MCCAIN IS NO SAINT: My Promised Follow-Up

Several weeks ago, (Saturday, July 19, 2008,) I posted my thoughts about Barack Obama, and I promised a follow up with my thoughts about John McCain. What better time to make that post then now, after his VP pick has electrified the Republican Party and right after the Democratic and Republican conventions? I pointed out many of Barack’s faults; now, let’s take a look at John’s.

John spent a long, horrible and horrifying time in a Viet prison and, to his credit, he didn’t break. But, to set the record straight, he had a lot of company in other American soldiers, sailors and airmen. So, I don’t know that his time at the Hanoi Hilton in any way separates him from the rest of the prisoners or makes him eminently well-qualified to be our President. His stay there does show that he has character, but so do the countless other American military prisoners of war, past and present.

John was married to one Carol Shepp, an attractive former model. While he was stuck in a really bad way in the Hanoi Hilton, Carol was back home raising her two children by a prior marriage and a daughter of the McCain marriage. She had a tragic automobile accident that almost crippled her and from which she has never fully recovered. After McCain was released and came back home, he began to have extra-marital affairs, eventually divorced her and married Cindy Hensley. So much for that ugly display of character.

McCain has had questionable relationships with the Keating Five and with Jack Abramoff. John was of one of five U.S. Senators with alleged ties to a well-known savings and loan scam and Lincoln Savings and Loan. Three of the five were found to be directly involved; the other two, including McCain, were charged with “using poor judgment.” As it turns out, questionable campaign contributions were made by Lincoln Savings and Loan and Charles Keating to McCain’s campaign machine. In the Abramoff scandal, Abramoff is a well-known and well heeled Washington lobbyist found guilty of using his political influence on The Hill to gain certain favors for certain individuals and also for cheating some Indian tribes out of money in a lobbying scheme. When evidence started to point to Congressmen and Senators at the Capitol, McCain summarily cut the investigation off. More recently, McCain refused to cancel a campaign contribution fundraiser with Ralph Reed, a close associate of Abramoff’s.

McCain, Chairman of the Senate’s Indian Affair’s Committee, has a reputation for inviting tribal leaders to Washington to discuss their issues and concerns with him, and then either failing to show up for the meeting himself, or refusing to see them. Many of those leaders were among tribes that were being fleeced by Abramoff.

The vast majority of Americans want to take McCain to task over his stance on the illegal immigration issue. McCain is in favor of granting amnesty to those illegals and a path to U.S. Citizenship, although those waiting to enter this country legally are going through seemingly endless red tape and obstacles. Here is a man who is running for the Presidency who is openly in favor of helping a certain class of people to evade the law. McCain also voted for a proposed law that would have required Mexico’s permission for us to build a security wall along our border.

John McCain proposed a gas-tax moratorium on the 18 cent federal gas tax, saying that would help the economy. Not only was the amount a mere drop in the bucket, but it was placed on the books in the first place to help cover the repair and maintenance costs of roads, highways and bridges that are already in a sad state of disrepair. The plan was not well-thought out or considered, to say the least.

So, there it is. I think that I have been fair and objective in my criticisms of Barack Obama and that I have lived up to my promise to voice my criticisms with John McCain.

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.