Monday, October 20, 2008

Why I Have No Use for John McCain

I am a registered Republican who would have voted for John McCain in 2000 if he had received the nomination.I felt bad for him when Karl Rove set those callers on him the night before the primary election there telling voters he had had a black child with a prostitute. That was a lie and it was too late to refute it. But that was also before I did my homework.

John McCain was tortured in Vietnam. So we have to stop talking about his credibility. You can only ask Barack Obama questions about his credibility, and his patriotism, Bill Ayers, and whether Obama has a personal problem with the American flag.

John McCain came home from Vietnam to find that his wife, Carol, had been involved in a horrible auto accident that nearly cost her her life and her leg. They salvaged her leg with surgery that left it badly disfigured and with a bad limp. She also gained quite a bit of weight during her convalescence. At first John McCain said it didn't matter. He didn't look so good either at that time but that changed a few weeks later when he resumed the party life he had left behind when he went to Vietnam. Carol still loves him and says he just wasn't used to being in his forties. He agreed when he married the millionairess, Cindy, that he would take care of her needs for the rest of her life.

But don't ask John McCain anything about it because John McCain is a hero. (Actually, he caved and made videos confessing to war crimes). That makes him a POW but not necessarily a hero. Even though now we find out that our "hero" was still living with his wife when he started dating his mistress. It gets even better: McCain was still legally married to his first wife when he got a marriage license for his second wife. I guess adultery and bigamy aren't such a big deal anymore with "family values" leaders like Ohio's Phil Burress who are now supporting McCain. And in any case, they were youthful indiscretions - McCain was only in his 40s at the time. In political reinvention terms, that's practically puberty.

An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife, Carol, had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Cindy Hensley.

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Cindy Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

In all seriousness,imagine if Barack Obama had two marriages at the same time. Imagine had Barack Obama lied about living with his first wife while having a mistress on the side. Imagine that all this happened while Obama had promised to speak out vocally about how gay people are a threat to marriage. We'd never hear the end of it from the Republicans and the media.

But John McCain gets a pass. He's a "hero".

Also, he's quick to brand Obama because of the Ayers affair but doesn't mention his own illegal alliance with Charles Keating in the 80's. Keating went to jail over the S & L scandal but John McCain only got a slap on the wrist. He's a "hero". However, his wife,Cindy, made a pile of money over that deal.

2 comments:

Linda said...

I'm so glad you did this post. The Republican party has got to take a serious look at their party and some way get this extreme right wing of the party under control. They're ruining your party.

Like you, there was a time when I respected John McCain but no more.

I hope you'll come back to visit my blog. I'm posting again on my original blog: texastooregon.blogspot.com. For now I'm posting there, and also at texastooregon.wordpress.com. I'll do this until I'm sure the Blogger site is stable.

Margie's Musings said...

Thanks, Linda. I'll try to find your blog again.