So John McCain’s former captor, a Vietnamese communist, says he would vote for his former prisoner–if he was an American, according to the BBC.

He calls McCain “my friend.”

Without irony.

If the Obama campaign is clever–and it is–it will use this story, through a surrogate, to call McCain’s war record into question. (The communist officer denies that McCain was ever tortured. Instead, the Navy pilot was summoned for little chats. Right.) With a Cheshire Cat smile, the surrogate will say: “Well, it is his word against McCain’s. But the Vietnamese official is not running for president and has no reason to lie…”

The left side of the Blogosphere will eat it up.

Of course, the idea that McCain was not tortured by the North Vietnamese is ridiculous.

But the silly season is about to begin…