McCain's Secret, Questionable Record
"At a meeting in his Pentagon office in early 1981, Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman told Capt. John S. McCain III that he was about to attain his life ambition: becoming an admiral.... Mr. McCain declined the prospect of his first admiral's star to make a run for Congress, saying that he could 'do more good there,' Mr. Lehman recalled." So claimed the New York Times in a front-page article on May 29 this year.
This story is highly improbable for several reasons, not least of all because John McCain himself has always told a very different story about his stalled naval career. For example, on page 9 of his memoir Worth The Fighting For, McCain writes:
"Several months before my father died, I informed him that I was leaving the navy. I am sure he had already gotten word of my decision from friends in the Pentagon. I had been summoned to see the CNO, Admiral Heyward, who told me that I was making a mistake.... His attempt to dissuade me encouraged me to believe that I might have made admiral had I had been in the navy, a prospect that remained an open question in my mind.... Some of my navy friends believed I could still earn my star; others doubted it.... When I told my father of my intention, he did not remonstrate with me.... But I knew him well enough to know that he was disappointed. For when I left him that day, alone in his study, I took with me his hope that I might someday become the first son and grandson of four-star admirals to achieve the same distinction. That aspiration was well beyond my reach by the time I made my decision...."
McCain's father died on March 22, 1981. McCain retired from the Navy within a week. He wrote about his retirement soon thereafter. McCain never mentioned the alleged offer of an admiralship by Lehman in any of his books, nor in the numerous interviews McCain gave during his first run for the presidency in 1999-2000.
Furthermore, articles written during the current presidential campaign quote McCain's closest friends about McCain's failure to be promoted to admiral before he retired from the Navy. For example, in an April 26, 2008, National Journal cover story, William Cohen (then a Senator, subsequently Secretary of Defense and the best man at McCain's second wedding) recounts that McCain "knew his career in the Navy was limited." Former Senator Gary Hart, who served as a groomsman at McCain's 1980 wedding, says in the National Journal story that he had been told "that [McCain] was not going to receive a star and not going to become an admiral. I think that was the deciding point for him to retire from the Navy."
John Lehman doesn't figure in any accounts of McCain's naval career, probably because Lehman was appointed Secretary of the Navy less than two months before McCain retired. The New York Times didn't note this, or the pertinent fact that John Lehman is currently serving as National Security Adviser to McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. Two other top naval officers in the Times story confirmed Lehman's claim, but for unknown reasons the Times, in violation of its own guidelines, accorded them off-the-record status that makes it impossible to assess their motives and credibility.
The New York Times' front-page story about McCain declining promotion to admiral lacks credibility for other reasons as well. For example, McCain had been promoted to captain on August 1, 1979, so he wouldn't have been due for another promotion by March of 1981.
Retired Admiral Peter Booth, who was promoted to rear admiral in 1981, flatly disputes Lehman's claim about McCain. "No, John McCain was not selected for flag rank, for admiral. With all due respect, I think I was selected that same year, and I have never heard anything even remotely like that. To begin with, John Lehman did not select Navy flag officers. That was done with a very august selection board headed by a four-star admiral. The Secretary of the Navy does not appoint. He is in the approval chain, but he is not on the committee.
"I have never heard a story, even remotely, that John McCain was going to be a flag officer. I was early selected for captain, in 1976, and I was regular selected for admiral in 1981. So it's probably five or six years, I guess. I've never heard of anybody being selected for flag rank within three or four years of making captain, ever."
