Don't swallow John McCain's baloney.Check the facts for yourself.

McCain B.S. ... The Short Version

Though most Americans now reject Bush-Cheney Republicanism, John McCain still garners respect. He's supposedly done noble things; some think he'd be a fine president. But McCain and his shills have sold America a bill of goods. A vast body of evidence shows beyond all doubt that McCain is spectacularly ill suited to be president. Contrary to the moonshine served up by McCain and his toadies in the media, McCain is not a maverick, not a straight talker, not a reformer, not a moderate, not a war hero and not a defense expert. Clear away the b.s. and what's left is yet another far-right, not-too-bright, ethically challenged Republican militarist with an evil temper and strong tastes for risky vices.

Books Concerning McCain's Malarkey
. . . reviewed here

The Real McCain McCain: The Myth of a Maverick Free Ride: John McCain and the Media

John McCain is NOT a Maverick

John McCain voted with George Bush 95 percent of the time last year. So far this year he's voted with Bush 100 percent of the time. Lest anyone disregard those facts and cling to the absurd notion that McCain somehow "stands up" to Bush, McCain himself will set you straight. A few members of the mainstream media have weighed in on what a ludicrous crock of road apples [more here, here and here] the whole "McCain the maverick" thing is. And have a look at the guy in the blue shirt, above left. Is that what a "maverick" does? Especially a "maverick" who was so cravenly -- and effectively -- smeared by Bush in 2000?

John McCain is NOT a Straight Talker

Specific issues on which John McCain has recently reversed himself:

Broader reporting on some of McCain's more blatant flip-flops ...
here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

John McCain is NOT a Reformer

The myth of "John McCain, Maverick Reformer" rests mainly on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as "McCain-Feingold." According to the Myth of McCain, he helped reform the U.S. election process by getting special interest money out of the equation. He did so, the myth continues, by reaching across the aisle to one of the Senate's leading progressives. This drew withering opposition from his own party, but he stood tall and prevailed. What bipartisanship! What courage!

What nonsense.

Whatever else it was, McCain-Feingold was a slick political move for John McCain -- especially in the wake of his involvement in the Keating Five scandal: one of the U.S. Senate's worst infamies in the last generation.

While congressional Republicans opposed McCain-Feingold on various grounds, it's hard to imagine they were too outraged by McCain's pushing what came to be known as the "The Democratic Party Suicide Bill." It was called that with good reason. According to Brock and Waldman, McCain-Feingold (1) eliminated soft money -- traditionally a Democratic advantage; (2) enabled wealthy, often Republican, donors to make larger donations; and (3) allowed the amount of special interest money in campaigns to increase.

If the amount of special interest money in campaigns increases, special interest lobbyists become a shadow government, owning the votes of the officials whose campaigns they've financed. So one might think that campaign finance reform is all about reducing the influence of influence-buying lobbyists. That being the case, some might find it surprising that John McCain's campaign for president has been staffed largely with lobbyists [more here, here, here, here and here] who've worked for some of the world's most notorious tyrants and conmen.

John McCain is NOT a Moderate

John McCain is a hard-core right-winger. Not only has he voted with George Bush the vast majority of the time, he's also curried favor with some of America's most extreme right-wing organizations -- while alienating many of America's largest, most respected citizens' groups.

That's not to say that he's never bucked his party or his president or made common cause with those of the other party. He has. So have many others -- some a lot more so than McCain. But the vast majority of the time, his has been a dependably conservative Republican vote.

For example, according to Project Vote Smart, "Senator McCain supported the interests of The Club for Growth 100 percent in 2007." How far to the right is the Club for Growth? In recent years the CFG actively worked to unseat some of the few remaining legitimately "moderate" congressional Republicans, including Lincoln Chaffee and Arlen Specter.

Meanwhile, many of McCain's recent ratings from major, mainstream organizations representing seniors, women, teachers, academics and conservationists have been zeroes or F's:

Nor has he done well with children's or veterans' advocates:

Most ominously of all, perhaps, McCain has vowed to replace the few remaining "moderate" Supreme Court justices with more right-wingers [more here, here, here and here] of the John Roberts / Sam Alito mold.

