RACINE, Wis. — On the campaign trail, Sen. John McCain often says he does not like to talk about his military service. Anyone who has followed him closely knows this is ridiculous — his campaign ads regularly reference his time as a POW in North Vietnam, and his staffers often fall back on his "war hero" reputation to defend his character. As we await McCain’s arrival here at the Racine Civic Center in this Milwaukee suburb for a scheduled town hall meeting, the campaign warmed up the audience with a pair of videos and two campaign ads that focus on McCain’s military service. All of these visual aids featured images of McCain as a young Navy pilot and later as a prisoner of war. I’m told this isn’t the first time the McCain campaign has prepped the audience with pre-town hall videos, but it hasn’t happened in a long time. The crowd reacted favorably, with loud applause after each of the videos. This could be an effective way of driving home the campaign’s message — that McCain is a war hero — while at the same time allowing McCain to modestly pretend he doesn’t like to talk about his time in the military.