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We also know that during his five years of supposedly tortuous solitary confinement McCain was able to write letters to his first wife because that's what he claimed in a lawsuit he and Carol filed in 1990 against a storage facility where those letters were (conveniently?) lost. And now, Tran Trong Duyet, the warden of Hoa Lo prison, where McCain was first detained, has stepped forward, calls him "friend" and asserts that he was never tortured. Though, since he's been following McCain's career, Mr Duyet also says he can understand why McCain would lie to get himself elected.
In a sense, McCain has been dining out on his five years as a prisoner for a long time and he's got a whole series of vignettes about finding inspirational scratches on a wall and the one sympathetic guard (he still hates the "gooks") who traced a cross in the sand with his sandal (or a stick). But now, it seems, that story was lifted from Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago," while the care he received from the Soviet surgeon and the Cuban psychiatrist who evaluated his mental state are never mentioned. Which suggests that McCain also lies by omission.
Everybody's got war stories whose details may be elaborated or conflated. But, in McCain's case, that he made up his stories of torture and deprivation may explain why, even though he presents himself as an opponent of torture, his votes have supported the program at Guantanamo. If he's been lying about his own experience, then he may well assume that the people the U.S. has detained have also been lying and, despite the catalogue of injuries reported by humanitarian investigators for those who have been released, they're no more victims of torture than he. That might also clear up why, despite is disability designation, McCain was given a command for which he was physically not qualified.
We also know from McCain's own admission that he lied both to his current and former wife--the current in leading her to think that his marriage of fifteen years was on the rocks and the former in keeping her in the dark about his year-long affair with the new love of his life. Indeed, like the "Bad Boy" of the early '60s, McCain freely admits to having cheated on Carol, suggesting that his prison experience was to blame. What he leaves out is that it took him seven years to come to the conclusion that his future would be brighter without her. What's also been left out of the narrative are the particulars of that first marriage, which followed close upon Carol's divorce, in Florida, from the father of her two sons. While McCain's classmate in the Naval Academy, Alasdair E. Swanson, was apparently guilty of infidelity, he seems to have been relieved of alimony and child support obligations and it was Carol who remarried soon after and let John adopt the boys. That Carol's second divorce was also arranged in Florida, even though she and John were living in other states suggests that perhaps something's not quite on the up and up. Of course, it's possible that at that point in his career, fellow Hoa Lo captive, Col.George "Bud" Day, needed to have some lawyer work thrown his way and McCain's testimony to promote Day's medal haul hadn't quite repaid whatever debt he owed.
It's well known that McCain likes to do favors for old friends. That's what got him into the jam usually referenced as "The Keating Five" where five Senators came to the aid of some bankers who, having played loose with their depositors' money, effectively cheated them out of their life's savings. Fortunately, McCain's support hadn't been sufficiently strong to make the accusation of favoritism stick and he ended up with just egg on his face.
Most recently the cheating question has come back in connection with the Saddleback Civil Forum when John McCain started to answer questions before they were even asked, as if he knew what they were before-hand. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, since candidates are often provided with questions ahead of time so their answers can be well thought out. However, in this case, there was a big todo about keeping the candidates, who were interviewed separately, in the dark so the audience could get a sense of how they'd respond to a challenge.
If John McCain had an unfair advantage by having someone whisper the questions and Barack Obama's answers in his ear, then that might explain why he seemed so much better prepared than he has been in other recent events. During appearances in both New Hampshire and North Carolina, McCain not only had a hard time understanding questions, but didn't seem to be able to formulate answers that were actually germane. For example, when he was asked by one of his VFW friends about VA services in New Hampshire, he ignored the question entirely and turned back to a questioner he'd interacted with on the Iraq war. It almost seemed as if he was being redirected, maybe by a bug in his ear, to a safer topic (he likes war; veterans' issues not so much).
Of course, lots of older folk come to rely on assisted hearing and could probably use a little assisted thinking, as well. But, they're not offering themselves up as candidates for the presidency of the United States. Besides, in addition to being reminded of Ronald Reagan's confusion during his last years in office and the electronic gadget under George W. Bush's coat that was suspected of providing assistance during the 2004 debates, we now have plenty of evidence that impaired leaders are disastrous for the country. John McCain's sudden transformation from someone, who's geographically confused and relying on lousy jokes (maybe our cigarette exports will kill off the Iranians) to distract the press, to someone who answers questions before they're asked is suspicious and concerning.
Personally, I still find it hard to believe that the Republican party is really going to nominate such a dour, curmudgeon who seems entirely lacking of any sympathy for the common man. It seems downright disrespectful. But, just in case, we need to take a closer look at what they're offering.
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