Retired Admiral John R. Batzler, former commanding officer of the U.S.S. Nimitz, also promoted to rear admiral in 1981, agrees with Retired Admiral Booth. "I made rear admiral in about five years. I wasn't selected early, and I wasn't selected late. I find it incredible that someone made that statement that John Lehman told John McCain he was going to be promoted to admiral two years after he made captain. First of all, telling him at all is not kosher, but we all know the Secretary of the Navy does what he damn well pleases, in particular John Lehman. This whole idea that John Lehman told John McCain he was going to be promoted to flag two years after he made captain sounds preposterous to me." All of the evidence, indications and comments that the New York Times published a flattering lie about McCain's career on its front page are easy for John McCain to refute. All he needs to do is sign Standard Form 180, authorizing the Navy to send an undeleted copy of McCain's naval file to news organizations. A long paper trail about McCain's pending promotion to admiral would be prominent in his file. To date, McCain's advisers have released snippets from his file, but under constrained viewing circumstances. There's no reason McCain's full file shouldn't be released immediately. In May 2005, six months after he lost his bid for president, Senator John Kerry signed the 180 waiver, authorizing the release of his complete military service record to the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press. ** Unlike Kerry, McCain shouldn't wait until after the election to do so. The Navy may claim that it already released McCain's record to the Associated Press on May 7, 2008 in response to the AP's Freedom of Information Act request. But the McCain file the Navy released contained 19 pages -- a two-page overview and 17 pages detailing Awards and Decorations. Each of these 17 pages is stamped with a number. These numbers range from 0069 to 0636. When arranged in ascending order, they precisely track the chronology of McCain's career. It seems reasonable to ask the Navy whether there are at least 636 pages in McCain's file, of which 617 weren't released to the Associated Press.
Some of the unreleased pages in McCain's Navy file may not reflect well upon his qualifications for the presidency. From day one in the Navy, McCain screwed-up again and again, only to be forgiven because his father and grandfather were four-star admirals. McCain's sense of entitlement to privileged treatment bears an eerie resemblance to George W. Bush's.
Despite graduating in the bottom 1 percent of his Annapolis class, McCain was offered the most sought-after Navy assignment -- to become an aircraft carrier pilot. According to military historian John Karaagac, "'the Airedales,' the air wing of the Navy, acted and still do, as if unrivaled atop the naval pyramid. They acted as if they owned, not only the Navy, but the entire swath of blue water on the earth's surface." The most accomplished midshipmen compete furiously for the few carrier pilot openings. After four abysmal academic years at Annapolis distinguished, according to his own books, by mediocrity and misdeeds, no one with a record resembling McCain's would have been offered such a prized career path. The justification for this and subsequent plum assignments should be documented in McCain's naval file.
McCain's file should also include records and analytic reviews of McCain's subsequent sub-par performances. Here are a few cited in two highly favorable biographies, both titled John McCain, one by Robert Timberg and the other by John Karaagac.
Timberg:
"[A]fter a European fling with the tobacco heiress, John McCain reported to flight school at Pensacola in August 1958.... [H]is performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn't love it. What he loved was the kick-the-tire, start-the-fire, scarf-in-the-wind life of a naval aviator. ...One Saturday morning, as McCain was practicing landings, his engine quit and his plane plunged into Corpus Christi. Knocked unconscious by the impact, he came to as the plane settled to the bottom....McCain was an adequate pilot, but he had no patience for studying dry aviation manuals.... His professional growth, though reasonably steady, had its troubled moments. Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines, which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral.... [In 1965] he flew a trainer solo to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy game. Flying by way of Norfolk, he had just begun his descent over unpopulated tidal terrain when the engine died. 'I've got a flameout,' he radioed. He went through the standard relight procedures three times. At one thousand feet he ejected, landing on the deserted beach moments before the plane slammed into a clump of trees."
Adds Karaagac:
"In his memoir, everything becomes a kind of game of adolescent brinksmanship, how much can one press the limits of the acceptable and elude the powers that be....The [fighter jocks'] ethos of exaggerated, almost aggressive sociability becomes an end in itself and an excuse for license. There is a tendency for people, not simply to believe their own mythology but, indeed, to exaggerate it.... Fighter jocks, like politicians around their campaign contributions, often press the limits of the acceptable. It is a type of mild corruption that takes place in a highly privileged atmosphere, where restraints are loosened and excuses made....McCain gives some hint in his memoirs about where he stood in the hierarchy among carrier flyers. Instead of the sleek and newer Phantoms and Crusaders, McCain flew the dependable Douglas A-4 Skyhawk in an attack, not a fighter squadron. He was thus on the lower end of the flying totem pole."
The genius of McCain's mythmaking is his perceived humility amid perpetual defiance. Having been a rebel without cause, and often a rebel without consequences, McCain apparently was not surprised when his Vietnamese captors went relatively easy on him compared to his fellow POWs. The Vietnamese military secretly and frequently filmed the American POWs to learn their propensities. Col. Pham Van Hoa of the Vietnamese People's Army Film Department was in charge of the filming. Asked recently for his dominant impression of McCain, the now-retired Van Hoa said that McCain "seemed superior to other prisoners." How so? "Superior in attitude towards them."
