John McCain, Unfit To Serve As Commander In Chief

John Sidney McCain III entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in 1954. Young McCain wanted to become an admiral. He planned to achieve the distinction of being the "first son and grandson of four star admirals" . But that was not to be. McCain III possessed none of the innate character and discipline traits that helped mold his father and grandfather into great military leaders.

His father, John S. "Junior" McCain, and grandfather, John S. McCain, Sr., were famous four-star Admirals in the U.S. Navy. His father commanded U.S. forces in Europe before becoming commander of American forces fighting in Vietnam. His grandfather commanded naval aviation at the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Both men became highly influential in U.S. Navy operations.

At the Academy, aside being known as a "rowdy, raunchy, underachiever" who resented authority, Cadet McCain became infamous as a leader among his fellow midshipmen for organizing "off-Yard activities" and hard drinking parties. Robert Timberg wrote in his book , The Nightingale's Song, that "being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck."

McCain's grades were "marginal." He drew so many demerits for breaking curfew and other discipline issues that he graduated fifth from the bottom of the class of 1958. Despite his low "class standing," and no doubt because of the influence of his family of famous Admirals, McCain was leap-frogged ahead of more qualified applicants and granted a coveted slot to be trained as a navy pilot.

He spent the next two and a half years as a "naval aviator in training" at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, flying A-1 Skyraiders. While a pilot trainee, McCain continued to party hard. He drove a Corvette and dated an exotic dancer named "Marie the Flame of Florida." Timberg wrote that McCain "learned to fly at Pensacola, though his performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn't love it."

McCain, the "below par" pilot, eventually lost 5 military aircraft, the first during a training flight in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while trying to land. The Navy ignored the crash and graduated McCain in 1960.

While deployed in the Mediterranean, the hard partying McCain lost a second aircraft. Timberg described the crash: "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."

Unscathed, McCain returned to Pensacola Station where he was promoted to flight instructor for Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi. The airfield at Meridian, McCain Field, was named in honor of McCain's grandfather.

In 1964 McCain became involved with Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he had met at Annapolis. They were married in Philadelphia on July 3, 1965.

Flight instructor McCain lost a third aircraft while flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game. Timberg wrote that McCain radioed, "I've got a flameout" before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain parachuted onto a beach moments before his plane slammed into a clump of trees. The Navy dismissed the crash as "unavoidable" and assigned McCain to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in December 1966, which was patrolling the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

In Spring 1967, the Forrestal was assigned to join the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam. McCain lost his fourth plane on board the Forrestal on July 29, 1967 when a rocket inadvertently slammed into his bomb laden jet. McCain escaped, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors. McCain was transferred from the badly damaged Forrestal to the USS Oriskany. Shortly afterwards, on Oct. 26, 1967, he was down and captured by the Vietnamese.

Upon his release from North Vietnam and return to the United States in 1973, McCain reunited with his wife, Carol, who had been permanently crippled in a car accident while he was a POW. Still yearning to become an admiral, McCain enrolled in the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. and underwent physical therapy in order to fly again. The Navy excused his permanent disabilities and reinstated him to flight status, effectively positioning him for promotion.

Timberg described McCain's advancement: "in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather, since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path."

While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and "engage in extra-marital affairs." This was a clear violation of the Military Code of Conduct rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates. But, as with all his other past behaviors, McCain was never penalized; instead he always got away with his transgressions.

Timberg wrote, "Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain's persona, impossible not to take note of."

In early 1977, Admiral Jim Holloway, Chief of Naval Operations promoted McCain to captain and transferred him from his command position "to Washington as the number-two man in the Navy's Senate liaison office. McCain was promptly given total control of the office. It wasn't long before the "fun loving and irreverent" McCain had turned the liaison office into a "late-afternoon gathering spot where senators and staffers, usually from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, would drop in for a drink and the chance to unwind."

In 1979, while attending a military reception in Hawaii, McCain met and fell in love with Cindy Lou Hensley, 17 years his junior, who was the daughter of James W. Hensley, a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor from Phoenix, Arizona. McCain filed for and obtained an uncontested divorce from his wife in Florida on April 2, 1980 and promptly married Cindy on May 17, 1980.

He resigned from the Navy in 1981 and went to work for his father-in-law in Phoenix; where he used the opportunity to make powerful and wealthy friends in Arizona including banker Charles Keating and Duke Tully, the editor-in-chief of the Arizona Republic. Keating was later convicted of fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy and Tully was disgraced for concocting a phony military record of combat in Korea and Vietnam including medals for heroism. McCain ran for Arizona's First Congressional District in 1982. McCain won the congressional seat. In 1987 McCain was elected to the Senate.

http://newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin426.htm

A few weeks before Super Tuesday, my friend Howard Phillips asked me who I thought the Republican Presidential nominee would be. I predicted John McCain...

