Many detailed reasons to fear John McCain
The Rolling Stone has just published a highly detailed, article written by Tim Dickenson. This article is must-reading for anyone who really wants to understand John McCain by his words and actions over his disturbing life. The more you know, the less you’ll trust this fake maverick. In fact, the title to the article is “Make-Believe Maverick: A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty. Here are a few short excerpts, but I urge everyone to take a nice slow read of this. It will inform you better than 50 typical articles about McCain.
To watch the Republican National Convention and listen to Fred Thompson’s account of John McCain’s internment in Vietnam, you would think that McCain never gave his captors anything beyond his name, rank, service number and, under duress, the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line. His time in Hanoi, we’re to understand, steeled the man — transforming him from a fighter jock who put himself first into a patriot who would henceforth selflessly serve the public good . . .
At least three of McCain’s GOP colleagues have gone on record to say that they consider him temperamentally unsuited to be commander in chief. Smith, the former senator from New Hampshire, has said that McCain’s “temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind, it should disqualify him.” Sen. Domenici of New Mexico has said he doesn’t “want this guy anywhere near a trigger.” And Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi weighed in that “the thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded.” . . .
The myth of John McCain hinges on two transformations — from pampered flyboy to selfless patriot, and from Keating crony to incorruptible reformer — that simply never happened. But there is one serious conversion that has taken root in McCain: his transformation from a cautious realist on foreign policy into a reckless cheerleader of neoconservatism . . .
Privately, McCain brags that he was the “original neocon.” And after 9/11, he took the lead in agitating for war with Iraq, outpacing even Dick Cheney in the dissemination of bogus intelligence about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein . . .
One of the best comments I heard from Biden in his debate last week was that McCain isn’t a “maverick” about anything that Americans care most about. He is plainly not a “maverick” about Iraq, Afgainstan, the economy, healthcare, the national debt, foreign affairs, off-shore drilling, global warming, domestic surveillance, or any other major topic of the past decade.