But when Mark Salter, McCain's closest aide and co-author, was asked by the Arizona New Times about the first McCain memoir, Faith of My Fathers, that he was then working on, Salter said the book would showcase a humble McCain. When I worked on this book with him, he just kept saying, "Other guys had it a lot worse. I think they took it easier on me because of who my dad was. . . . When they tied me in ropes, they'd roll my sleeve up to give it a little padding between the rope and my bicep, you know, little things I noticed. The only really hard time I had was when I didn't go home, and then it only lasted a week, and sometimes I felt braver, I felt I could get away with more.'"
Is McCain now getting away with more by hiding his official history and by having his national security adviser inflate McCain's resume with a bogus promotion to admiral humbly declined? If so, McCain may be attempting to hide why the Navy was in fact slow to promote him upwards despite his suffering as a POW and his distinguished naval heritage.
One possible reason: After McCain had returned from Vietnam as a war hero and was physically rehabilitated, he was urged by his medical caretakers and military colleagues never to fly again. But McCain insisted on going up. As Carl Bernstein reported in Vanity Fair, he piloted an ultra-light, single propeller plane -- and crashed another time. His fifth loss of a plane has vanished from public records, but should be a subject of discussion in his Navy file. It wouldn't be surprising if his naval superiors worried that McCain was just too defiant, too reckless and too crash prone.
Regardless, McCain owes it to the country to release his complete naval records so that American voters can see his documented history and make an informed decision.
** An earlier version of this story may have left the impression that John Kerry had signed the 180 military waiver during the 2004 presidential campaign. It has been updated to clarify the timing of the release.
Jeffrey Klein is an investigative journalist who co-founded Mother Jones; directed exposes of Newt Gingrich, Big Tobacco and the introduction of offensive weapons into space; co-produced for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer a series on China's economy that won a Gerald Loeb Award; and taught journalism at Stanford, San Francisco State and Cal. He is currently reporting on assignment for the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute, which provided research support for this article. Research assistance was provided by Peter Jackson.
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John McCain came home from the Hanoi Hilton at the conclusion of the Vietnam War in 1973.
If we were fighting the Vietnam War thirty-five years later, he would still be rotting his ass off in a Vietnamese prison. Would John McCain be so saguine about ending war and bringing the troops home if he was still sitting in a prison cell?
I agree with the author that McCain is unworthy of being elected president.
Sadly, for those of us that are Democrats--that does not mean Sen. Obama is worthy.
Sen. Obama, given his choice of consultants, funding conduits, and advisors, appears to have sold his soul to currency and oil speculator Soros and his ilk.
I joined the party of Roosevelt--not Soros.
Both parties have worthier candidates. Please nominate them.
I suggest both parties have open conventions--and ditch the 'presumptive nominees.'
according to the US military code of conduct if mcain got early release he would of been subject for a dishonorable discharge.
His cellmate did take early release, and he was promoted. He was never punished for it.
You guys are amazing. Issues? Qualifications? Nope. They screwed Kerry in '04 so now we're gonna get them! It's a schoolyard game of "HeHitMeFirst". Fantastic.
John McCain was a prisoner of the NVA for 5+ years. He was wounded in action, patched up, beaten, tortured, beaten some more. He can't raise his arms above his head. His fingers don't work good enough to tie a friggin necktie.
Was he a child of privilege? Probably. In the early 1960's, was he given some special treatment by the Navy. WHO GIVES A CRAP??? MoveOnDotOrg already - it's 2008, if you hadn't noticed.
When The Test came for John McCain, he rose to the occasion - he passed. Have you passed your own? He was tested in a fire unlike any of us will ever have to experience. Broken and re-formed he's a wiser, tougher, more moral, more courageous person then most of us will ever come close to.
Am I voting for him? Don't know yet - I'll decide that on issues. Issues. "War Hero" is not on the qualification list for the job of president.
But to hear these Lilliputians jump on McCain's military record - give me a f-ing break. When offered freedom because of his dad, he CHOSE to stay a prisoner until other pilots were released. You pissants whine if you don't get to *choose* non-fat whip on your lattes in the morning. You don't have the character to criticize McCain the Man - stick to arguing his
...stick to arguing his *politics*.
