It's 5:50 a.m.

Has the AP blown John McCain yet today?

Why yes.

John McCain was in his favorite campaign setting, a town hall meeting, when he spotted a promising target. "I'd love to recognize you first, sir," the Republican presidential candidate said to a man in a Vietnam War veteran's hat.

Instead of a softball opening question from a fellow vet, however, McCain got a lengthy harangue, as the man insisted the senator had opposed better medical benefits for veterans.

McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war, politely said the man was mistaken. He finally broke it off, saying, "I'll be glad to examine what your version of my record is."

And yet the AP doesn't bother to report the plain facts.

That the "AP-titled" harangue was absolutely correct and McCain was lying.

After all as the AP's Charles Babbington put it, McCain must be unimpeachable on such questions because he was a prisoner of war.

Ooooooooooo-kay.