On McCain's character

Parent Cafe
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<p>I’m trying to reference a story that I read recently about McCain, but I can’t remember where I read it. Can anyone help me? I thought I read it in Newsweek, but I can’t seem to find it.</p>

<p>Anyway, the story discussed the details of McCain’s last bombing mission in North Vietnam. According to the article, McCain was ordered to abort the mission, but he defied orders because he had the target in his sights. As we all know, it was a very bad decision on McCain’s part.</p>

<p>I ran across this article when I was trying to locate the story:</p>

<p>[The</a> World According to John McCain | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008 | Newsweek.com](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/id/129660]The”>The World According to John McCain)</p>

<p>The Newsweek article cited above has a great quote that sums up my reservations about McCain. Winslow Wheeler, a defense-budget expert who observed McCain for years as an aide to different senators, had this to say about McCain’s need for an advisor to defuse his temper: “Joe Lieberman’s not going to be there at 3 o’clock in the morning, in bed with him, when the phone call comes.”</p>

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<p>This stuff all cracks me up. Of course McCain is human. So are the other two guys. But what happens is you get people getting all huffy at anything which seems less than adulatory about “my guy” while gleefully slinging mud at “the other guy.” As much as I’d prefer to have the candidates (each of whom I personally find to have a lot of admirable qualities) assessed based on the policies they support and their ability to see them implemented, I predict that this election will be another Youtube/People Magazine/Swiftboat blog orgy of dwelling on perceived personal failings sanctimoniously paraded as “character issues” and other equally irrelevant trivia.</p>

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No kidding. :rolleyes: Why, I predict that we’ll even have people so desperate to avoid the real issues facing the nation that they’ll be frothing at the mouth over such absolute nonsense as what a candidate’s former pastor said on occasion in church. C’mon now, don’t shake your heads - I swear - it could get that infantile! [/sarcasm]</p>

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<p>Oh isn’t he? Do you think that if Hillary gets elected, Bill will be content with just diddling the interns? He is a two term former President, who is as strong a personality as there is in contemporary politics. No way will he be content to play “First Spouse”. When he was running, both he and Hillary boasted that we would be getting a “two-fer”. Do you honestly think he’ll just step aside and let her have at it? They may as well put two desks in the Oval Office. One for her and one for him.</p>

<p>But even aside from that, it’s the hypocrisy that makes me crazy. That’s why I brought Bill (that sacred cow of the Democratic Party), into this discussion. For the life of me, I fail to see how Bill’s reputed rages and proven misogyny got and continue to get a pass, but John McCain’s reputed temper is roof positive of psychological instability. There’s no excuse for abusive behavior, no matter who commits it. So no, I’m not making any excuses for John McCain. What I’m doing is questioning the logic that says it doesn’t matter just because you’re no longer President. By the way, there are also plenty of damning rumors that have been circulating for years about Hillary’s volatile temper—things she’s said to law enforcement, the secret service, and white house staffers, humiliating put-downs and liberal use of ear blistering profanity. Are they damnable lies only if they’re being said about your candidate? Do you believe them only if they pertain to "the other party’s guy/gal? These are questions we should all ask ourselves.</p>

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<p>Do doubt you’re right, kluge. And that’s just a damn same, given all the important issues we all face.</p>

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<p>Good thing I wasn’t drinking anything at the time I read this. I would have either choked or sprayed my keyboard and monitor. LOL—that one was really good. Thanks kluge.;)</p>

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<p>That should read, “No doubt you’re right, kluge.”</p>

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<p>“I don’t think Bill is running for president”</p>

<p>If he’s not going to have a critical role in the executive branch because he’s just the presidential spouse, and the presidential spouse doesn’t do anything, then that pretty much puts to rest the idea that Hillary has a great deal of executive “experience.”</p>

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<p>Kluge, Obama has distanced himself from Pastor Wright but that issue is not dead. </p>

