Is John McCain qualified to be president?

Why is McCain so wonderful then folks? Just curious. Also, since people are so sure that Iran is training Al Queda operatives (a majority so far), I'm wondering if anyone can provide ANY solid evidence of this...ANY!! McCain says this is common knowledge...so where is it? C'mon McCain fans...WHERE!!!????

Hi totoro,

It's great to see a poll from you again, as I like taking your polls.

I'm not a McCain "fan," but I do suspect this is a lie just as the claim that Saddam Hussein was training al-Qaeda terrorists was a lie. McCain simply repeated what he heard or got mixed up.

Anyhow, despite my misgivings with McCain I am glad to see him take the polling lead away from Mrs. Clinton and Obama. All those two Democrats do is attack each other, fight, mudsling, and make empty promises to the American people. McCain is civil and respectful; he doesn't attack his opponents or try to ruin their campaigns. He conducts himself honorably, as I would expect someone running for the presidency to do. And he is sincere, unlike Mrs. Clinton.

A McCain presidency would not be great for the economy, but it would be far better than a Clinton or Obama presidency with higher taxes.

As for the statement that we could be in Iraq for a hundred years, it has been blown totally out of proportion. We have left thousands of troops in every country we have ever invaded, long after the wars were over--the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, the Balkans, Afghanistan, etc.

Hi Young American Philosopher:

I like debating with you because your respectful style forces me to take the high road (which is good, because sometimes I use sarcastic styles which I admit aren't the best ways to get a point across).

With McCains comments about AlQueda being trained in Iran, there are 3 possibilities: 1) The one I believe which is that he is actually lying and trying to get away with it just like I believe Bush did about Iraq 2) He is having a senior moment and just got confused in which case I would suggest that a president who has a more clear understanding of the issues would be more qualified, or 3) I am wrong, and AlQueda really IS being trained in Iran in which case I would really like to see the evidence.....

On another subject, I would like to know how we are going to continue this war in Iraq, and start one with Iran without raising taxes or going into more debt than we are in now which SOMEONE will have to pay up the "wazoo" for eventually. We are in lots of debt right now, and somehow all these military adventures have to be paid for. The math just doesn't seem to add up.

"Respectful" John McCain has about the worst anger management problem of any politician. Even alot of his Republican colleagues acknowledge this. He practically accused Ron Paul of being a traitor for opposing the war. I'm not really buying the civil and respectful thing.

The points I made on my admittedly rather obnoxious questions are true as I know them and well documented for anyone who wants to do a few minutes of research, but if anyone wishes to challenge me, feel free.

McCains "confusion" about AlQueda training in Iran is something he has repeated several times so I still believe my theory is correct on this one too.

Thank you for the compliment--Pope Benedict XVI is my great example in this regard.

I'd like to address the point you made about John McCain having an "anger management" problem. What you refer to as an anger management problem is actually a common thing for US military veterans, perhaps particularly for Vietnam veterans.

For six years now, I've had the good fortune of being friends with Captain Guy Gruters, a retired fighter pilot of the US Air Force. He regularly travels all over the country to speak about his experiences in Vietnam and the lessons he learned from those experiences. Captain Gruters flew more than 1,000 successful reconnaissance, bombing and humanitarian missions over North Vietnam. He was shot down twice; the second time, he was taken prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese and held for more than five years in a Communist prison camp, like John McCain was. It takes him half an hour to describe all the methods of physical torture that the Hanoi regime used against him and his buddies, to attempt to turn them into traitors. He was placed in solitary confinement for a good deal of his time there.

Captain Gruters poignantly explains the utter hopelessness of the situation, how it seemed like eternity, how he thought he would never be released and would die in that cell. He says he was completely insane for about a year; he simply refused to acknowledge that he had been captured, after literally flying high for so long. The prison commanders fed him and his buddies bread filled with rat poops and occasional live worms. Eventually an all-consuming hatred racked his heart. Captain Gruters says he spent every waking hour trying to figure out how he could inflict on his captors the most excruciating death possible to pay them back for mistreating him so badly. He hated himself, too and at one point even decided to follow an "inspiration" to starve himself to death.

When he realized that this "inspiration" was coming not from God, but from the Evil One, he begged God for forgiveness and started praying regularly. It took many months of prayer, he recalls, for him to break out of the vicious cycle of hatred. With the help of his buddy, who suggested that they stop thinking about how they wish things would be and instead focus on dealing with the situation they were stuck in, Captain Gruters also escaped the insanity.

But even with this spiritual and psychological recovery, he continued to doubt whether a good, loving and holy God was really present with him in that horrible, evil prison camp. He thought that God must be out waiting for him at the North Vietnamese border. The very next morning, as he was climbing by order through a hatch into a stifling "hot room" on a tropical summer day, the nearby guard (who did not speak English) picked up a piece of cardboard, made a fanning motion with it, and gave it to Captain Gruters. That was the first act of kindness he had witnessed or experienced in more than three years of confinement. He immediately knelt down, praising God and sobbing with real joy in his heart. From then onward, he says, his life was radically changed. The remainder of his incarceration was much easier to handle because he knew that God really was with him, no matter what happened or what circumstances he was in.

The other thing that sustained Captian Gruters thruout those years was his unwavering commitment to the United States. He and his buddies never gave a thought to the possibility of surrendering to the enemy. No matter how the war ultimately turned out, how long the Hanoi government held him or how much they tortured him, he was not going to betray his country. And just like John McCain, he did it. He was victorious where victory really mattered: in fidelity to God, his country and his ideals.

This kind of experience is difficult to imagine, but for those who passed through it, it really does something to you psychologically. You're never the same afterwards, and you never fully adjust to normal life again.

I know what you mean about McCain thinking of Ron Paul as a traitor. What happens is that veterans gain an unshakable trust in the rightness of the decision of the Commander in Chief to fight a particular war. It's the same with Captain Gruters and I about the Iraq war. We disagree on the justness of the war, so we simply avoid discussing that topic. McCain and Captain Gruters might have some explosiveness and resentment toward those who challenge President Bush's foreign policy; that is par for the course among Vietnam POW veterans. They are proud of the sacrifices they have endured for their country, and they cannot relate to those of us who have never served in the military yet dare to speak against a war being fought by that military to defend our country or dethrone evil tyrants. For them, support and respect for the president and the armed forces is inseparable from approval of their decisions and actions, because they are trained in the military to obey without question. They may concede that we mean well or have a sound logic for our position, but we just don't fit into their worldview.

We should really admire how adjusted these veterans actually are to civilian life in America, and wonder that, as Captain Gruters himself has candidly admitted, the fact that they are not all in lunatic asylums today is something of a miracle.

Oh, and just a quick addendum: by simple logic and under current Constitutional law, John McCain could only keep us in Iraq for eight more years anyway, because he couldn't serve as president for longer than that (and might not live much longer than that, either).