As my vast readership knows, I recently posted about McCain's moral shortcomings as a president.  Now it has become glaringly obvious that his mental shortcomings are far worse than his moral shortcomings.

This leads me to ponder a hypothetical situation:  Let's say one of the major parties nominates a person for their candidate for president who is obviously utterly senile, but is still extremely popular with voters.  Is there any process by which that candidate can be forced out of the race?

Clearly, if the Democratic Party were the one nominating such a candidate the press would raise a huge outcry about the danger this candidate poses to America as well as to the world.  That would prevent that candidate from winning a single state in the election - problem solved.  But, if the Republican Party were the one nominating such a senile candidate the press would simply hide that information from voters.  So, what can be done?....Uh, I mean in the theoretical situation, what could be done.

I can't see anything in the Constitution that would cover this, probably because the founding fathers couldn't even conceive of an American group nominating for president an utterly incompetent candidate, and even more so, they couldn't conceive of the "free press" being complicit in trying to foist such a candidate off on the nation.  But, of course, the Republican Party and today's "free press" didn't exist at that time in our history.

It is time to look at John McCain without the rose colored glasses.  This is a man who was able to get into the US Naval Academy only because his father and grandfather were navy admirals, which caused the academy to give him a free pass for his bad high school grades.  Once at the academy he was only able to rise above 6 others in his class - he was one of the 7 worst students at the academy.  That should have ended his chance to be a naval officer, but a special exception was made for him, allowing him to become a naval aviator.

As a naval aviator he was best known for crashing his aircraft, once because he was too indifferent to read the manual for the aircraft.  On assignment to an aircraft carrier his first brush with fame was to be at the center of a disastrous on-board fire that nearly cost him his life, and did cost the navy billions of dollars in damages.  By then his father was the admiral in charge of all Pacific operations, so the inquiry into the cause of the fire found that McCain was not to blame - just as he was found qualified for the naval academy in the first place in spite of his bad high school record.  Having your daddy in charge of the whole operation can be an advantage.

After he entered combat, flying a ground support aircraft noted for its agility, he managed to get shot down, and was taken as a  prisoner of war.  Much is made of his courage as a POW, but even he admits that if he had known that he wouldn’t be rescued for many years, he wouldn’t have turned down his chance for early release by the North Vietnamese.  His next brush with fame was when he made propaganda films for the North Vietnamese, something that seems to have been forgotten by the news media.  After the war it was time for him to settle down into the obscurity he deserved.

Instead, he began an affair with a woman much younger than his wife, who had been in a bad accident that left her less attractive to John.  He obtained a marriage license to wed his mistress, before even divorcing his current wife.  Clearly the attractiveness of his mistress was enhanced by her hundreds of millions of dollars in personal wealth.

Using his new wife’s wealth he ran for the US Senate in a solidly Republican state, and won easily.  As a senator he began to use his new wife’s wealth to cultivate the press, and finally found something he was good at.  Over the years he became the darling of the press, which was always on the take for parties, good transportation, and other perks that McCain handed out readily.  Thus, his undeserved reputation as a maverick and an independent thinker.  His legislative centerpiece is the McCain Feingold campaign finance law.

Once he began his run for the presidency last year he immediately began to violate his signature law, by unilaterally dropping out of public financing, after using that as collateral for a loan, and finding unexpected success with fund raising.  His “maverick” image went out the door when he selected a campaign staff made up almost exclusively of lobbyists.

Now, as an obvious loser to Obama he picked Palin as his vice presidential candidate in spite of her total lack of qualifications for that office.  And, because he selected her without any form of vetting, he ignored her corrupt past in Alaska.  Republicans, being somewhat  intelligence challenged were so taken by Palin’s looks and ability to speak in complete sentences, that McCain is now poised to win the presidency.

But, winning isn’t at all certain, since McCain has no agenda, beyond more wars and more neo-con nonsense, so Karl Rove’s henchmen are now being allowed by McCain to run a campaign based entirely on lies about Obama.

A good argument can be made that the only thing driving McCain right now is his desire to do something that will make him a success comparable to his daddy and granddaddy.  Not only does he not put America first, he puts only John McCain first, as his whole life demonstrates.

Can there be any doubt that John McCain is morally unfit for any public office?

It is time to look at John McCain without the rose colored glasses.  This is a man who was able to get into the US Naval Academy only because his father and grandfather were navy admirals, which caused the academy to give him a free pass for his bad high school grades.  Once at the academy he was only able to rise above 6 others in his class - he was one of the 7 worst students at the academy.  That should have ended his chance to be a naval officer, but a special exception was made for him, allowing him to become a naval aviator.

