Barack Obama and John McCain: could both be Manchurian Candidates?

With Obama all but sealing the Democratic nomination, it's time to ask "Is it possible America could elect a Manchurian candidate?... no matter who they choose."

Firstly, what is a "Manchurian candidate"?
The Manchurian Candidate was a thriller novel written by Richard Condon in 1959, most recently adapted into a 2004 film starring Denzel Washington. It is about the son of a prominent political family who has been brainwashed into becoming an unwitting assassin. It is often used in political context to describe a candidate who is intentionally misleading the public and concealing their true motives, someone who works at the bidding of malevolent interests.

I offer you the case for both sides.
McCain as the Manchurian candidate for the Vietnamese
The claim: The Vietnamese have taken control of McCain since capturing him in 1967 and are salivating at the prospect of having a North Vietnamese puppet having his finger on the "red button". It is not entirely clear what Vietnam has to gain.

John McCain: The Manchurian Candidate connection
In 1949 Dr. Andrew Salter authored Conditioned Reflex Therapy, a pioneering work in the field of psychoanalysis. Ten years later, as Richard Condon was writing The Manchurian Candidate, he asked Dr. Salter to help "design" the brainwashed character for the book and subsequent movie.

More than 40 years later, in 1992, during the C-SPAN broadcasts of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, Dr. Salter watched the hearings from his New York City apartment. Salter became fascinated with McCain's overly aggressive and angry behavior toward witnesses, especially family members of men still missing in action. After a few hours he called a friend telling her, "the signs are all there, I'm afraid Senator John McCain has been brainwashed."

The author Ted Sampley is a Vietnam veteran and writer/editor/publisher of The US Veteran Dispatch. He founded 'Vietnam Veterans against John Kerry' and is a contributor to 'Vietnam Veterans against John McCain'.

Barack as the Manchurian Candidate for Muslims
The claim: After attending a predominantly Muslim school in Indonesia during his youth, a secretly Muslim Obama will come to power giving Muslims the upper hand in the War on Terror presumably by destroying America from the inside.

Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim
So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian, and even if he despised the behavior of his father (as Obama said on Oprah); is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?

Debbie Schlussel is a political commentator and radio talk host. She is noted for her writings on radical Islam and her legal actions as attorney against radical Islamic parties.

So is it possible that America could elect a Manchurian candidate? If you can believe its plausible for a person to be groomed as a Trojan Horse as far back as the 60s, navigate though life putting themselves in a position to contend seriously for the most powerful seat in the world whilst having any malevolent assistance go undetected then it wouldn't be a stretch to believe there are more out there - granted the odds of two Manchurian Presidential Candidates going head-to-head in the same year for separate interests would be astronomical. If this were to happen it would be the biggest political swerve in history, a sequence of events that would rival the preposterousness of any wrestling storyline.