in case anyone reading this is still clinging to mccain/palin

[rone]

Imagine if, in 2004, John Kerry had chosen Al Sharpton as his running mate.  That's what McCain/Palin is, only even more so.

Comments

[dr-strych9.livejournal.com]

Mind: I'm not one of those idiots who think McCain was responsible for starting the fire. No, I'm just massively underwhelmed with his performance during the crisis and in the aftermath. I do NOT approve. His behavior under pressure was utterly unbecoming of an officer, at best, and amounted to cowardice if you really want to know what I think about it. His behavior in the aftermath of the disaster was just icing on the shitpile.

What a despicable, horrible man.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Does anyone think he started it? He was in the plane that first started burning, but because it was hit by a Zuni rocket that cooked off from another airplane.

So I haven't read about the Forrestal fire-- what's a good source?

[dr-strych9.livejournal.com]

There are indeed idiots who are trying to spread the smear that McCain was directly responsible for the fire. (Some of them might be partially excused on account of their understandable prejudice against McCain given his record of crashing airplanes prior to his service on the Forrestal.)

You can read one of the Navy web pages on the Forrestal fire here (http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/histories/cv59-forrestal/forrestal-fire.html). It doesn't say anything particularly damning about McCain's role in the fire. It just quotes him saying what he heard and what he saw from the cockpit of his aircraft.

There is also a documentary film (), which I have not seen, that may be of interest.

The article I read that made my blood boil when I read it is here (http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081007_investigating_john_mccains_tragedy_at_sea/). Note that it takes an agnostic view about the possibility of McCain being somehow at fault in the cause of the fire. Here's what it says that made me want to puke:

Whatever the circumstances of the fire’s origins, McCain did not stay on deck to help fight the blaze as the men around him did. With the firefighting crew virtually wiped out, men untrained in fighting fires had to pick up the fire hoses, rescue the wounded or frantically throw bombs and even planes over the ship’s side to prevent further tragedy. McCain left them behind and went down to the hangar-bay level, where he briefly helped crew members heave some bombs overboard. After that, he went to the pilot’s ready room and watched the fire on a television monitor hooked to a camera trained on the deck.

Despite the widely repeated claim that he was hit by shrapnel in his legs and chest, his father says he came through the ordeal "without a scratch." There's a damned good reason that USN now makes sure that ALL HANDS are trained in fighting fires at sea. A lot of squids who weren't trained in fighting fires at sea died to save his sorry ass that day. I am deeply unimpressed with the way he treated their surviving mates during and after the fire.

[dr-strych9.livejournal.com]

Ooops. The documentary film is here (http://ussforrestalfire.com/).

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Dad was a Squid Officer, and a Blackshoe Nuke, at that, so I'm inclined to chalk that up to McCain being an Airdale.

But you're right that if it's true, it's not good as a matter of character.

Not that I think every president needs a story of a time he was tested by fire, so to speak, but I'd like it if Obama had *any* history that he didn't himself write.

[dr-strych9.livejournal.com]

"but I'd like it if Obama had *any* history that he didn't himself write."

At this point, I'll settle for a President who hasn't made a lifetime career out of fucking off, taking stupid gambles for the cheap thrills, and failing upward at the expense of his less well-born comrades.

As for Obama's personal history, I was extremely skeptical of him a year ago. Over time, watching him weather the buffets of a Presidential campaign, which— make no mistake— is a psychological ordeal that ordinary people simply cannot endure without breaking down in a horrible mess, c.f. John McCain in recent weeks, I'm inclined to think the history Obama has already made in this campaign for all to see with their own eyes acquits him well enough to serve as President.

I just hope he performs as well in office as he has on the campaign trail. If he does, that will rewrite my whole attitude about the American political system from the ground up.