Just read the Rolling Stone cover story on McCain

[pegkerr]

It is just jaw-dropping. A devastating, detailed synopsis of McCain's career. Wow. I learned a LOT. And am even more convinced that this man should never be President.

This is the story of the real John McCain, the one who has been hiding in plain sight. It is the story of a man who has consistently put his own advancement above all else, a man willing to say and do anything to achieve his ultimate ambition: to become commander in chief, ascending to the one position that would finally enable him to outrank his four-star father and grandfather.

In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.

In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.

Read the rest at the link above. Well worth your time.

Comments

[irinaauthor.livejournal.com]

George W. Bush was a much better pilot.

Ow. Geez.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I think it was actually George H. W. Bush who was a much better pilot (won a Distinguished Flying Cross in WWII). I've never seen enough about GWB to convince me htat his flying skill was ever tested in any meaningful way. They might as well say *I'm* a better pilot, as I've never crashed an airplane either. (I have something like a whopping 200 hours flying time.)

Not that that makes the rest of the story wrong, but it does make me wonder a little about accuracy and slant. No matter; the stories in it I already did know (the temper issues, the flip-flop on torture, a few others) were already plenty convincing.