HE FLIES POORLY John McCain

Two stories today look at Republican presidential candidate John McCain's history, particularly in the Navy. In the Los Angeles Times, the paper notes that, due to the three pre-Vietnam air accidents by the son and grandson of admirals, McCain was nicknamed "Ace McCain" by his superiors. In Rolling Stone, they go a bit further, showing McCain as a "undisciplined, spoiled brat" who spent a summer in Rio in the '70s because, despite his wife and three kids, he said he had a better chance of "getting laid." (Also he had better nicknames in school: "Punk" and "McNasty.") And then there's the whole P.O.W. thing— did it change him? Um, sort of! "The reckless, womanizing hotshot who leaned on family connections for advancement before his capture in Vietnam emerged a reckless, womanizing celebrity who continued to pull strings."

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