Barry Sussman writes, Ask about McCain’s Navy career, aside from the POW part of it
"Setting the stage for the Republican convention, the Washington Post ran a special eight-page section with a profile of John McCain, more than 10,000 words long, by writer Michael Leahy, titled ‘A Navy Life Foretold.’ Toward the end, after more than 9,000 words, Leahy mentioned, without laboring over them, three near-catastrophes McCain had as a pilot. Reporters should look into these incidents. They should do so soon, and not wait until just before the election, or after it. It’s unusual for military pilots, let alone presidential candidates, to have so many mishaps in a relatively short career of flying What do they tell us, if anything, about McCain’s judgment, ability and character?
"Leahy wrote that McCain had a ‘desultory performance’ in the air. On the face of it, the incident in Spain stands out as an example of rash, poor judgment. The other two also raise questions. How much was a problem with the equipment, how much was pilot error? What about McCain’s responses: What do they tell us about his temperament?"
2 comments:
The "incident in Spain" is the same kind of hotdogging by US pilots that resulted in Marine aircraft cutting the cable on a supporting a gondola full of skiers in Cavalese, Italy in 1998, resulting in the death of 20 passengers on the cablecar. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june99/marines_2-3.html
I love how the GOP film and the Fox commentators, when they mention it, say he was 5th from the bottom of his class. It sounds better than 795th out of 800.
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