Rolling Stone Rolls on McCain
Oct. 6th, 2008 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
webfarmerLengthy article on the making of a myth.
Make-Believe Maverick - Rolling Stone - 16 Oct 08
"A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty.
"Dramesi, who went on to serve as chief war planner for U.S. Air Forces in Europe and commander of a wing of the Strategic Air Command, was not surprised. 'McCain says his life changed while he was in Vietnam, and he is now a different man,' Dramesi says today. 'But he's still the undisciplined, spoiled brat that he was when he went in.'"
"In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.
In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot."
Make-Believe Maverick - Rolling Stone - 16 Oct 08
"A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty.
"Dramesi, who went on to serve as chief war planner for U.S. Air Forces in Europe and commander of a wing of the Strategic Air Command, was not surprised. 'McCain says his life changed while he was in Vietnam, and he is now a different man,' Dramesi says today. 'But he's still the undisciplined, spoiled brat that he was when he went in.'"
"In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.
In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot."