John McCain is NOT a War Hero

Though we're often told that McCain spent over five years as a POW, one thing we never get is a simple, straightforward explanation of how, specifically, he wound up in that Vietnamese prison in the first place.

In the summer and early autumn of 1967, McCain flew 23 missions over North Vietnam in connection with Operation Rolling Thunder. Rolling Thunder killed at least 100,000 (estimates vary) North Vietnamese civilians despite U.S. efforts to minimize "collateral damage."

To put that in perspective, North Vietnam's population was then about 17 million. So a proportionately lethal campaign against America (2008 pop. +/- 305 million) would kill roughly 1.8 million U.S. civilians -- about 600 times the number of deaths America suffered in the 9/11 attacks.

McCain's final Rolling Thunder mission in particular was morally problematic. On October 26, 1967, he flew one of 20 planes that attacked the Yen Phu power plant in central Hanoi. The plant had previously been off-limits to U.S. bombers because it was feared that bombing it could cause "collateral damage" -- but the pilots had the go-ahead to drop their bombs anyway. Defenders on the ground shot off one of McCain's plane's wings, after which he parachuted into nearby Trúc Bạch Lake. He was pulled from the lake, put in prison and, unsurprisingly, treated badly. He responded with behaviors that were very brave -- perhaps even noble.

But was he a "war hero"? McCain went to prison because he a) participated in Operation Rolling Thunder; and, specifically,
b) helped bomb a power plant in the middle of a big city. Those actions are not "heroic," they're evil, and their immorality deeply overshadows any nobility that may have followed in prison. More on this topic here ... and at 'Swiftboating' John McCain?

In the meantime, contrast McCain's behaviors with those of a couple real war heroes: Hugh Thompson, Jr. and Richard Rowland Kirkland.

John McCain is NOT a Defense Expert

When it comes to foreign policy, McCain has provided ample evidence that he may be nearly as clueless as George Bush. In recent months McCain has made some most unpresidential mistakes concerning the

Worse, McCain is even more belligerently warlike than Bush [more here]. Matt Welch calls McCain "the most militaristic presidential candidate since Ulysses S. Grant" and warns, "If you think George W. Bush had an itchy trigger finger, you ain’t seen nothing yet." Says Welch,

In addition to calling for tens of thousands more troops in Iraq than Bush has committed, McCain has pushed to keep military options against Iran "open," criticized the repeated failure to back "rhetoric with action" against North Korea [and] supported a general policy of "rogue state rollback" [more here]. ... Like the neoconservatives with whom he has increasingly aligned himself, he sees Iraq and Iran as integral to a new twilight struggle against Islamic radicalism.

The Temper and Temptations of John 'McNasty'

A major thread running throughout McCain's life story is his nasty temper [more here, here, here, here and here] and the abusive bullying he's inflicted on those who've run afoul of him. Tales of his explosive surliness predate even his tenure at Episcopal High School where, according to Robert Timberg's mostly laudatory bio, "he was known as Punk, alternatively as Nasty, and another variation, McNasty." One of McCain's classmates told Timberg that McCain " 'was seemingly ready to fight at the drop of a hat. He was easily provoked, ready to be provoked.' "

Later, at the Naval Academy, McCain was the unofficial leader of the "Bad Bunch": a group of cadets known for their brawling, drinking and aggressive promiscuity.

McCain often "dated" strippers. One stripper he claimed to have known (Biblically, one assumes) was Marie, the Flame Thrower of Florida.

He married at age 28. His first wife had been a swimwear model, but after she was seriously injured in a 1969 car crash (in the midst of his imprisonment), he returned from Vietnam and cheated on her with a succession of women [more here here and here]. Whether or not he's still a philanderer is a matter of dispute. One of his adulterous amours eventually became wife #2. She's a former cheerleader and rodeo queen, 17 years McCain's junior. She's also a beer heiress and a recovering prescription drug addict [more here] whose family's money and connections enabled McCain's political career.

