Swift Boating McCain

Stated with the utmost humility, I must confess to being an American intellectual triple threat. Having been an American citizen for over 5-1/2 decades, I am an expert on American culture. Even though I am a White heterosexual male, I do know some Black people and some homosexuals. I also know a lot of women, too, but nobody really has any idea about them. They are from another galaxy that NASA hasn't been to yet. They are often purdy, soft, and smell nice and are valuable being bare footed, pregnant, and working in your kitchen. Vacuum cleaners were invented for them to spare the difficulties of man-handling brooms. But beyond that... beats me.

Since I was once a delegate to the Texas state Republican convention, I am an expert on politics and all thing political. I know that George Washington was our first President and that Jimmy Carter was our best ever. I know that elected politicians are much, much smarter than the average voter and that Washington knows what is best, especially in terms of morality and economics.

Since I served in the U.S. Army for 21 months and 8 days and achieved the rank of private first class, I am an expert in all things military, especially in strategies, tactics, and military intelligence concerning the war on terror in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Every last bit of this vast expertise was required to really understand Karl Rove's swift boating article attack on Senator John McCain.

In Getting to Know John McCain published in The Wall Street Journal, Rove relates stories told to him by Col. Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton. Rove and Day really tore McCain a new one:

Mr. Day relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, "I told you I would make you a cripple."

The break was designed to shatter Mr. Day's will. He had survived in prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and be able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a bone sticking out of his arm, and put him in a misshapen cast. This was done so that the arm would heal at "a goofy angle," as Mr. Day explained. Had it done so, he never would have flown again.

But it didn't heal that way because of John McCain. Risking severe punishment, Messrs. McCain and Day collected pieces of bamboo in the prison courtyard to use as a splint. Mr. McCain put Mr. Day on the floor of their cell and, using his foot, jerked the broken bone into place. Then, using strips from the bandage on his own wounded leg and the bamboo, he put Mr. Day's splint in place.

Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complemented the treatment he'd gotten from his captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was Dr. McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again.

There it is... John McCain has practiced medicine without a license. America cannot trust him in the White House.

Colonel Day also recalls:

"He remembered the Episcopal liturgy," Mr. Day says, "and sounded like a bona fide preacher." One of Mr. McCain's first sermons took as its text Luke 20:25 and Matthew 22:21, "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." Mr. McCain said he and his fellow prisoners shouldn't ask God to free them, but to help them become the best people they could be while serving as POWs. It was Caesar who put them in prison and Caesar who would get them out. Their task was to act with honor.

McCain is shoving his religion down the throats of others. He, as a military officer, should have known to respect the sacrosanct separation of church and state. America cannot trust him in the White House.

Another McCain story, somewhat better known, is about the Vietnamese practice of torturing him by tying his head between his ankles with his arms behind him, and then leaving him for hours... One night, a Vietnamese guard loosened his bonds, returning at the end of his watch to tighten them again so no one would notice.

John McCain has a history of collaborating with the enemy, and receiving aid and comfort from them. America cannot trust him in the White House.

Mr. Day recalls with pride Mr. McCain stubbornly refusing to accept special treatment or curry favor to be released early, even when gravely ill. Mr. McCain knew the Vietnamese wanted the propaganda victory of the son and grandson of Navy admirals accepting special treatment.

McCain, the baby killer, was too afraid to return home to the wrath and sniper spitfire of America's brave anti-war protesters. America cannot trust him in the White House.

Therefore, we are left with Hillary and Barack as our only sane choices. Luckily for us, neither of these candidates suffer from McCain's dark past.