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John McCain: Morally, Mentally, and Emotionally Unfit
By Jim Fetzer (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Jim Fetzer - Writer www.d.umn.edu/~jfetzer/ The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author 
Madison, WI (OpEdNews) – September 5, 2008 – The Republican Party has now nominated the most unqualified candidate for the Presidency in our history, with the possible exception of George W. Bush. Over his entire life-span, he has repeatedly shown that he is out of touch with reality, impulsive and reckless in his judgment, and intellectually lazy and lacking in curiosity.
You already know that he thinks you have to make $5,000,000 a year in income to be rich. How out of touch with reality is that? You already know he can't remember how many houses he and his wife own. How truly bizarre is that? At a bikers' rally, he suggested that his wife should enter the "Miss Buffalo Chip" contest, a lewd affair that includes a topless competition. Did he have any idea what he was talking about? Did he even care?
He appears to be a man who has been successful with women and uses them. He not only offered Cindy to score points at that bikers' rally but sent her off to the Republic of Georgia in a crass political stunt. His personal life displays a preference for beautiful women, especially models and beauty queens. He married a beautiful divorcee, Carol Shepp, adopted the former model's two children and had a daughter with her.
McCain has blamed the failure to his first marriage on his own selfishness and immaturity. One month after divorcing his first wife, he married Cindy Hensley, 17 years his junior. A cheerleader at USC, they both say that he lied about his age by taking off four years and she by adding four to hers. Even though she has half-siblings, she refers to herself as an "only child" and suppresses their existence. She seems to be a woman who puts appearance before reality.
According to the AP, “He’s Never Taken the Smooth Path”, Wisconsin State Journal (August 31, 2008), "McCain was lucky. Carol McCain, who had been in a crippling car accident while her husband was imprisoned in Vietnam, let him out of the marriage without theatrics or recriminations." Cindy, after all, was "the other woman." If the Christian Right cares about family values-really cares about them rather than merely talking about them when it is politically expedient-how many commandments has McCain violated here? Respect for others is the core of morality and McCain has no respect for women.
He was equally "lucky" in his professional life. Finishing near the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy, he described his experience as a "four year course of insubordination and rebellion". Calling himself a "maverick" appears to be a way to disguise his arrogance and immaturity. Given his own military history, does he even have the self-discipline to subordinate himself to the authority of the U.S. Constitution?
There are reasons to wonder. According to the AP, before he was shot down over Vietnam, he had already crashed a plane into Corpus Christi Bay, ejected from another jet that flamed out as he was flying solo, and knocked down power lines while flying too low in Southern Spain. Most stunning of all, he had survived an explosion aboard the USS Forrestal that left 134 dead.
According to Wayne Madsen, an investigative journalist, "McCain's Past Makes him a Neocon Puppet" (portlandindymedia.com, February 5, 2008), "it is believed by many crewmen and those who have investigated the case that McCain deliberately 'wet started' his A-4E to shake up the guy in the plane behind him, . . ."-as a practical joke, in other words-"[which] apparently 'cooked off' and launched a Zuni rocket from the rear F-4 that touched off the explosions and massive fire" that killed 134. "He was quickly transferred to the USS Oriskany," no doubt to avoid being savaged by shipmates. That would have been 134 counts of manslaughter.
I am a former commissioned officer in the Marine Corps. Anyone with a military background can confirm that, given his history of repeated screw-ups, McCain should have been removed from flight status and subjected to courts-martial. Had that been done, 134 lives might have been spared. I believe that did not happen only because his father and grandfather were four-star admirals and he was receiving preferential treatment.
Such success as McCain has enjoyed appears to have been based upon 5 ½ years as a POW, who was tortured by the North Vietnamese, a story which he tells at the drop of a hat, with a disarming demeanor. But there appears to be a hidden story here. What would 5 ½ years of torture by the North Vietnamese do to you or me? Surely, if the experience was as horrendous as he suggests, then it has to have left profound emotional and mental scars, an issue that has arisen in other cases.
In 1999, the McCain campaign-engaged in a contest with George W. Bush-released 1,500 pages of medical reports, which included a great deal about his mental health. They were open to public inspection. This time around, however, the campaign hesitated and delayed their release. When it finally happened, they restricted access to a few selected reporters. One of them, CBS NEWS contributor Sanjay Gupta, M.D. (cbsnews.com, May 23, 2008), observed that there was very little-almost nothing-about his psychological state. Something is wrong. Concealing information the nation needs is grossly corrupt and immoral.
It may not be Alzheimer's, but if John McCain is suffering from other serious mental problems, the American people are entitled to know. When he sang about bombing Iran-"Bomb, bomb, bomb; bomb bomb Iran"-to the tune of The Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann", that should have set off alarm bells with the national press. It has to be investigated.
Past indications of his reckless judgment have been reinforced by his choice of a transparently unqualified running mate, Sarah Palin, another beauty queen. He married a trophy wife and has now selected a trophy nominee to run with him. She is pro-life, even in the case of rape and incest, and supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
She belongs to the NRA and favors teaching creationism in the public schools. The problem is that creationism is not science and has no place in the science curriculum, as I explain in my latest book, RENDER UNTO DARWN. We need to get religion out of public schools, not put more in!
She is the governor of a large state with a small population, the former mayor of a hamlet, and-we are told-a member of the PTA. She received 115,000 votes during her election as Alaska's governor, not many more than Barack Obama drew to his acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium. The typical member of the House has more constituents. 
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