We have over 90 days left to the general election and I'm already worn out with the racially coded criticism of Obama as "arrogant'. Every word and deed from the man is being used to tag him with this and associated labels like elitist, hubris, presumptuous and so on. Nearly any turn of phrase twisted into ironclad indications of his flawed character, to be contrasted to American hero McCain, who is supposedly unflawed. I should not be weary, especially since I called this tactic out months ago.Well, if Obama's every word is going to be indicative of his "arrogance" and bad character and McCain's POW bio is the bonafide of his character, lets keep it real. Don't just talk about the POW years when you want to extol his character. While he was imprisoned, his then wife Carol Shepp was in an auto wreck (1969), thrown through her car's windshield and left seriously injured. Despite her injures, she refused to allow her POW husband to be notified about her condition, fearing that such news would not be good for him while he was being held prisoner.
When McCain returned to the United States in 1973 after more than five years as a prisoner of war, he found his wife was a different person. The accident "left her 4 inches shorter and on crutches, and she had gained a good deal of weight."
If you're gonna talk about character, don't just talk about the POW years, talk about what he did when he came back, when he cheated on and eventually left the wife who was badly injured in a car accident while he was imprisoned. Injured so badly, she was in the hospital for a long while, her body was disfigured and she was dependent on the kindness of friends like Ross Perot to pay her medical bills. The wife who, when she was in the hospital, severely injured and was asked if she wanted McCain to know, told the doctors No, don't tell him. He came home and took off running after now wife Cindy, a young, cute new trophy, with a lot of loot to boot. He married Cindy in May 1980 -- just a month after dumping Carol and securing a divorce.
Now, to be fair, lord knows, marriage is hard. I'm mindful of how Nelson Mandela and Winnie's relationship was unable to recover from the twin blows of his imprisonment and her persecution and clearly, the Mandelas were subject to much worse. But it does not sound like McCain came home unable to emotionally engage or emotionally damaged, since he didn't have a problem hooking up with other women or with Cyndi. So he was functional. He just didn't want his broken wife anymore. He put her aside to trade up for a new and improved model. He went to the mat for his country, but the wife who stood by him for five years, her he threw under the bus.
But Obama has a character problem. Go figure.