As a naval aviator he was best known for crashing his aircraft, once because he was too indifferent to read the manual for the aircraft.  On assignment to an aircraft carrier his first brush with fame was to be at the center of a disastrous on-board fire that nearly cost him his life, and did cost the navy billions of dollars in damages.  By then his father was the admiral in charge of all Pacific operations, so the inquiry into the cause of the fire found that McCain was not to blame - just as he was found qualified for the naval academy in the first place in spite of his bad high school record.  Having your daddy in charge of the whole operation can be an advantage.

After he entered combat, flying a ground support aircraft noted for its agility, he managed to get shot down, and was taken as a  prisoner of war.  Much is made of his courage as a POW, but even he admits that if he had known that he wouldn’t be rescued for many years, he wouldn’t have turned down his chance for early release by the North Vietnamese.  His next brush with fame was when he made propaganda films for the North Vietnamese, something that seems to have been forgotten by the news media.  After the war it was time for him to settle down into the obscurity he deserved.

Instead, he began an affair with a woman much younger than his wife, who had been in a bad accident that left her less attractive to John.  He obtained a marriage license to wed his mistress, before even divorcing his current wife.  Clearly the attractiveness of his mistress was enhanced by her hundreds of millions of dollars in personal wealth.

Using his new wife’s wealth he ran for the US Senate in a solidly Republican state, and won easily.  As a senator he began to use his new wife’s wealth to cultivate the press, and finally found something he was good at.  Over the years he became the darling of the press, which was always on the take for parties, good transportation, and other perks that McCain handed out readily.  Thus, his undeserved reputation as a maverick and an independent thinker.  His legislative centerpiece is the McCain Feingold campaign finance law.

Once he began his run for the presidency last year he immediately began to violate his signature law, by unilaterally dropping out of public financing, after using that as collateral for a loan, and finding unexpected success with fund raising.  His “maverick” image went out the door when he selected a campaign staff made up almost exclusively of lobbyists.

Now, as an obvious loser to Obama he picked Palin as his vice presidential candidate in spite of her total lack of qualifications for that office.  And, because he selected her without any form of vetting, he ignored her corrupt past in Alaska.  Republicans, being somewhat  intelligence challenged were so taken by Palin’s looks and ability to speak in complete sentences, that McCain is now poised to win the presidency.

But, winning isn’t at all certain, since McCain has no agenda, beyond more wars and more neo-con nonsense, so Karl Rove’s henchmen are now being allowed by McCain to run a campaign based entirely on lies about Obama.

A good argument can be made that the only thing driving McCain right now is his desire to do something that will make him a success comparable to his daddy and granddaddy.  Not only does he not put America first, he puts only John McCain first, as his whole life demonstrates.

Can there be any doubt that John McCain is morally unfit for any public office?

Let us not pretend our country applies no religious test for prospective presidential candidates.  We do and we always have done so.  Just last summer there was a national outcry over Obama's church, whose pastor was believed to be too outspoken in his sermons about his feelings about our government.  And, there has been a continuous undertow of commentary about the imaginary Islamic upbringing of Obama.  The Republicans always apply religious tests to Democratic candidates.

Well, it is time to apply those tests to the Republican candidates.  Sarah Palin's church  is one that I'm quite sure would not be acceptable to most Americans if they only knew about it.  For sure it is not in the mainstream of religious thought in our country.  A problem with her choice of religions  is that it is one of those that preaches that world upheaval, colossal wars, and other human calamities are good things.  Can our country survive another president who believes that God speaks through him?  Don't be fooled in thinking that Palin will only be vice president, and not president.  Given McCain's age, the fact that his father and grandfather were victims of heart attacks, and his bombastic temper, you would never want to bet that he would survive 4 years in that office.  If we don't want a religious radical as President, now is the only time we can prevent it.

Let us not pretend our country applies no religious test for prospective presidential candidates.  We do and we always have done so.  Just last summer there was a national outcry over Obama's church, whose pastor was believed to be too outspoken in his sermons about his feelings about our government.  And, there has been a continuous undertow of commentary about the imaginary Islamic upbringing of Obama.  The Republicans always apply religious tests to Democratic candidates.

Well, it is time to apply those tests to the Republican candidates.  Sarah Palin's church  is one that I'm quite sure would not be acceptable to most Americans if they only knew about it.  For sure it is not in the mainstream of religious thought in our country.  A problem with her choice of religions  is that it is one of those that preaches that world upheaval, colossal wars, and other human calamities are good things.  Can our country survive another president who believes that God speaks through him?  Don't be fooled in thinking that Palin will only be vice president, and not president.  Given McCain's age, the fact that his father and grandfather were victims of heart attacks, and his bombastic temper, you would never want to bet that he would survive 4 years in that office.  If we don't want a religious radical as President, now is the only time we can prevent it.