Rolling Stone On McCain

Filed in National by on October 5, 2008

Yikes!  Check out how Rolling Stone rips John McCain a new one.

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.

I may have to renew my subscription to RS, which I let lapse after Hunter Thompson’s death.

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  1. Unstable Isotope says:

    Wow, that article was brutal. I’m going to send it to some of my friends who cling desperately to the idea that McCain is honorable.

  2. mike w. says:

    Not surprising. We all know where Rolling Stone stands politically.

  3. Heh, if you guys read my blog once in a while….I wrote about this last Thursday
    http://delawareway.blogspot.com/2008/10/rolling-stones.html

  4. cassandra_m says:

    If that isn’t a brief for a public court martial (or whatever the civilian equivalent would be) of the guy, I don’t know what is…..

  5. Dorian Gray says:

    Mike – would you like to comment on the substance of the essay or just fall back on the liberal bias of the media argument. (Same old, same old.) My dad said it best, “if McCain’s plane and that Viet Cong missile hadn’t happened to be in the same space at the same time we’d never have know who this guy is”.

    This is McCain’s life story, yes? If it is truly bullshit that says quite a bit.

    I imagine you’ll respond with some comment about Obama…

  6. Joanne Christian says:

    Rolling Stone? Oh please…why not links to Tiger Beat, and True Detective? Gee, has Playboy or Hustler picked up this find yet?

  7. Dorian Gray says:

    Fuck, you’re dumb. You may not like Rolling Stone and yes it has an ultra liberal slant, but Tiger Beat and Hustler. .. really? The magazine has a storied fucking history from Hunter Thompson to Matt Taibbi. Your comparison is utterly ridiculous.

    Sometimes I wonder why I even associate with you people.

  8. Well that was nasty, DG.

  9. Joanne Christian says:

    It HAD a storied history! The McCain time line presented here becomes the condensed Reader’s Digest version for the liberal reader, and that’s just fine. But fair? Balanced? I think I’ll defer to more established reads and objective opinion leaders. Good or bad, but not blatant, targeted assassination, without a dose of perspective, other than the overused trump of “privilege”.

  10. mike w. says:

    “Mike – would you like to comment on the substance of the essay or just fall back on the liberal bias of the media argument. (Same old, same old.)”

    Same old crap from you I see, especially since you apparently agree about RS being liberal (you said so in comment #7.)

    This piece was little more than a hit piece against McCain from an uber-liberal rag.

  11. John Manifold says:

    Joanne ought to read before she posts.

  12. cassandra m says:

    This was an article sourced to McCain’s own books, to people who went to school with him, to people who worked with him and one man who was a POW at the same time. The only person who wouldn’t talk to them was McCain himself. It has been a long time since I’ve seen an article from the NYT, the LAT, the WaPo or the usual mainstream suspects that had all parties making a claim on the record. And the subject didn’t care to rebut anything being said.

    And here’s another former POW who has non fair and balanced views too.

  13. Joanne Christian says:

    John–Joanne has read; and again may not discredit so much the content, as the perspective and condensation of timeline. Do you see any of us using Audacity of Hope, and Rememberances (I think?) of My Father, as pointed gospel against Senator Obama? Or a bit further…Michelle Obama’s thesis at Princeton? I think discretion , and timeline perspective has much to factor in any candidate’s corner; and I’m not willing to jump on historical sensationalism as a deal breaker. Again, the RS piece is and should be picked up by Reader’s Digest as a quick, abbreviated read on John McCain..by the folks at RS. Cassandra offers the most valid evidence–a real player in front of the camera, who at least describes the McCain of 1960+, and the shared experiences and responses. Yup, 40 years ago. And I know what that’s like–went to school w/ a guy 30+ years ago, and he stole the French gradebook to change his grade (among other things), and I can’t get that out of my mind, as he has been considered for a judgeship. It’s a lifetime, this character deal–good, bad, reward, and fall-out. How is each of us being remembered by someone faring?

  14. mike w. says:

    Cass – If you wanted to write a hit piece on anyone I’m sure you could dig around in their past and find a couple people who had less than flattering things to say about them.