Putting the "ick" in Maverick

I grow weary of your pertinacity, America. Perhaps I've focused too much on Sarah Palin in recent posts, assuming that the potential but very real danger of an obdurate Creationist cretin inhabiting the most important office in the world could persuade you to think twice about the Republican ticket. Here then is an argument against the vintage veteran himself.

I have heard conservatives state that they are voting for McCain because he was a war hero. I assume then that these same conservatives must have voted enthusiastically for John Kerry in 2004, since Bush Junior's military service history is truly risible. McCain's record, however, lacks any of the distinguishing characteristics of Kerry's (or Powell's, or Eisenhower's, or George H.W. Bush's for that matter); he was known not for being an ace Navy pilot, but as a spoiled, drunken, gambling carouser who graduated 5th from the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy and used his flyboy image to get laid. He crashed 3 planes, not including the one that was shot down over Hanoi or the infamous Forrestal incident, during which he retired to the "ready room" and watched on closed-circuit TVs as over a hundred of his ship mates fought and died bravely to fight the fire that started when his A-4 bomber was accidentally struck by a Zuni rocket. He was tortured into confessing American military information in Vietnam while other POWs he served with not only never confessed but attempted escape, and were punished harshly for their patriotic intransigence.

America, please look into this investigative article by Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone. If the only things you know about John McCain's history come from his campaign or Fox News, then you owe it to yourself and to future generations to look at the other side of this coin that you value so highly.

If you support McCain because you support everything that the current administration has done for our country (McCain voted in support of Bush 95 percent of the time last year), or if you want Roe v. Wade overturned (which he lists as one of his stated goals on his website), then you should vote for John McCain without regret. His military record alone, however, does not even remotely qualify him for the office of president.