Make no mistake about it: the establishment wants one of its own to succeed George Bush. In order for that to happen, they must manipulate the primaries to ensure that, no matter who wins in November, one of their fellow elitists will still wield power in Washington, D.C. On the Democratic side, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fit the bill. And on the Republican side, John McCain is the ultimate insider.

A long-standing member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), John McCain will pursue the goals and ambitions of the globalists with a vengeance. As Pat Buchanan said recently, “John McCain will make Dick Cheney look like Gandhi.” Buchanan is right on with that prediction...

But just who is this man, John McCain?

John McCain’s father and grandfather were both admirals in the U.S. Navy. John was schooled in one of the most elite boarding schools in America. He graduated from the Naval Academy where he ranked 894th out of 899 students.

According to Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief, February 1, 2008, “[John McCain] used nepotism to get ahead: When he was rejected by the National War College, he used his father’s contacts with the Secretary of the Navy to make them reconsider.” Skousen also notes that “McCain cheated on his first wife after she had a severe accident. He then divorced her and married his multi-millionaire mistress, whose daddy bought McCain a spot in the Congress.”

It has also never been explained why the son and grandson of Navy admirals would not rise to the rank of Admiral himself. (He exited the Navy as a Captain.) Was it his numerous adulterous affairs or his violent temper? Or both?

John McCain’s biographer Robert Timberg chronicles McCain’s numerous sexual affairs with subordinates both when he was an Executive Officer and later Squadron Commander. Obviously, such fraternization is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Skousen and many others have chronicled McCain’s violent temper. Even as a young man, McCain was “a strikingly violent man.” Timberg quotes McCain describing his propensity for violence, even as a youngster, saying, “At the smallest provocation I would go off into a mad frenzy, and then suddenly crash to the floor unconscious.”

McCain says his vicious temper was transformed after being held as a Prisoner of War by the North Vietnamese. There is no doubt that John McCain was tortured by his Vietnamese captors, but it also seems clear, by both the written and oral records of many, that McCain spent the bulk of his captivity collaborating with his captors.

It is more than interesting that former POW John McCain would use the power of his senate seat to stop the investigation and pursuit of American MIAs in Vietnam. What would possess a former naval officer to do such a thing? In fact, a group of Vietnam veterans has uploaded a web page dedicated to exposing the truth regarding John McCain’s record on this matter...

That John McCain still has a vicious temper is well known. We can all remember him singing “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” to the tune of the Beach Boys hit song “Barbara Ann.” He also said North Korea should be threatened with “extinction.” He often boasts of America’s 100-year war with Iraq and talks of pursuing enemies “to the gates of hell.” There is no doubt, John McCain is one mad man.

Furthermore, McCain’s position on a host of issues is extremely problematic for the future of America. On immigration, John McCain joined with Ted Kennedy to sponsor an amnesty bill for illegal aliens. He voted to give social security dollars to illegal aliens. His Hispanic Outreach Director, Juan Hernandez, is a dual American-Mexican citizen widely known for his “Mexico First” declarations.

He repeatedly voted against the Bush tax cuts. He co-authored the McCain/Feingold campaign finance bill that was ruled to be an unconstitutional infringement of the First Amendment. Regarding the Second Amendment, the president of the NRA called John McCain the “worst 2nd Amendment candidate,” and Gun Owners of America gives McCain a grade of F-.

John McCain co-sponsored the energy tax bill (along with his senate buddy Joe Lieberman), which would dramatically increase the cost of gasoline. He supports radical global warming legislation. He joined with Democrats (Gang of 14) to block the attempt to confirm conservative, strict constructionist judges. In 2000, he called Christian leaders “agents of intolerance.” He has received the endorsement of the pro-abortion Republicans for Choice Political Action Committee. And let’s not forget that John McCain was ringleader of the infamous Keating Five ethical scandal, which cost taxpayers more than $160 billion.

I don't like McCain (as people who read my post on this board know full well), but there are parts of this that are on the verge of "spin." We shouldn't go there.

We are not Democrats or the MSM.

- First of all, McCain did not "resign from the Navy." He retired, with honor, as a full Navy Captain (0-6). Those are the facts, and trying to rewrite them and spin them only makes the argument look shoddy.

- Secondly, the loss of his A-4 aboard the carrier Forrestal can hardly be labeled him "losing an aircraft." Let's not reach, shall we? A zuni rocket from an F-4 slammed into his aircraft and into munitions on deck. McCain's actions that day were heroic, and there is just no reason to lie about this.

- Third, it was hardly negligence or anything of the sort that resulted in his being shot down by an SA-2 while on his 23rd combat mission. If we want to do this, we can lump a whole bunch of other Vietnam heroes into this garbage can, including Medal of Honor winner Col. George Day, BGen. Robbie Risner, and Adm. Jeremiah Denton .

The rest of the article I can agree with in whole or in part. But when the author reaches, it shoots down his whole credibility.

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