FWIW, I’m willing to cede “McCain was a war hero”. I wasn’t there, so anything else would be subjective. But after McCain returned home? He’s nothing but a path of destruction.
The whole thing is a little complicated for me, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
Like a lot of characteristics that define a person, they can be a double-edged sword. Loyalty is one of those things, in my opinion.
For years, I turned a blind eye towards McCain because Of his naval Service. I was very fortunate after some of the posts that I made here on free Republic, that some of our fellow conservatives took the time to gently help me see the situation more clearly. (Kind of like the old saying about honey gathering more flies than vinegar does)
It was difficult for me, because I had Grown up wearing wristbands with POW names on them, me and my friends knew who most of them were, and my parents had socialized with some of them. Then, to complicate it even further, I not only served under him for a short period of time, I did my service in his actual squadron that he had flown combat in, so everybody was well-versed in the history of what happened. (Never mind the ribbing that we used to get from other squadrons who would tell us that we started the fire on the USS Forrestal!)
I was very reluctant to level criticism at him, which was a richly deserved.
And, by the way, I do agree with you completely on his conduct in civilian life and politics. I despise him in that aspect.