McCain's character

Here, from the Daily Mail, is some more of the story of McCain's character. The story he sells when running for election is of the heroic naval aviator who was shot down of North Vietnam, then held prisoner and was tortured for 5 and a half years before being released in 1973. His suffering makes him a hero. However, if he hadn't been the son of the Admiral commanding the U.S. Navy off the North Vietnamese shore, is it likely that he would have even lived? Other captured pilots with equivalent injuries died.

His wife had been a beauty queen he met while at Annapolis, but in 1969 she was in a devastating automobile accident that left her severely injured and disabled.

‘When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it.

‘Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better.

‘This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.’

One old friend of the McCains said: ‘Carol always insists she is not bitter, but I think that’s a defence mechanism. She also feels deeply in his debt because in return for her agreement to a divorce, he promised to pay for her medical care for the rest of her life.’

Carol remained resolutely loyal as McCain’s political star rose. She says she agreed to talk to The Mail on Sunday only because she wanted to publicise her support for the man who abandoned her.

Indeed, the old Mercedes that she uses to run errands displays both a disabled badge and a sticker encouraging people to vote for her ex-husband. ‘He’s a good guy,’ she assured us. ‘We are still good friends. He is the best man for president.’

But Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics.

‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’ he said.

‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’

This story makes McCain sound unusually self-centered, a real user. An ambitious user.

The only basis for his campaign for President is that he wants the job, he is a war hero, and he is a Senator. Thin gruel to base a race for the Presidency on, and no suggestion that he has the needed character or is otherwise up to the demands of the job. The most recent individual with poor character references who became President is Bush 43.

McCain really is running to fill the third Bush term as President. We need to make sure that he doesn't win. We don't need to have America saddled with another such ambitious incompetent as President.