July 19, 2008

CNN's AC 360° on Friday took a look at both of the Democratic and Republican candidates and their wives, and the short bio they did on John McCain gave viewers little reason, if any, why he would be very well suited at all to become our next President or our military's Commander in Chief.

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In fact, it helped reveal a McCain who was an underachieving party boy during his military career - lucky to have graduated at all, much less fifth from the bottom of his class in the Naval Academy, and reminded viewers of his involvement in one of the biggest financial scandals to touch the capitol in the 80s and 90s.

As the CNN report tells it, the lessons John McCain learned during his time as a POW were "that one of the most important things in life - along with a man's family - is to make some contribution to his country," and that his involvement in the Keating 5 scandal which resulted in the Congressional finding that he had exercised poor judgment for intervening with federal regulators on behalf of his good friend and largest political contributor/fundraiser, Charles Keating, led to his becoming "a crusader for campaign finance reform and transparency."

While the lessons learned parts may sound nice, what the segment didn't reveal was the fact that his own actions have in large part belied that account. The McCain that learned the importance of family as a POW returned to divorce his first wife in a manner that offended many of his friends and colleagues to this day, and his supposed commitment as a crusader for campaign finance reform and transparency went out the window when he began skirting or breaking many of the very campaign finance laws he used to champion just as soon as they would have applied to him during this campaign.

Seriously, what part of John McCain's past would lead anyone who actually looked at it to believe he's the one who should lead this country forward? What part of what little we know about his military record suggests he's leadership material? Is "there any significant policy position that John McCain currently holds, on any topic, that he's consistently held" about anything?

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