McCain Will Report You

OK, John McCain has just released a new ad that necessitates complete deconstruction and analysis. Hopefully I'm not the only one who is a bit unnerved by the not-so-subliminal messaging of this new McCain ad. Maybe you'll agree.



On its surface, this is a sappy Hallmark card biographical ad about how McCain learned honor and forgiveness from his high school teacher. Nothing wrong with that, although I'm wondering what all the smoke imagery is about -- was his teacher a chain smoker, or did he burn incense during class, or what?

But let's look at what else this ad says. At one point, the transcript reads as follows:

When one of John McCain's classmates violated the rules and admitted to the infraction, it was John McCain who declared that forgiveness was the best remedy.

Um, isn't this an ad about what the teacher taught McCain? Instead, it sounds like McCain is standing up in class and lecturing the teacher on what the punishment should be. That McCain is the merciful one. Oh bless thee, McCain, great forgiver of sins, even your high school teacher was in awe of your mercy!

It takes quite a bit of chutzpah to turn a commercial praising a mentor into one in which you are praising yourself.

Second, why would McCain be pushing this idea of forgiveness in a campaign ad? It seems odd that he would do so to counter his warmongering image, since we don't expect McCain to turn the other cheek to Al Qaeda or Hezbollah.

Instead, McCain is subtly trying to innoculate himself against his own rule-breaking. Not only is he currently violating FEC campaign spending laws, he is also being hounded by rumors of improper ties to lobbyists.

In addition, McCain himself has a history of breaking rules, begging for forgiveness, and skirting by on his family name. Sorta like another ne'er-do-well President we know so well. Here is a statement from one of McCain's fellow POWs, explaining why he does not support McCain for President:

John was a wild man. He was funny, with a quick wit and he was intelligent. But he was intent on breaking every USNA regulation in our 4 inch thick USNA Regulations book. And I believe he must have come as close to his goal as any midshipman who ever attended the Academy. John had me "coming around" to his room frequently during my plebe year. And on one occasion he took me with him to escape "over the wall" in the dead of night. He had a taxi cab waiting for us that took us to a bar some 7 miles away. John had a few beers, but forbid me to drink (watching out for me I guess) and made me drink cokes. I could tell many other midshipman stories about John that year and he unbelievably managed to graduate though he spent the majority of his first class year on restriction for the stuff he did get caught doing. In fact he barely managed to graduate, standing 5th from the bottom of his 800 man graduating class. I and many others have speculated that the main reason he did graduate was because his father was an Admiral, and also his grandfather, both U.S. Naval Academy graduates.

It sounds like McCain's mentor must have been less effective than this ad is claiming, if McCain was such an undisciplined student right after leaving high school.

But let's get to the really scary part of the ad.

According to the ad, McCain learned four very special rules from his high school teacher. Here they, in a screenshot that repeats the "rules" McCain learned from his wise high school teacher:


"I will report the student who does"???

Maybe I'm just a bit paranoid after 7 years of quasi-authoritarian government under George W. Bush, but this is highly unnerving. Remember, the current administration already taps our phone calls without warrants, they have warned Americans to "watch what they say, watch what they do", they have theorized that the Constitution will be suspended after the next terrorist attack.

And now McCain, Bush's heir apparent, is telling us that ratting out your peers is one of his rules to live by? What kind of leader will McCain be - one who asks Americans to keep an eye on each other and turn each other in?

Even with our low expectations for McCain, this is rather troubling.