Integrity and character in leadership...McCain is qualified.

The hoopla over McCain’s military service has been spinning like an out-of-control top


No… military service alone does NOT qualify one to be President. However, let’s place all this in context.

Since John McCain started running for president, the media has declared him their darling, including show great reverence for his military life……. until recently.

Since McCain became the GOP’s presumptive candidate, the main stream military seems to have forgotten that he served in the war in Viet Nam with distinction and honor. He survived a naval disaster that killed 134 and yet decided to do his duty and stay to fight for freedom in that unforgettable war.

Nope, that doesn’t qualify McCain to be president. However McCain’s honor goes to the point of surviving the Hanoi Hilton; honor that promulgated itself further by him voluntarily staying a POW when offered a chance to leave because of his relation to his father in the Admiralty. John McCain refused to leave as long as his fellow POWs were forced to stay. He stayed in that hell-on-earth for five and one half years. In circumstances so degrading and decimating, John McCain displayed leadership and integrity to not only his fellow POWs, but also to his captors. McCain was tortured repeatedly and placed in solitary confinement for 2 years!

What life or career experience has Barack Obama gone through that even remotely compares to that?

On Sunday, June 29, 2008, retired general Wesley Clark, an Obama supporter, downplayed McCain’s military service on a Sunday talk show. Clark even criticized McCain’s squadron command post. In 1976, after post war rehabilitation and a return to flight status, McCain became commanding officer of a training squadron stationed in Florida. He turned around an undistinguished unit and won the squadron its first Meritorious Unit Commendation. In other words, he showed executive experience by leading a group that was less than average and turned it around to one of success.

What life or career experience has Barack Obama gone through that even remotely compares to that?

In 1981, McCain turned down an Admirals star in favor of running for congress where he felt he could do more good for the nation. He moved to Arizona and became a Vice-President of Public Relations for a large beer distributorship. Gaining the trust of the residents and leaders of his newly adopted home state, he won the election soundly. In other words, he left his chosen, life-long career and all its benefits and prestige and then an executive position in favor of serving as a representative to the people of Arizona.

What life or career experience has Barack Obama gone through that even remotely compares to that?

Now, in context, if you take each of those things, would they automatically qualify John McCain to be the President of the United States? Nope. But, if you take them together, again in context, and add them to the rest of his life and experience, does that qualify him to be President? Nope again. And yet, since McCain does meet the constitutionally listed requirements, if you apply his life experiences to that, he is abundantly qualified and experienced and even desirable and president.

In the same venue that we have discussed one’s faith being a qualification, we can really discuss experience. Neither faith nor experience are requirements. However, the things that are mandatory for every voter to judge are integrity and character. And there is not way that anyone can argue with John McCain’s integrity and character.

There are so many things that I, personally dislike about John McCain’s politics. He has been too liberal in some things and too eager to compromise in others. However, when compared to Barack Obama, McCain is a much better choice. Obama has been rated the MOST liberal senator.

And even though I was not happy that McCain became the presumptive GOP nominee, I absolutely trust him over Obama in three key areas.

1. McCain has promised to nominate Supreme Court judges that will interpret the law and not legislate from the bench.
2. McCain will deal with the war on terror in a way that will keep America safer than what Obama promises.
3. Of the two candidates, McCain is the only one who would handle another surprise terrorist attack similar to 9/11. Obama has NEVER had to deal with ANY pressure or stress such as that.

Oh, how the times have changed. The main stream media used to carry McCain on a throned litter of heroism. Now, they treat McCain like the enemy he so valiantly fights against.