John McCain uses his "experience" in National Security as a merit badge in his campaign for the Presidency. As such, of COURSE it's relevant. He opened the door. And as you surprisingly even admitted, being a tortured for five years doesn't qualify a person to be President. This is not like the "Swift Boating" of John Kerry, because this is an actual quest for the truth, instead of a blind mudslinging of false accusations with no evidence. Kerry was wounded, and did receive a Purple Heart, and all of this was supported by both Army documents and the anecdotal evidence of the other dozen soldiers who were actually there. The Swift Boat attacks were based on lies, lies and more lies. If the truth really shows McCain as the War Hero he is portrayed as, then it should bear him out. If it doesn't, then he shouldn't be portrayed as one anymore.
"because this is an actual quest for the truth, instead of a blind mudslinging of false accusations with no evidence"
Yeah...rig
A pure quest for truth? No underlying motive to bring up irrelevant questions, smear McCain? Christ, the entire thread of posts is full of innuendo, lies, and hate. Either wake up or stop lying so ineffectively.
If McCain is really a war hero you would think he would willingly surrender his military records to prove it. If he refuses then it means that he is hiding something. Simple as that.
Oh yeah dude, that makes sense. Why don't you post all your work history, personnel and medical records right here for this warm and sensitive community of loving souls to peruse.
What are you hiding?
Not once have I personally questioned his service record, his sufferings in the Hanoi Hilton. What I take great issue with when it comes to "Hundred Years War" McCain is his voting record and activities since those events 30-odd years ago.
Just in case you haven't been keeping up with McCain's more recent history since his little tryst with Charles Keating:
http://www
Hypocrisy, thy name be John "Hundred Years War" McCain. A "friend to veterans?" Then why do veterans' groups rate John McCain a D-minus? Could it be his voting record?
Naaaaw...!
Leland R. Erickson
Citizen
See above....
But just FYI. a website with the title truthout.o
"When The Test came for John McCain, he rose to the occasion - he passed. Have you passed your own? He was tested in a fire unlike any of us will ever have to experience. Broken and re-formed he's a wiser, tougher, more moral, more courageous person then most of us will ever come close to."
I just want to understand. I'm not making fun. In what way did John McCain pass? Because he survived? He admits he broke under torture - so would anyone, so that doesn't matter..
Do you mean because he chose not to be released early when he could have? Is that what you are referring to?
I'm sure that "tougher" and "courageous" apply to McCain, but "wiser" and "more moral"? Why isn't he supporting the New GI Bill? Why did he vote against the bill to ban waterboarding?
Is the Keating 5 scandal so far in the past that John McCain's morality cannot be questioned? What about his adulterous affairs when he came back from Viet Nam because his "model" wife was not so lovely anymore after her tragic accident?
I don't think I would use either "wise" or "moral" to describe McCain. Ask the people who know him best - I mean besides Lindsay Graham or Joe Lieberman. :-) They have hitched their wagon to his star, and will support him no matter what.
wmholt, BlackWidowPilot;
Why are you replying to this. By your words you're challenging McCain on issues other than his Vietnam experience, which is exactly my point. The only thing I can draw from your posts is that you're just always on the attack. Oh well. Keating 5? Perfectly reasonable line of questioning, let's ask. Policy on Iraq? Let's follow through on that.
But wmholt, why did he cheat on his wife? Jesucristo, haven't been through that kind of tabloid journalism crap enough!?
How the hell are we going to find a president worthy of our country if every man and woman up for the job has a lifetime of off-the-cuff statements, irrelevant personal details, and every bit of poor judgment of their youth magnified 1000 times, dissected, and brought out to be criticized by morons like us bloggers. Every one of you little Mike Wallaces with an ax to grind and a loud voice is drowning out the real discussion. Now this...fel
He and John Glenn were exonerated on the Keating 5 scandal.
Ah, just a thought - what military qualifications did DickGeorge bring to the table that made everyone feel so safe and cozy? Hmm? Yes, the evil terrorists were soooo deterred (or facilitated, you pick) by the powerful might of the Republican military establishment.
