Here’s how this works. I never considered John McCain to be an honorable man. See? That’s an honest statement. I know it’s heresy to voice such things. But that’s only because the press considers John McCain to be a former POW. And that’s probably not something John McCain would say about himself.
About The Author

BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Even as far back as the Savings and Loan shakedown – an interesting precursor to what happened under Baby Bush – there was something about McCain that made me give him the benefit of the doubt. As a recovering Republican, there was probably an element of wish-fulfillment there. I really hated to watch the GOP turn into what it was becoming. All of McCain’s pals, especially Chuck Keating, were visibly scumbags, but for whatever reason, I felt I trusted McCain’s motives. It wasn’t really until he went and kissed the asses of the politicized fundamentalists that I gave up all hope that he had any honor or principles worth taking into consideration.
Why do you hate freedom, Boo? For five years blahblahblah….
There were hundreds of other POW`s.
Even his dimentia is dishonest
But at least we can thank McCain for giving us our best political asset: Sarah Palin. That must be worth something.
We’ll have to get our maverick fix elsewhere. < sniff >
what scares the shit out of me is that the AZ Dems don’t have their act together, and we may end up with JD Hayworth in that seat if Grandpa keeps showing his unsteady hand at the tiller.
never bought his con either, BooMan.
he was always Country Last to me.
It’s still a mystery to me how this far-right lunatic got off as a maverick scot-free. Sure people called it out his last year, but it wasn’t the media. They’re still in love with his bullshit; he’ll prolly never stop being President McCain on the Sunday shows.
I think he’s telling the truth for once. He probably never did consider himself a maverick. That was just his “brand.”
Throughout history, being a POW has never been considered to be worth much. In some armies, the attempt to surrender is considered a capital offense. At Stalingrad, when German regiments attempted to surrender, the main problem was fire from their own fellow soldiers on the German side. After all, a quick way out of a war is to surrender. At Stalingrad, that had the down-side of putting you in a Soviet POW camp, and the survival rate there was very low.
In WWII, being a POW was considered a matter of shame. In many cases, you became a POW due to incompetence or cowardice. You got no credit for the POW status.
In McCain’s case, he was a manifestly incompetent pilot. He single-handedly destroyed 4 planes, and was in another plane when it was destroyed (on the Forrestal). Was he in the right place with his plane?
He became a POW due, some say, to his refusal to follow orders. He got shot down due to bad piloting. Is that a matter which gains honor for him?