From Honor to Disgrace

There is nothing pleasant in watching the public disintegration of a man who has always been called an American hero. The media mythos of John McCain; war hero, straight talker, maverick – it’s all falling apart, right before our eyes. To see him attempt to do to Barack Obama the same thing that was done to him by Karl Rove in 2000 is sickening. There is no honor left in John McCain, if indeed there was any to begin with. The media has done an amazing job of creating and protecting Senator McCain. Only now that the wheels have come off the Straight Talk Express are any questions being asked.

We’ve had months and months of the media trying to unearth unsavory details about Barack Obama. Who is this guy? Where’s he from? Is he fit to lead the country? All of it hashed and rehashed endlessly. That same media didn’t share with the nation the details of McCain’s past. After all, he spent 5.5 years in a POW camp – what else do we need to know? And so, the details of McCain’s past have gone unquestioned, and the details of the present have gone largely unreported.

John Sidney McCain III was born into a military family. His father and grandfather were both admirals. John was an indifferent student who graduated 5th from the bottom of his class at the US Navy Flight School, and during his short career crashed 5 planes. A pilot without a 4 star admiral as a father might not have gotten as far as the 5th plane. John was rebellious, hotheaded, and desperate to earn the respect of his father. For the last 8 years, we’ve seen the Bush Oedipal drama unfold, with poor dim George trying to earn the respect of Poppy Bush. John McCain’s psychodrama is exactly the same, with the added fillip of having been a POW. The media has never questioned why such a bad pilot was able to keep flying. How much did that nepotism cost the US taxpayers? A slumbering media has never bothered to ask.

John McCain married an ex-model before he went to Viet Nam. She was in a serious car accident while he was gone. When he came home, she’d lost 4 inches in height, gained some weight, and was on crutches. His response was to start fooling around with other women. Somewhere in the fool around period, he met the next Mrs. McCain – a much younger former beauty queen, who had the added bonus of being an heiress. He took out a marriage license for the next wife while he was still married to the first. This is hardly honorable conduct; yet, it is seldom mentioned in the press. In fact, it is often defended. I heard Sean Hannity bellowing one night that McCain spent 5.5 years in a POW camp; therefore he should not be criticized.

The new Mrs. McCain’s family money launched John’s political career. He moved to Arizona and ran for office. (You may remember the media calling Hillary Clinton a carpetbagger for doing the same thing.) McCain served 2 terms in the House, and then in 1986 he was elected to the US Senate. During those early years in the House and Senate he got involved with a man named Charles Keating, who donated heavily to McCain’s campaign and flew the whole McCain family to lavish resort vacations. Keating was the chairman Lincoln Savings and Loan Association that was the subject of a regulatory investigation. The investigation was halted, due to the interference by 5 US Senators. In 1989 Lincoln S&L collapsed, costing the US taxpayers $2 billion dollars. Given that Charles Keating had donated substantially to all 5 senators, there was an investigation. McCain was cleared of improper conduct, but found to have been guilty of bad judgment. A number of Savings and Loan institutions collapsed, due to poor regulation, during the 80’s, and we the people paid the price, approximately $160 billion. This was of course directly linked to the economic recession of the late eighties and early nineties. Sound familiar?

It should. Deregulation has once again brought the US economy to its knees. One of the steadfast proponents of that deregulation was John McCain, who apparently learned nothing from his Keating 5 experience. McCain, who has never met an issue he couldn’t change his mind about, is suddenly preaching the gospel of regulation, and pointing the big blame finger at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while the media fails to note that McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis was on the payroll as a lobbyist for those very institutions, right through August of this year.

Cindy McCain’s drug addiction and criminal behavior (having a doctor at her nonprofit write prescriptions to feed her addiction) go unreported, as well. It seems likely that Senator McCain used his influence to ensure that his wife was not arrested, the way any of us would have been. A great deal goes unreported, including an incidence of Senator McCain’s abusive treatment of his wife, which took place in front of 3 reporters. That’s how secure he is that the press is in his pocket. Poor old guy, he’s really struggling now, because suddenly the press has turned on him, and begun to rear up, however slightly, to begin asking questions. He’s been very testy about it. His legendary short fuse and decades of questionable judgment are still not fodder for the national “elite” media, however.

We’ve seen Senator McCain refuse to look at Barack Obama during the last 2 debates. He can’t even bring himself to make eye contact with Obama. In the last debate, McCain referred to Obama as “that one.” As if Obama was a lamp at Pier One. McCain, and his attack dog running mate are now trying to make Bill Ayers a campaign issue once again. They’re trying to breathe new life into the Jeremiah Wright issue. At Palin’s rallies, people have been heard to shout, “kill him” in reference to Obama. A black cameraman was called “boy” at one of Palin’s rallies. It seems that the former war hero is so desperate to become president that he will stop at absolutely nothing, including enabling the kind of racism most of us thought we’d moved beyond. It’s ugly. There is nothing honorable about it. McCain has moved beyond honor into the ugly land of the disgraced – yet the so-called elite media is strangely silent.

"You know that old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran? Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." John McCain, at a VFW in S. Carolina, April 2007

the picture is courtesy of blogger BackGr0und N05e @ daily kos

This was published by the Conway Daily Sun as an editorial on October 10,2008