Now you blind Repug faithful still swallow this 'safe' illusion asserted by McCain, fed to you through an endless administration and media onslaught of exaggerated threat and our ‘puffed chest’ posturing (thinly veiled attempts to start fights over disputes no one has is angry about yet)
I smell another ‘staged’ event, military or otherwise.
Listen people, the whole schoolyard pissing contest over military record is moot - what men did when they were boys should be of little interest and is far from intellectual pursuit in the now.
And while you're all at it, drop the tiresome 'experience' nonsense too - length of service in Washington only equates to a longer list of potential colluded interests to serve.
A little late for my light weight wade in. Some other poster has already said it I am sure. I the juryman
think this is way more plausible than the feed that Obama is a closet communist. In fact, McCain makes a much better Manchurian Candidate. McCain the child of naval attainment expected to carry on but not the right stuff. At least he had the decency to wait for his daddy to pass before resigning. I see his record as a cry for help: let me out of this. And Cindy with her secret pilot training, she knew.
Five crashes and the guy is still around, he is good; but not to pilot the ship of state, what a wreck that would be.
A little late for my light weight wade in. Some other poster has already said it I am sure. I the juryman think this is way more plausible than the feed that Obama is a closet communist. In fact, McCain makes a much better Manchurian Candidate. McCain the child of naval attainment expected to carry on but not the right stuff. At least he had the decency to wait for his daddy to pass before resigning. I see his record as a cry for help: let me out of this. And Cindy with her secret pilot training, she knew. Five crashes and the guy is still around, he is good; but not to pilot the ship of state, what a wreck that would be.
Its pretty clear from McCain's public Navy Record of assignments that there was no way he'd get a promotion to Admiral.
In that time period as a Midshipman I learned that offiicers got a variety of assignments to prepare them for command and those who couldn't cut it would be separated as they ascended in rank. A Navy Flag Officer is expected to exhibit significant judgement and execute uncertain orders (perhaps a side effect of hundred of years of history where Navy commands were out of contact with National Command Authorities for months if not years).
To make Flag rank, a Naval Aviator needed to hold aviation command jobs before commanding a ship of some sort (usually a Carrier Division or more). There is no way that any Command rated Flag Officer got stars without at-sea Command experience (Acquisition, Legal, Logee, or Medical Flags work differently). It just didn't happen. It may happen today but in 77 no way.
Outside of his personal aircraft, Captain McCain (or Commander McCain) never had an afloat command.
Perhaps that was the cruel result of getting shot down, but from Vietnam era pilots I knew (and worked with at NAVAIR [83 to 91]) the North Vietnamese SAMs were incredibly easy to evade.
What you say comports with what McCain wrote and is cited in the article.
He quit the Navy because he was never going to make Admiral, despite what his friends said.
It does not comport with what the New York Times wrote.
The story is that the New York Times put a make believe story on their front page.
The bad actor here is the newspaper. The Corporate media, if you will.
Don't go after McCain's service record, that is a complete loser. Go after the NYT for creating and advancing a phony "narrative
Something we have see way too much of over the past couple decades.
If you want to take a crack at "Hundred Years War" McCain, go after his voting record, his love affair with K Street lobbyists starting with Charles Keating and continuing with Vicky Isemann, and his "interesting" friends in the PNAC gang:
http://www
Hypocrisy, thy name be GOP, and John "Hundred Years War" McCain.
Leland R. Erickson
Citizen
Thanks for sharing that link and the article. I had not seen it before.
You know, I think folks can spend days and years criticizing McCain's positions. He's been wrong on many things. But after the swiftboating of John Kerry, I would have thought that progressives would have enough character to stay away from candidate's military records. John McCain even stood up and said the swiftboating of Kerry was bad.
Again, there are plenty of things in his senate record to criticize, can we please just leave the military record alone? He served. He served honorably. His experience there was above and beyond anything anyone should go through. He's stood up for other military folks. He's also stood against some of the most horrible abuses the Bush Administration has done to the Geneva convention. Stick to criticizing his positions. They merit tons of attention!
I agree that there is so much more to criticize about McCain than his military record, but when he uses it as his reasoning for why he should be president over Obama it should be examined. If he says that he is more apt to lead the country because of his distinguished military career we should look at his military service record similar to a resume. He says that it gives him more insights than a non-military person, we should be able to see what specific events that he encountered make him more qualified.
