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McCain tries out the Palin wink

Few among us would fault someone for wanting to keep his or her most unfavorable traits or personality quirks hidden whenever possible. Certainly a presidential candidate is no exception.

But when such a candidate deliberately cultivates a public image that is almost entirely at extreme odds with his actual nature and historical record — which show a pattern of brash recklessness, irresponsibility and placing ambition over country — we can only hope the truth is revealed in time for voters to take that into account as they cast their ballots.

Rolling Stone has performed just such a public service with its extensively researched, well-documented candidate profile of Sen. John McCain. Written by Tim Dickinson, the profile is both so revealing and alarmingly portentous that, after reading all 10 pages last night, I was unable to sleep for hours afterward for fear that such a man stands a real chance of becoming our next commander in chief.

I honestly cannot recall being as spooked since the age of 4 when, after an aunt presented me with my first $5 bill, the Abe Lincoln portrait so frightened me that I became convinced a bearded bogeyman was living under my bed. Faced with a newly insomniac child, my parents found a simple resolution: they traded my Abe for five ones.

If only the alarm inspired by a potential McCain presidency were as easily resolved. The Rolling Stone profile provides strongly compelling evidence that Sen. McCain has neither the judgment nor integrity, the discipline nor the temperament to lead this nation out of its current abyss.

A few choice excerpts follow:
(All excerpts Copyright © 2008 Rolling Stone)

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On the deeply disturbing commonalities of George W. Bush and John McCain:

John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers’ powerful friends, both failed upward.

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Retired Brigadier General John Johns on McCain’s trigger-happy approach to foreign policy:

“He’s going to be Bush on steroids,” says Johns, the retired brigadier general who has known McCain since their days at the National War College. “His hawkish views now are very dangerous. He puts military at the top of foreign policy rather than diplomacy, just like George Bush does. He and other neoconservatives are dedicated to converting the world to democracy and free markets, and they want to do it through the barrel of a gun.”

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