This story is not intended to be an exhaustive study of John McCain. It is not intended to be a denigration. It IS intended to outline some quotes and events within the space (and a bit more) normally allotted to an online blog post.

These references DO intend to provoke a question about a candidate for president who for whatever reason does not discuss the issues concerning the general public but has turned his campaign into an attempt to marshal a force to garner votes for McCain from the lunatic fringe, the ignorant, the illiterate, the hateful, the racist, the mean, and the stupid.

John Mccain source info:
(http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/mccain.htm)
Copyright 1999 Robert Timberg
http://www.charlierose.com/guests/robert-timberg

Mother (when Mccain was twelve)
“From that time on, he was a pain in the neck.”

Rives Richey, one of his closest friends in high school, remembered McCain as rambunctious and combative, at times “just repelling,” the type of kid who had a few good pals within a student body that either actively disliked him or gave him a wide berth. “He was considered kind of a punk,” said Richey.

McCain, who enrolled as a sophomore [in high school], was named Worst Rat after his first year. He wore the title as a badge of honor, which in some ways it was. One of his few friends, Malcolm Matheson, remembered him fondly as “a hard rock kind of guy, a tough, mean little fucker.”

Said another [high school] schoolmate, “He prided himself on being a tough guy. He was seemingly ready to fight at the drop of a hat. He was easily provoked, ready to be provoked.”

Rives Richey: (At the juvinile court hearing for verbally assaulting women in public), “All we did say was do you want to get picked up. The only person that said anything was John, who [on refusal of their offer] told them to shove it up their ass.”

Both girls mistakenly identified Richey as the boy who had used the profanity … Richey, aghast, waited for McCain to speak up and clear his name. Soon he was fuming at his friend’s silence. It was a standoff. McCain wouldn’t confess, Richey wouldn’t squeal. The judge suspended Richey’s license for six months, let McCain and the other boy off with a warning.

During the time of graduation, Richey heard Mccain was going to Annapolis.
“You know, frankly, honest to goodness, if they’d have rated everybody in the class for likely to succeed, I guarantee you he’d of been in the bottom ten, without any question.”

Much the same might have been said about Jack McCain in his youth. At Annapolis he stood 423 out of 441 in the Class of 1931, eighteenth from the bottom, worse than his father, better than his son.

John Mccain source info:
(http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/cin_unfit_2.htm)

At the Academy, aside being known as a “rowdy, raunchy, underachiever” who resented authority, Cadet McCain became infamous as a leader among his fellow midshipmen for organizing “off-Yard activities” and hard drinking parties. Robert Timberg wrote in his book, The Nightingale’s Song, that “being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck.”

McCain’s grades were “marginal.” He drew so many demerits for breaking curfew and other discipline issues that he graduated fifth from the bottom of the class of 1958. Despite his low “class standing,” and no doubt because of the influence of his family of famous Admirals, McCain was leap-frogged ahead of more qualified applicants and granted a coveted slot to be trained as a navy pilot.

Good Party Animal - Bad Pilot:

McCain Lost Five Military Aircraft

McCain, the “below par” pilot, eventually lost 5 military aircraft, the first during a training flight in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while trying to land. The Navy ignored the crash and graduated McCain in 1960.

While deployed in the Mediterranean, the hard partying McCain lost a second aircraft. Timberg described the crash: “Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral.”

Unscathed, McCain returned to Pensacola Station where he was promoted to flight instructor for Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi. The airfield at Meridian, McCain Field, was named in honor of McCain’s grandfather.

Flight instructor McCain lost a third aircraft while flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game. Timberg wrote that McCain radioed, “I’ve got a flameout” before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain parachuted onto a beach moments before his plane slammed into a clump of trees.

The Navy dismissed the crash as “unavoidable” and assigned McCain to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in December 1966, which was patrolling the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. In Spring 1967, the Forrestal was assigned to join the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

McCain lost his fourth plane on board the Forrestal on July 29, 1967 when a rocket inadvertently slammed into his bomb laden jet. McCain escaped, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors. McCain was transferred from the badly damaged Forrestal to the USS Oriskany. Shortly afterwards, on Oct. 26, 1967, he was shot down and captured by the Vietnamese.

Timberg described McCain’s advancement: “in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather, since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path.”

While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and “engage in extra-marital affairs.”

This was a clear violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates. But, as with all his other past behaviors, McCain was never penalized; instead he always got away with his transgressions.

Timberg wrote, “Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain’s persona, impossible not to take note of.”

In early 1977, Admiral Jim Holloway, Chief of Naval Operations promoted McCain to captain and transferred him from his command position “to Washington as the number-two man in the Navy’s Senate liaison office. McCain was promptly given total control of the office. It wasn’t long before the “fun loving and irreverent” McCain had turned the liaison office into a “late-afternoon gathering spot where senators and staffers, usually from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, would drop in for a drink and the chance to unwind.”

Timberg described McCain’s advancement: “in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather, since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path.”

While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and “engage in extra-marital affairs.”

This was a clear violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates. But, as with all his other past behaviors, McCain was never penalized; instead he always got away with his transgressions.

Timberg wrote, “Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain’s persona, impossible not to take note of.”

In early 1977, Admiral Jim Holloway, Chief of Naval Operations promoted McCain to captain and transferred him from his command position “to Washington as the number-two man in the Navy’s Senate liaison office. McCain was promptly given total control of the office. It wasn’t long before the “fun loving and irreverent” McCain had turned the liaison office into a “late-afternoon gathering spot where senators and staffers, usually from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, would drop in for a drink and the chance to unwind.”

John Mccain source info:
http://www.answers.com/topic/john-mccain

… he did break down and sign a confession that he was a “black criminal” and an “air pirate.” The shame of the confession led McCain to contemplate suicide at the time, and stayed with him years after the fact. “The only thing I can say is that the code says you will resist to the best of your ability,” he told Pierce in 1998. “But I failed myself. I failed my fellow prisoners. I failed my family, and I failed my country. Is there anybody else?”

… returned home with a Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

McCain explained to Pierce, “One of the reasons I’ve been reluctant to judge other people is that I’ve had so many failures of my own. I failed when I was in prison. I failed in my [first] marriage. I think that if there are any benefits from my failure, it’s to realize that other people fail, too.”

—

In 1983, McCain was elected to lead the incoming group of Republican representatives.[62] Also that year, he opposed creation of a federal Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

McCain became enmeshed in a scandal … one of five United States Senators comprising the so-called “Keating Five”.[90] … McCain had received $112,000 in lawful[91] political contributions from Charles Keating Jr. and his associates at Lincoln Savings and Loan Association … In the end, McCain was cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee of acting improperly or violating any law or Senate rule, but was mildly rebuked for exercising “poor judgment”.

In 1997, McCain became chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee; he was criticized for accepting funds from corporations and businesses under the committee’s purview, but in response said the small contributions he received were not part of the big-money nature of the campaign finance problem.

In August 1999, McCain’s memoir Faith of My Fathers, co-authored with Mark Salter, was published …

According to one reviewer, it describes “the kind of challenges that most of us can barely imagine. It’s a fascinating history of a remarkable military family.” [ed. note - PSHAW]

— end of report —