In complaining about some of the lefties who have been suggesting that McCain’s “prison guard makes cross in the dirt” anecdote from Viet Nam might have been cribbed from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Michael Goldfarb writes on the official “John McCain” blog:

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.

Gee. Nice gratuitous slam at D&D players, Mike. (For the record, I’ve never lived in Mom’s basement, since she doesn’t have one.) I guess Real War Hero Men Don’t Play D&D.

I have no idea of the demographics of D&D players — which I’ll assume Mike would extend to be all those Satanic types who think “RPG” means “Role-Playing Game,” rather than “Rocket-Propelled Grenade” like Real Men do — but those I know are bright, imaginative, and fairly affluent sorts.

Apparently Mike felt the heat, and at least his apology is a bit humorous.

If my comments caused any harm or hurt to the hard working Americans who play Dungeons & Dragons, I apologize. This campaign is committed to increasing the strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma scores of every American.

It was still a stupid quip. (It was an inane comment even without the D&D reference, but that’s another topic.)