Dude, one thing I've learned living in the SF Bay Area is that no one ever got poor underestimating the character of progressives.
So it's about character for you, Tee? Excellent. Let us examine the issue of character as exemplified by the "conservative" GOP:
http://www
The self-appointed "party of Christian family values" has demonstrably plenty of "character," and armchairsu
McCain remains a loyal, unwavering member of the GOP, and remains silent on the institutionalized hypocrisy of his party, as he is on the evidence of his voting record on veteran's issues alone a staunch practitioner of that very same routine hypocrisy.
I happen to be a Bay Area native now living in Texas; no one ever got poor *overestimating* the capacity for hubris and hypocrisy of self-proclaimed "family values" conservatives.
Leland R. Erickson
Citizen
One difference Dak Kerry did not try to use his military record to try to insuniate that because of his military service he was somehow entitled to be President. This is precisely what McCain is doing. Just saying he opened that can of worms
Not true. From the convention on, he campaigned with his "band of brothers", and did make a big deal about his service. I don't have a problem with that at all, but he absolutely did put his service out there as a qualification, especially in contrast to Bush's service record
As others have said. John McCain spoke out very strongly against the Swift boat campaign, to the point where Republicans were telling him to shut up.
And this is the thanks he gets. No good deed goes unpunished, i always say.
Wow. It takes some balls to question a man who was a POW for five years in Hanoi and was tortured so badly that he can't raise his arms high enough to comb his hair.
This makes me sick at my stomach. And you wonder why people are fleeing the Democratic Party.
Fleeing the Democratic Party? You must have been in a slumber the last two years, buddy.
No there are valid critiques of everyone. Nobody is questioning his POW status, but the rest of his record just like any public official is fair to look at, especially if someone uses it to promote their fitness to hold elected office. But you want to know what was sick, those people at the GOP Convention in 2004 wearing Purple Heart bandaids. That's pretty ballsy even for the party of Chickenhawks.
Have you seen the photo of McCain as he gets off the plane and is met by his wife who waited for him those five years? All dashing and smiling in his uniform (without a hint of being emaciated or having been brutalized for five years). . . AND with his right arm RAISED above shoulder level in a big wave for the camera(s).
Who really knows what he went through. . . maybe pure hell. . . or maybe not due to his much reported collaboration with his captors. . . but the main thing that stands out in the picture is McCain with at least one of his arms raised in the big wave.
Maybe his "can't raise my arms" has more to do with age and arthritis than the hero/maverick who suffered five years of torture persona he has perfected for himself.
They fattened him up before his release.
Standard Operating Procedure for POW's. Particularly those who were mistreated.
Standard Propaganda technique I should say.
Bet we do the same when we let prisoners out of Guantanamo.
If you look at that picture, he has one shoulder dropped so the other shoulder is raised. His arm is about the same height as his shoulder. He also couldn't bend his knee more than a few degrees until after he had months of physical therapy.
I don't think that his injuries are the result of torture, but rather from the beating he sustained from the villagers who beat him after he was rescued.
I am a Democrat and PROUD of it ... no plans to flee. Talk about "balls," every aspect of Sen. Obama's life has been questioned. His critics probably searched his kindergarten records. They attend his church and search all records of his family's religious background. Has it helped your cause? I hope you consider seeking the TRUTH. YES we CAN "CHANGE" the dishonesty and deceit (not party) in Washington.
geez do you republican right wing fanatics ever get anthing? Being in Nam and a POW does NOT make McCain fit to be President nor give him any god given right to be Prersident. So we should not question anyone who has served or been a POW . Jesus H Christ grow up
So Lehman is a liar. In the great tradition of the Bush administration. His claim is clearly refuted here, his motive clear, and it was not to tell the truth. Many high-level bureaucrats get where they are by selective lying and ass-kissing; Lehman is no exception.
If McCain is elected and brings our PATRIOTIC AMERICANS home from this UNGODLY war in Iraq, I will be among the first to call him a HERO. So, far he has shown every indication that he wants to continue the FEAR factor just like Bush. My DONATIONS to Barack Hussein Obama are called GIFTS of MERCY for our soldiers. I have also sent a DONATION for Michelle Obama to help overcome the attacks that have been launched against her patriotism. YES WE CAN "CHANGE" the way our government deceives many HONEST Americans, including the REAL HEROES. We placed our TRUST in this government TOO LONG.