Belligerence ... Recreational Violence ... Drinking ... Promiscuity ... Adultery ... Did I mention that McCain also likes to roll high-stakes craps? [more here and here] Do we really want to elect a man president who would bring to the office (1) a nasty temper and (2) well-established inclinations toward a range of antisocial and high-risk behaviors?

'The Press Loves McCain. We're His Base.'

Many in the national press corps -- such as Chris Matthews, who's responsible for the above quote -- have been seduced by McCain's b.s. As a result, much of their coverage of him has been favorably biased to the point of fawning adulation. Their journalistic malpractice hurts us all.

Fortunately, a few reporters have noted and explored the national media's McCain infatuation [more here] at length and in depth. It's an appalling story that must be told repeatedly until it sinks in.

Free Ride: John McCain and the Media is especially strong in this regard. Among the bright spots we see are Arizona reporters, who, unlike McCain's national press toadies, have been obliged to follow McCain day-to-day for many years, and have long since seen through his baloney. Because of his behaviors they've observed, many don't like him or trust him. Free Ride reports,

If one looks beneath the surface, one can find a treasure trove of stories and anecdotes about a McCain that would be unrecognizable to many Americans: short tempered, foul mouthed, bullying, and unscrupulous. Such accounts have been found mainly in Arizona media and less widely read sources.

One of the most powerful items I've seen in this vein was written eight years ago by McCain's former friend Pat Murphy -- who once edited and published The Arizona Republic. Murphy's portrait of McCain is not pretty.

Please Help Me Clean Up Some McCain B.S.

  1. Email a link to this page to everyone you think might give it a fair reading. Ask them to send it to everyone they think might be receptive.
  2. If you post a website or websites that could accommodate a link or links to this webpage, please post such links as you see fit.
  3. Click on, buy and read one or more of the following books concerning John McCain. Individually, each book has its strengths, each has its shortcomings. I've found that they complement one another quite nicely, covering McCain's b.s. from a variety of perspectives. After you read them, please pass them on to someone else you think might put them to good use. Ask the recipient(s) to do the same.

The Real McCain McCain: The Myth of a Maverick Free Ride: John McCain and the Media

In the Spirit of Full Disclosure ...

Who's responsible for this webpage? I'm Dan Nerhaugen: a hard-core political junkie for 40+ years, though never as a Republican or a Democrat. I was a member of the Green Party for a short time several years ago. I plan to vote for Barack Obama -- with some serious reservations, since he's not nearly as green as circumstances demand.

email me

Related Reading

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Takeover: The Return of The Imperial Presidency And the Subversion of American Democracy

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The Greatest Story
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Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War

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Vietnam: A History

Since John McCain's political career is 100 percent founded on his Vietnam War experience, this might be a good time to review the salient facts -- not the emotions or the platitudes or the clichés, but the essential facts -- relating to that war.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Stanley Karnow covered the Vietnam War from the beginning. This 1983 work is widely viewed as the definitive American history of the conflict.

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Vice: Dick Cheney
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The editor and former editor of The Texas Observer peel back the curtain to shed some daylight on the most powerful, secretive VP in history. Cheney's typically quiet, low-key, reasonable-seeming public persona, the authors observe, belies the PNAC radicalism that he's channeled through Bush.

Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush

The media are deeply complicit in BushCo's worst crimes, says Rolling Stone contributing editor Eric Boehlert -- a senior fellow at Media Matters and former Salon writer. We who've watched in horror as the like of Judy Miller greased the wheels for the worst of BushCo's insanity will find relatively little that's new here. But to see in one place so many instances of the MSM's rolling over for Bush is extraordinary.

The Dumbest Generation

Mark Bauerlein lays out a huge body of evidence that factors including the net are making kids even dumber than their predecessors. And their predecessors sent George Bushes I & II to the vice presidency or presidency five times. Dick Nixon four times. Now that's dumb.