I don't mean this in any slanderous, disparaging way. I mean it in a more I'm-looking-through-the-prism-of -reality sort of way.
It's not the latest reports on his overuse of what I'll call
"colorful" language towards his colleagues, friends, foes, and even
his wife. And it's not his age, although I can see how some of his critics may
cite it as a drawback to his candidacy. It's not even his continued and
repeated confusions lately over the differences between the Shias and
Sunnis.
It's all
of these things in combination.
And what bothers me even more about McCain is the one thing that many of his
proponents cite as his greatest asset: his experience as a POW.
I am in no way saying that what I'm about to say characterizes every soldier or
prisoner of war--in fact, I am just stating my own personal observations on
information I have now about one man, Senator John McCain. Once the information
changes, then maybe so will my opinion. But I feel I need to get this
disclaimer out there first:
I can't
reiterate enough that I in no way believe that a war veteran or military man
cannot be President. I honor and am grateful for their service to protect us
and guard our god-given rights.
In fact,
a former soldier who has weathered war, and one who sought mental help to
handle what he endured, if he needed it - a man who is now a better man because
of combat, a more wise man in his judgments and actions, would get my vote for
President. But McCain hasn't proven he has good judgment or is capable of
acting responsibly.
So, I'm
no psychologist, but here goes.
John McCain doesn't seem mentally stable to me. And I don't mean that in a
dismissive "He crazy!" kind of a way but instead in a more "He
should seek help in these his latter years to address the pent up anger and
confusion he has since experiencing the horrors of being a POW."
With old
age comes reflection: musings over your life and what you've come through. And, undoubtedly, McCain's experience as a
POW will be one of those things-- late at night, when he's alone, no matter how
busy is Presidential schedule would be--that he would think about.
I'm so afraid that, if he were to become president, that they'd one day find
him under the desk in the Oval Office, screaming, "They're shooting at
me!" And his hallucinated bullets will be more real than the ones Hillary
ducked in
They'd be more real because McCain is a man whose own mother has said that she
and her son never spoke about his nightmarish time as a POW: "We didn't
discuss his captivity at all. It never did come up... never and its too late
now."
He's a man who is a hothead, who says and does inappropriate,
violent things in settings that any reasonable man would be more hesitant to do
so. McCain is a 71 year old man who refuses to release his medical information
to a concerned, curious, right-to-know public.
And as a result of all this, he may also be a man who is, plainly put, an unfit
candidate for President.
New reports reveal that McCain attacked Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi as well
as the late Senator Strom Thurmond. Although Thurmond had done several things
in his lifetime warranting someone physically attacking him, that doesn't mean
that the man doing the attacking should be our next President.
He also got into a fist fight with Congressman Rick Renzi. This isn't 1835,
when government officials had the potential to be getting into pistol-shooting
and cane-whipping rumbles. This is 2008 where international affairs are tenuous
making it so that we can't afford to have a heavy-handed President with anger
issues.
And as a man who is trying to distance himself from the war policies of Bush,
he sure seems in favor of them. Plus, he is supposed to be anti-torture because
of his own experience. Yet, he voted down a bill that would have banned
waterboarding. Some have argued that he couldn't vote for the bill because of
other torture-irrelevant issues that were attached to the bill that would have
been passed also.
But a man who's very being is supposed to be anti-torture should
have voted in favor of that bill, no matter what, if it meant that someone else would not
experience the nightmare he did for one more minute.
I applaud anyone in the military, who gets help or is able to during the Bush
administration where suicide rates among military men are soaring and soldiers
aren't receiving the psychological help they need.
And of course, I am willing to allow for someone to evolve and change. But we
only have 6 months 'til November.
I will analyze McCain's policy proposals and other election-related issues over
my next posts. But I felt I really needed to say something that was difficult to
articulate but that needed to be addressed.
McCain has acted rash in his personal life and career life and he'd do the same
if he were to become President.
