Before I get started, I feel it important in the interest of full disclosure that I was not the best overall student, nor had I made the most of my academic promise. I feel I owe a great apology to my parents for fighting and working to provide me with all the opportunities and support they could muster. I am not a simpleton (angry or otherwise), but I am certainly not everything I could be. Mom & Dad, sorry about that.
With less than 30 hours before the next US Presidential election, you may wonder why I would start off with such a personal confession. I strongly believe that my familiarity with failure gives me a painfully sharp perspective on why it is vitally important to make sure that we as a nation take a firm stance prohibiting fucking morons from public office. It's one thing to squander your resources. It's a different and worse thing altogether to fuck over generations of people because of your shortcomings.
Sen. McCain's campaign has often made attacks on Sen. Obama's character portraying him as elitist with great aspirations but little experience and great shortcomings. Let's take a look at Sen. McCain, shall we? He is a 3rd Generation US Naval Officer. Both his father and his grandfather were 4 Star US Navy Admirals. There is only one rank higher than that, and it is reserved for use in formal war. With that kind of military pedigree, John McCain's career in the military should have been idiot-proof, but Johnny was that rare idiot who could fuck up a family dynasty. McCain entered the US Naval Academy as a legacy with a golden ticket. Out of a class of 899, he held a class rank of 894. There were only 5 people more inadequate than him. His early career as a Naval Aviator is marred by a partying reputation as well as crashing twice and colliding with power lines.
While his time as a POW in the Vietnam War is well known, what isn't terribly well known is that while he suffered two broken arms and a broken leg prior to capture, the only reason he received medical care during his beatings and interrogation was that the North Vietnamese had learned that his father was a top US Naval Admiral. If it weren't for his family, he wouldn't be puttering around today.
Throughout his 25 years in the US Congress, he has had many achievements and many scandals including voting against the creation of a federal Martin Luther King, jr. holiday, being one of the infamous "Keating 5"during the Lincoln Savings & Loan scandal, and of his North Vietnamese captors, he said "I hate the gooks." He was adamantly unapologetic... up until it dawned on his wizened noggin that gee, maybe Asian-Americans might be offended at his blatant racism, and that might hurt his chances for a run at the Oval Office.
Sen. McCain has distanced himself from this gaffe and while Irwin Tang wrote about this episode in his book Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters," I have to seriously question whether or not we need someone with such gross shortcomings of judgement in a decision making position that could and has affected the lives of others. In short, this racist motherfucker shouldn't have been let out of the Hanoi Hilton. He wouldn't be anywhere if it weren't for his family and his rich trophy wife.
But rather than focus on a racist idiot like Sen. McCain, I want to focus on this stigmata of a well-educated person as an elitist in this country. Why is it that a man who graduates from Columbia University, works for the New York chapter of the Public Interest Research Group, and graduates from Harvard Law School magna cum laude an elitist? He fought to get to where he is,and he didn't have two generations of family history to fall back on. Sen. Obama may not have 25 years of time in the US Congress, but given the state of the Nation today, is that really so bad? I have lived through the roughest 8 years of my life with a sub-standard (and that's being generous) simpleton in the Oval Office. Why is it that we praise the individual who kicks ass and takes names on the gridiron, racks up trophies and Super Bowl rings, and we call the individual with a slew of academic achievements a nerd? When's the last time being a nerd was a good thing?
I genuinely think that what this nation needs right now is a President who is smarter than his cabinet instead of the other way around. We need not only President Obama, but more people like him who have shown a passion for excellence and civic pride and duty.
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2 comments:
Yeesh. Great post. I, being ignorant, had no education in McCainful's racism. Beyond that...
1. I loathe men with trophy wives
2. 894 out of 899? Was he awake?
3. I concur that what we need is an over-achiever with a diverse cabinet.
Thanks for sharing. I blogged the book to my facebook. Sure to stir up some controversy there.
What's even more interesting is that theoretically he should have had an easy time of being promoted up the Naval chain of command. A good friend of mine who served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War said that there have been clear cases of favoritism based on cronyism and nepotism.
He quoted the case of Elmo Zumwalt who was a Naval Captain in 1968, and in the space of 2.5 years shot past at least a dozen equally (if not more) qualified candidates and became not only a 4 star Admiral, but Chief of Naval Operations as well.
This was due in part to the combined political clout of he and his wife in Republican circles. Oh yeah - Good ol' Tricky Dick(head) Nixon was polluting the Oval Office at the time
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