I first heard McCain speak about torture when I was a young lad who was merely interested in this thing we call democracy. I was quite the supporter of Senator McCain, he was my choice over our current President for the nomination of 2000.

But things didn’t work out that way.

McCain has the nomination now, 8 years later (too late some say) and he’s running with it.

But then I saw an article over on DailyKos today, talking about an interview with McCain on torture.

I’m not quite sure how it came to pass and was confused even as I watched it in the interview, hosted over on Think Progress, but after a question John McCain stated:

“I’ve made it very clear, I’ve made it very clear in my statements and in my support of the Detainee Treatment Act, the Geneva Conventions, etc., that there may be some additional techniques to be used, but none of those would violate the Geneva Conventions, the Detainee Treatment Act…And we cannot ever, in my view, torture any American, that includes waterboarding.”

Of course, the jucy bit is what Think Progress blogger Ali pointed out:

As he did today, McCain has condemned waterboarding in the past. He has called it a “horrible torture technique” and a “terrible and odious practice” that “should never be condoned in the U.S.” Yet in February, McCain voted against a bill banning the CIA from using torture, specifically including waterboarding.

When the bill passed, McCain encouraged Bush to veto it — effectively supporting the CIA’s use of “stress positions, hypothermia, threats to the detainee and his family, severe sleep deprivation, and severe sensory deprivation.”

We all know torture is bad, and that the fine line between interrogation and torture is so misty gray that most people just avoid it. What we see on 24 when Jack Bauer is running out of time withstanding, most people agree that torture just isn’t the way to go.