Today is apparently the 35th anniversary of the day John McCain was released from a Vietnam P.O.W. camp, and his campaign has released this web video in honor of the occasion.

In addition to some slightly odd uses of editing technology (images of McCain as a P.O.W. reflected on the backboard of a basketball hoop), the reel includes testimony about McCain’s courage from fellow P.O.W.s and his mom.

The G.O.P. nominee’s last line talks of a manifest destiny, and sounds like a restrained echo of how the current president has said he saw his candidacy.

“The only reason I’m here today is that I believe a higher being has a mission for me in my life,” McCain says.

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