Time's Joe Klein on McCain's Return to Washington: A Despicable New Low for Political Commentary

"...the old fighter jock may be frightened that he's about to ditch another plane" - Joe Klein, Time-blog. On Oct. 26, 1967, John McCain was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk dive bomber was shot down and he was forced to bail out. Badly injured, he was subsequently captured as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese. He was held in horrific conditions from 1967 to 1973, experiencing episodes of torture and refusing an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer; his war wounds would leave him with lifelong physical limitations. Or, perhaps you'd prefer this alternative version, as characterized by TTS earlier this year:

McCain was bombing women in a lightbulb factory (according to Newsweek) when shot down in North Vietnam. He has never failed to defend any illegal or violent war in which the US leaders involved the citizens.

Of course, despicable political commentary has been around for a long time, but, with this latest piece of hateful garbage, Mr. Klein has managed to bring it down to an historical new low. Here are some excerpts from his new post in his approriately named Swampland: From Time-blog.com September 25, 2008 10:32 What Actually Happened Yesterday Posted by Joe Klein

John McCain faced another crisis yesterday--a political one, not the financial emergency he used as an excuse for his rash actions--and once again he overreacted. This is becoming a pattern (as is his "greatest crisis since..." formulation: yesterday, since World War II; previously--on Georgia--since the end of the cold war), and it is not very reassuring behavior in a potential President... The political crisis was real. And it wasn't merely that he was slipping a bit in the polls... Happily, in the end, McCain did the responsible thing...but he did it foolishly, in a panicky fashion. What McCain didn't understand was that the legislative crisis was already receding when he made his melodramatic--and somewhat wild-eyed--suspension of campaign activities statement... In any case, the crisis was receding because the Bush Administration was caving to the Democrats' modifications In any case, Obama's cool steadfastness has put him in the driver's seat on this one... And that raises an interesting question: Why was McCain so quick to pull out of the debate? After all, with the momentum slightly in Obama's direction, he needed a game-changer--and foreign policy is, allegedly, his area of expertise. His peremptory actions yesterday was not the behavior of a confident man. It was the behavior of a man uncertain, despite all the macho bluster, about his chances in the most important theater of battle in any presidential campaign, one where gimmicks, diversions and untruths can be directly countered by his opponent. McCain may clean Obama's clock in the coming debates--but it seems entirely possible that the old fighter jock may be frightened that he's about to ditch another plane.

Through the eyes of our lovely Mr. Klein and friends, John McCain's bail out over Vietnam was most likely some kind of a slick political maneuver, and his later courageous refusal to accept early release based on his father's propaganda importance was just another political ploy. What, I wonder, must it be like to be a Mr. Klein? What must it be like to look at this world of ours through those cynical jaded eyes? By choosing the interests of his country over the interests of his political campaign, John McCain has once again demonstrated that bravery and loyalty for which he has justly become famous. And once again, our infamously biased leftist media has demonstrated its unconscionable amorality. I know, I should be used to it by now. We all should. It was, after all, to be expected and should come as no great surprise. And yet it does surprise me. This utter contempt for truth and fairness from one of our most prestigious publications can still shock me, still make me recoil in disbelief and disgust, can still make me almost physically sick. I know, we're not supposed to hate; it's a negative drain on our psyche. But I'm sorry, I just can help it. I truly despise all of the liars and cheats of this world, and all of those ideologues who put their personal political interests over the welfare of their country and the honor of truth. I despise our Mr. Klein and all the Mr. Kleins of this world. And I firmly believe that sooner or later truth will prevail, it always does, and these despicable cheats and liars will go down in flames just like our honorable candidate's doomed A-4E Skyhawk. - rg