Who would be best at defending America and "answering that red phone at 3am"? Here's a look at McCain's defense and military credentials. You decide:

" John Sidney McCain III has admitted that he disliked the life of a midshipman at Anapolis; accordingly, he was a lackluster student and received many demerits. He graduated in 1958, and joked that he had followed the footsteps of his father and grandfather, both of whom had graduated very low in their respective classes at Annapolis. McCain graduated 894th out of a class of 899.

He will be 72 by the time the elections roll around in 2008, making him 3 years older than the oldest elected president Ronald Reagan, but he has dismissed concerns about his age and past health concerns (malignant melanoma in 2000), stating that his condition was “excellent.” Should McCain win in 2008 and subsequently win re-election in 2012, McCain will be the oldest president to serve leaving office in January 2017 at 80 years old.

One area where McCain has largely won support from conservatives is in his aggressive defense of the Iraq War. However, he once fought against funding the construction of a new aircraft carrier, saying the money should be spent on the 12,000 enlisted families who were on food stamps. He supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and his speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention centered around that theme.

McCain has been a strong supporter of the U.S. decision to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, of a continued military presence, and of Bush’s “hawkish” foreign policy in general Despite offering support for war, McCain has urged the Bush administration to make “significant policy changes” in the Iraq War; yet, “stay the course.” He criticized the Pentagon several times, most notably concerning low troop strength in Iraq, and has called for a diversification of Iraqi national forces to better represent the multiple ethnic groups contained within the country. He stated that the United States government must do more to keep public support high for the war, stressing that “America, Iraq and the world are better off with Saddam Hussein in prison rather than in power and we must honor their sacrifice by seeing this mission through to victory.

McCain has also said that he could see US troops "staying in Iraq for the next 100 years!”

(All data is taken from race42008.com, JohnMcCain.com, straighttalkamerica.com and wikipedia.com.)

You asked: "...regarding Bush's Temperment, where were all those skeptical military leaders in 1999 when the Deserter-In-Chief, 'former' alcoholic/drug addict was being groomed to make war on the world?-- rrk1"

The answer, imho, was that he was "a Republican", hence, pro-military, et al; now that our military has had the "benefit" of eight years of that Knucklehead-In-Chief Mr. Bush, perhaps they see a clear and present danger more clearly and much more in the present.

The military must follow the command of the President, so, they're simply making sure that the next President has the competency TO lead them. We only repeat mistakes if we do not learn from them.

I trust that our military has learned quantum amounts from the bastardocracy of Dubya.

You are absolutely right in your post; the word "hero" is thrown around far too casually these days. I believe it springs from the crass exploitation of anything even remotely "patriotic" by the Right and their puppets, the Republicans.

Jingoism and patriotic faux-fervor are the Republicans trite touchstones; painting Democrats as unworthy of being elected because we are insufficiently patriotic or jingoistically-challenged is a canard that has worked in the past. Will they continue to use that tactic? Hopefully, the electorate is much more sophisticated after eight, long, diseased years of George W. Bush's "mission accomplished", "Iraq has WMD's", "John Kerry isn't really a hero", et al. Hopefully.

Remember that the uber-literate Dr. Samuel Johnson said that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". The cynic Ambrose Bierce amended it with, "I beg to submit that it is the first." Then H.L. Mencken jumped in: "But, there is something even worse: it is the first, last and middle range of fools."

There are real "heroes" in America...whether in uniform or in mufti...who deserve our admiration and respect daily; too bad the Republicans want to be the only ones to designate just who is a hero.