John McCain as Commander-in-Chief would be risky

Watching the Republican presidential debate Wednesday night, I could not help suddenly to realize who the caricature John McCain really is – the paranoid Capt. Queeg of the destroyer Caine. It is an intriguing fictional story of a battle weary sea captain who never quite made it; his last assignment was to a “bucket of bolts”, the Caine, a worn out and disheveled old WWII destroyer minesweeper.

Queeg overreacted or under reacted to nearly everything and when someone stole a quart of strawberries from the kitchen, he went berserk, growing angrier and angrier, ordering a complete search of the ship for the strawberries.

Quirky and mentally fatigued, Queeg began to make some bad decisions and failed to act in the proper manner under stress. For example, he refused to head the ship head on into a typhoon almost capsizing the vessel. There were other instances, one where he failed to order a change in direction, crossed over, cut the towline to a towed target, and passed over a yellow marker to his vociferous denial, hence his nickname of “Old Yellow Stain”.

When some officers tried to take over the ship, a mutiny, it resulted in a trial. The name of the book is the 1951 novel “The Caine Mutiny” by Herman Wouk.

From what I’ve read and heard about John McCain is that he is quirky, certainly a maverick, with a hot temper.

McCain talks almost in a whisper and repeats and repeats why he should be the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces and cites his experience to be able to direct the U.S. economy, which is no more than being a squadron commander and sitting on legislative committees in the Senate.

McCain has not ever run an organization, operated a business, or ever had to make hard decisions affecting millions of people.

Now here’s the tough part. Personally, I do not count John McCain a war hero but a survivor. He admitted he broke silence and told the enemy many things. His body today is maimed from beatings undoubtedly of unbearable pain. And yet, many of his co-POW’s died in prison. Was it because they refused to talk? Was it because they abided by the soldier’s Code of Conduct if captured? I don’t know and I am glad I never was put to the test. (I served during the Korean War but never saw combat action).

But as I understood the soldier’s Code of Conduct in the Korean War era, the only way a soldier could be made to talk would be through brainwashing and extreme torture. If a soldier could be broken once, what might happen if leadership circumstances arose to another “breaking point”?

The confirmation of the untruthfulness of John McCain came just days before the Florida primary when he accused Mitt Romney of being for setting a timetable for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

It wasn’t just a matter of McCain taking Romney’s words out of context; McCain flat lied about what Romney said. And the record shows it.

As for being a Republican, McCain is a RINO, Republican in name only.
His blocking positions in the Senate, while some admire and think cute, have led to some disastrous results. His McCain/Feingold campaign financing law was a serious breach of our freedom of speech and that faulty law still stands.

John McCain is, no matter how he weasel words it, is for amnesty for millions of illegal aliens in our country and which clearly is in opposition to the vast majority of Americans. When asked in the debate if he would vote today for his McCain/Kennedy amnesty bill he would not answer the question after repeated attempts from a questioner. He would only say, “It won’t come up”.

So, in this closed Republican primary in California on February 5, the question voters have to ask themselves is who best represents the conservative values of the Republican Party.

In my opinion, the strongest and best candidate for the nomination of president is Mitt Romney. Experienced, a fighter for conservative principles and an American leader for the entire world to see, Mitt Romney is the epitome of the conservatism of Ronald Reagan.

Ernest Norsworthy
emnorsworthy@earthlink.net