<p>It is entirely fair to examine the relationship between Obama and Wright just as it would be to critically look at McCain if he had a pastor who was given to inflammatory and perhaps racist public comments.</p>

<p>We have not yet examined what did Obama know and when did he know it with regard to Pastor Wright. That will come. The way it is looking now, such an examination will start with Hillary or her surrogates asking the questions.</p>

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<p>A friend of mine who is from Chicago and is, incidentally, a black Republican, says he was present when Wright made the sermon that has now been very much in the press. </p>

<p>Friend says the excerpts were taken way out of context, something that appears to be true based on what I’ve seen of more extensive excerpts of the speech. Friend – a minister himself – says that there wasn’t anything in the sermons that was unusual for black churches. One can even look at MLK’s sermons and see that criticizing the government is not unusual. However, just because a minister criticizes the country doesn’t mean that he is suggesting being a traitor or that he hates the country.</p>

<p>"In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines.</p>

<p>In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)</p>

<p>The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to the Navy’s premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital, as a member of the commander in chief’s medical team, and helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery. For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation…</p>

<p>While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through family connections…"</p>

<p>The young man was Rev. Wright.
<a href=“http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0404wrightapr03,0,225570.story[/url]”>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0404wrightapr03,0,225570.story&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thanks for posting that info, NSmom. That’s interesting material and says lots of good things about Pastor Wright. Here’s a bit more: <a href=“http://www.tucc.org/pastor.htm[/url]”>http://www.tucc.org/pastor.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I’m still waiting for MCCain to repudiate the support of his major backer who considers all Catholics to be “held in thrall to the Whore of Babylon.”</p>

<p>And, no, that isn’t taken out of context.;)</p>

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<p>Yeah, that surly sounds like an unpatriotic man bent upon the overthrow of the U.S. Gov…:rolleyes: Interesting isn’t it, who it was among all these men: GW Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, Jeremiah Wright— that postponed his education, and answered the call to serve his country.</p>

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<p>It’s not fair to compare Jeremiah Wright to that Hate America crowd you’ve named (both Democrats and Republicans), who have likely put America’s reputation in the world into the toilet for the next generation.</p>

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<p>“I was just going to post what vp said above - maybe this is just an example of the relationship b/w John & Cindy.”</p>

<p>Can you imagine what the right-wing talkers would say if it came out that Obama said something like this to his wife? What the religious-right, focus-on-the family folks would be saying?</p>

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<p>Hunt, doesn’t it give you pause at all that this info regarding MCCain and his wife is coming from unnamed sources in a book written by a democratic political operative?</p>

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<p>Anonymous and unverified information about Republicans to Democrats IS reliable information. </p>

<p>It’s not the quality of the evidence, it’s the seriousness of the charge that’s important to Democrats. Try and approach it from a liberal perspective and all the evidentiary problems will evaporate.</p>

<p>:D</p>

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<p>From what I read, it’s sourced pretty well. I guess the people involved could be lying. I think it’s pretty funny, especially after the Swift Boat lies, that Republicans should say that Democrats don’t care about the truth. The Republicans wrote the book on this kind of campaigning.</p>

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<p>So these fellows are lying about John Kerry?</p>

<p>See: <a href=“http://www.swiftvets.com/videos/theyserved.mov[/url]”>http://www.swiftvets.com/videos/theyserved.mov&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Yes. Even McCain thought so. In fairness, some of them are probably just repeating lies they heard from others.</p>

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<p>“Anonymous and unverified information about Republicans to Democrats IS reliable information.”</p>

<p>Actually, the information flowing among Republocrats is usually reliable, though understated. </p>

<p>So when is McCain going to repudiate the support of Rev. Hagee and his followers?</p>

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<p>Mini, as you can glean from my posts, I’m no McCain fan, but I don’t understand what the big issue with Hagee is. He denounces Roman Catholic doctrine as false, but the Roman Catholic church denounces contrary doctrines as false all the time. It it because he uses mean language like “whore of Babyon?”</p>