It's clear (to almost everyone except rabid Bushies) that John McCain's Vietnam experience taught him little or nothing that could be of value to the USA today (were he to become president).

What is less understood is that the USA itself had not learnt many useful lessons from the Vietnam war.

If it had learnt any useful lessons, GW Bush and Gang could not have worked his (or Karl Rove's) lies about WMD and so on with the US public after 9/11; could not have got the funding he needed to run his little war from the US Congress; would not have won the 2004 election...

If the US had learnt any useful lessons, Dennis Kucinich's 'Move to Impeach' would have got 50 million signatures by now instead of the 1 million that it has got thus far. (http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Kucinich_presents_Bush_impeachment_articl )

Alas, it appears that Obama has not learnt adequately either, though a lot of hopes rest on him. Check out the New York Times editorial, 4-July 2008, "New and Not Improved" for some worrying explanations/ interpretations of Obama's shifts in viewpoint on some important issues - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/04/opinion/04fri1.html?hp.

If the NYT editors who wrote that up are correct in their interpretation of Obama's recent behaviour - I seriously question whether Obama would be all that much better than McCain to lead the USA out of the shadows it inhabits today. I sincerely hope he is...

GSC

LW:

Cary's advice is ALL WRONG!

1) Tell her this: "I was just thinking the same myself. I need to move on, too".

2) Leave her.

3) Let her go.

4) Sometimes the "short haul" is as good as it gets.

5) Do NOT think in terms of getting back together.

6) Find someone else.

Any other way will only mean greater pain for you than you can now imagine.

Best wishes.

-- GSC

John McCain should just drop his pants, turn around and bend over and nicely display his rump to show his contempt for common sense and decency, for those he wishes to lead as POTUS come January 2009 - they will surely vote him in if US history is any guide.

So that is precisely what he is doing - because that is what his mentor, GW Bush, did right along:

-- GW Bush did it in 2000 to win the election in the first place; the US sheeple in their 'wisdom' elected him over Al Gore (or didn't elect him, as some claim - but the US sheeple just accepted it all, hanging chads and phony election results and mooning and all!)

-- he did it right along through his first session as POTUS, when he lied to US citizens about WMD; lied to US Congress to get that gathering of the wisest minds in the USA, the CONG-US to get the funding he wanted for his dirty little war;

-- he did it every day in every way he could, (remember his claim that all he did was on the daily instructions that Jesus Christ gave him?). And he has kept on doing it every day in every way he can.

-- he did it when he strode aboard USS Abraham Lincoln after a phoney flight all of .25 miles in his bright yellow pilot suit with five handkerchiefs stuffed in his crotch to demonstrate his manhood to announce "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!"

-- he did it again in 2004, and he got himself re-elected (of course, there was some small extra assistance from Karl Rove and the Swift Boat Veterans) - but GW Bush's main plank was 'mooning the US sheeple'. (Obviouslly Jesus Christ was watching over him ever so carefully, for He ensured his victory over John Kerry and John Edwards).

-- and he affirmed his basic policy (i.e., of dropping the pants, mooning US citizens, be it figuratively) in his victory speech - remember his words about the 'Capital he had gained, which he now intended to capitalize on'?

-- he did it right again after Hurricane Katrina - remember "You're doing' a great job, Brownie!" (or words to that effect)? Here is the Wikipedia link to the disgraceful behaviour at that juncture of the most disgraceful leader the world has seen since Nero:

(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George_W._Bush:_Hurricane_Katrina

-- he's kept doing it right along ever since. (Only thing, now the US sheeple may be catching on a bit, as evidence check out the steep fall in GW Bush's current popularity ratings - or maybe it is just that they are now a bit bored of seeing the same old rump, they want something new now).

(But do remember: Just one serious 'Tonkin Bay-type of incident' in the Persian Gulf against that member of the 'Axis of Evil', Eye-Ran, and the US sheeple will fall in love with that GW Bush rump once again!)

So now, all that John McCain has to do to the US sheeple who will be voting in a few months' time is to drop his pants, turn around and display his rump - and for sure the sheeple will vote him in! (Or so he apparently figures, to judge by the various statements that have been coming out from him and his camp).

(I do so sincerely hope that I am wrong in the above assessment of "Successful Presidential Politics in the US").

-- GSC