'Country First?' Or 'Admirals' Son and Grandson first, merit be damned?'

[ProgressiveEconomist]

The theme for the 2008 Republican National convention is 'Country First'. Tonight in prime time, Fred Dalton Thomson and Joe Lieberman are scheduled to speak on those themes, supposedly as exemplified by John McCain III's life and military career.

But not much is really known about that McCain military career. Hundreds of pages of that military record have not been disclosed. Unlike John Kerry, who was forced to sign US Navy Standard Form 180, releasing his entire unredacted service record file to the media, McCain has been given a free ride in the media for decades. (See the great links at http://mediamattersaction.org/freeride ).

Did you know that--

(A) McCain graduated 894th of 899 in his Annapolis class?

(B) Despite that horrible Academy record and a disastrous pilot training, where he destroyed the first of FIVE aircraft entrusted to him during his career, he nonetheless got a coveted aircraft-carrier assignment?

(C) McCain's dad and granddad both had been four-star Admirals?

IMO, (C) must explain a lot about (A) and (B), as well as about how McCain got into Annapolis in the first place.

(1) What do you think?

(2) What is McCain trying to hide in his secret Navy records? There are several articles out in the blogosphere about five destroyed Navy aircraft that had been entrusted to McCain, from his training days in Pensacola to his 20 hours of combat bombing in Vietnam. There also are accounts of possible McCain collaboration with his Vietnamese captors, to the detriment of fellow POWs who were trying to resist their prison conditions. After Vietnam, POW/MIA activists through the early 90s seem to have been outraged by McCain's quashing the same kinds of homefront activism that had led to McCain's own release from captivity. See accounts of McCain's antics on the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs in the links at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/28/114523/989/295/577363 , and Jeffrey Klein's article in The Nation at http://www.nationinstitute.org/ifunds/79/mccain_s_secret_questionable_record .

(3) IMO, McCain's continual use of "POW" as a mantra for quashing any embarrassing question on any policy issue is like HRC's touting her First Lady experience as full preparation for the Oval Office. IMO, McCain should be forced to release his service records just as Kerry was and just as HRC was forced to release White House records.

It seems surreal to me that a candidate can claim a certain kind of experience as primary qualification to be President, while simultaneously withholding most documentation of that experience.

IMO, while Obama must steer entirely clear of questioning McCain's "POW" claim on the Presidency, Obama supporters outside the campaign must not neglect going straight after McCain's primary selling point to voters. If the "press corpse" were doing its job, we wouldn't have to, but in their absence, somebody's got to step in and confront this supremely arrogant cover-up.

What do you think?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

1. Thanks for those 2 quick recs to Greatest Page, anonymous recommenders!

[ProgressiveEconomist]

3. .

[ProgressiveEconomist]

2. Clearly the RVP candidate was not properly vetted. But has JOHN McCAIN been properly

vetted, or has he gotten a "free ride" in the media for DECADES, keeping documentation of his daily-vaunted military record secret? See the OP for links.