In an interview with KDKA-TV (Pittsburgh) earlier this week, presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain told Jon Delano that he invoked the names of Pittsburgh Steelers' defensive linemen when he was a POW in Vietnam in 1967: "When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the pressures, the physical pressures that were on me, I named the starting lineup -- defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers -- as my squadron mates."

The problem is that in his 1999 best-selling book "Faith of My Fathers," McCain wrote, "I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron." Using the names of Packers' players makes more sense; after all, Green Bay was the "Team of the 1960s." Meanwhile, the Steelers were so bad throughout the sixties that even the most diehard Pittsburgh fan couldn't have named the team's defensive linemen without looking them up in a media guide. It wasn't until the following decade that the Steelers developed the "Steel Curtain," which included household names like Mean Joe Greene, Ernie Holmes and Dwight White.

A campaign spokesman called the snafu an "honest mistake," but I'm guessing that McCain was deliberately engaged in some shameless pandering. Knowing that Packers' offensive linemen like Forrest Gregg won't win any votes in Pittsburgh, McCain simply substituted names that would resonate.