The points in this article are well-taken and documented. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that any son of any four star admiral/general would get some preferential treatment in the military. However, I am writing this in the context of "swiftboating," which I think was one of the filthiest, lowest, and most despicable acts of the 2004 campaign. As a Democrat, do we also need to do this? McCain did not "swiftboat" Kerry, it was Bush, so why should we keep passing on this act, making McCain the victim? Aren't we better than that? I have no problem, however, challenging Bush's shirking of responsibilities-- that's a different story. As an ex-military person myself, I know that military records don't tell the whole story. And regardless of his treatment as a POW in Hanoi, I doubt anyone would want to undergo his ordeal. Let's leave this one alone.
Hear! Hear!
His 'ordeal' is what he is using to promote his trustworthyness and his experience as a leader .This one was left alone back in the 70's ,80's and again now.Here is what many loved ones of our military in Iraq are wondering,Since McCain went through such an ordeal WHY does he persist in wanting to leave OUR troops in a war that should NEVER have been started ?I have family member's in Iraq and some that are on their second and third round there,and what I hear from them and many returning troops is far different than what McCain and Bush wants us to believe.
I agree that attacking McC*n's military record with falsifications and distortions is off-limits. Now because he's a poor ex-POW, but because lies and distortions have no place in the political process at all. I also think that if McC*n is going to position himself as the war hero/veteran, then an examination of that claim is very important. And what is emerging from that examination is another self-promoting fiction plaqued onto the least attractive sort of military character. McC*n flew a plane badly. That makes him the "military candidate"? He did not escape after being captured by a village of civilians in Viet Name, and that makes him a war hero? My war heroes -- Audie Murphy, Ernie Pyle, Wesley Clark, Colin Powell, Montgomery and Bradley -- have a bit more than that to show for their careers.
To sum it up. McCain served. What exactly is Obama's service record in the military?
Obama was 7 years old when we withdrew from Vietnam.
McBush lost the war in Vietnam... time to give the next generation a chance. Excellent point krocklin.
The idea of McCain leading is scary due to his lack of direction and sure footing.
http://www
Thirty one of our fourty two past presidents had Military experience,so the fact that Obama as ten others did ,has no military experience means very very little .That is why even those who did serve in the military have skilled top notch Military ADVISORS .Even you , if you meet ALL the other requirements and could raise the money to do so could run to be president !
McCain served by dropping bombs on civilians. Following orders? Of course, but he hardly fought in the same capacity as the foot soldiers who got through hell. McCain was one of the glory boys.
The questions about his POW years are justified. There appears to be plenty of "there" there. The fact of his wartime service hardly makes him fit to serve as President.
Too young for Vietnam too old for Iraq,or would have had him enlist for Greneda.No
If McCain were a Democrat, it would be perfectly acceptable to question his military record. Remember Kerry in 04, recipient of two Purple Hearts? Kerry's record was picked apart and trashed. Why the double standard?
Funny, I was thinking how hypocritical it is for those of us who deeply resented Kerry's military record being picked apart and negatively spun to be gleefully swiftboating McCain.
I though it was wrong and extremely distasteful to do that to Kerry. If I care about principles more than partisanship, I have to think it's wrong and extremely distasteful to do this to McCain.
Besides, I thought the Obama Party was above this sort of thing....N
The McCain Campaign is taking an idea from the Obama Campaign and have launched a new website devoted to fighting rumors and political attacks, http://the
It's not the 'Obama' party that is picking the information apart, it's AMERICAN voters and tax payers ! People who have and may lose family members in the Iraqi war.The media helps a lot tho ,and the I/N .
Swiftboating is when you distort facts. As I understand about McCain is no distortion
But anytime he opens his mouth to say to Barack ,he has no authority to question his judgement because he was a good millitary man,I think its Baracks legal authority as a legislator to question any INDIVIDUAL if they try to deceieve the public. Just Like he was able to question Bush prior to the Iraq war.
kemp this is NOT from the Obama Camp. Bet you are a repub trying to imply this is somehow from Obama camp
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