle,” as Mr. Day explained. Had it done so, he never would have flown again.But it didn’t heal that way because of John McCain. Risking severe punishment, Messrs. McCain and Day collected pieces of bamboo in the prison courtyard to use as a splint. Mr. McCain put Mr. Day on the floor of their cell and, using his foot, jerked the broken bone into place. Then, using strips from the bandage on his own wounded leg and the bamboo, he put Mr. Day’s splint in place.Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complimented the treatment he’d gotten from his captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was Dr. McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again.