“John was offered early release [by the North Vietnamese], and he told them to shove it.”

The phrase “Shove it” has, until recently, most famously been associated with Theresa Heinz-Kerry’s response to a hostile line of questioning in 2004. But that line is quoted by another prisoner of war in the latest web video from the McCain campaign, telling the story of John McCain’s ordeal as a POW.

This will be familiar territory to some. But there are details that I think any American will find gripping, like his mother noting that after thinking he was dead for two days, the news that her son was a POW was “the best news she had ever received in her life.” Or the nastiest interrogator, the commander of the POW camp, icily responding to McCain’s “shove it” rejection of early release, “I think you will regret that decision”… before re-breaking McCain’s broken bones.

McCain may win in November, he may lose. He may go on to become a great president, or he may be a lousy one. But he’s already done extraordinary things for his country, and demonstrated a never-quit tenacity that few of us can imagine.