McCain's father and grandfather were both four-star Admirals you dumbass. Do you know what that means? You compare that to the biracial son of a PhD with no wealth, power, or influence over jack shit? talk about delusional.
It apparently means you can still start a military career as the lowest ranking officer like every other officer does, get captured and be tortured for years that you'll never get back suffering injuries that you'll never get rid of. You will be hard pressed to find a part of McCain's life where who his father and grandfather were was critical. He went to the Naval Academy as many others do, he still got treated like crap and maybe worse because of who he was, he went back to service, got active in the GOP, retired when he couldn't pass his flight physical anymore because of his war injuries.
There were people who were treated worse (like James Stockdale's Alcatraz Gang), but not many. And I doubt many people who voted for him even knew who his parents were, since he ran in Arizona where I presume Navy people don't spend much time. It would also be a violation of military code for his family to use their military rank in advertising McCain, and since I've never heard any complaints to that effect, I presume it didn't happen.
So what did McCain being a military brat and admiral's son and grandson mean? Well it meant he moved around from place to place, like any other military brat, went to base schools that at that time were of highly varying quality, like any other military brat. It meant his grandpa went off to fight WWII when Johnny was barely old enough to remember, and died just days after the Japanese surrender. It meant he lost 5 years with his dad and a lot more time after the war, no doubt -- the military doesn't tend to be forgiving where workload is concerned. And it meant that his dad had to issue bombing orders on Hanoi knowing his son was there.
Typical? Yes and no. Hardly the only family to be affected by war at that time (or today), but not many people have friendly fire going off in their vicinity as a tortured POW. So I guess in that you might have part of a point. But would you trade with him? I sure as shit wouldn't. And I'd take an officer like McCain's experience working with and leading people of all shapes, sizes and colors over Obama's experience living a cloistered life in Hawaii, Indonesia and private schools, and then going slumming in Chicago as a "community organizer." Obama knew he had issues of this sort, that's why he went to Columbia to try to find where he fit in as a black person...he certainly didn't live a life in any way typical to the majority of black Americans. It should be noted that he largely failed in that, and according to Maraniss wound up having his Pakistani friends move to New York to hang out with him.
If Clinton was America's first black president, Obama might have been America's first black white (or black white Asian?) president.
Why does it bother you that Obama's life experience is closer to an average or typical American's than McCain or Romney?
Have more Americans: A. Been to war or B. Lived in Indonesia? Hell I bet more have been to the Vietnam War alone. Your premise is completely wrong (of course). I'm not bothered by it because it just isn't true. Obama's life is about as dissimilar from most Americans as the others.
All I was saying was that many voters see this as an indication that the candidate has their best interests in mind, and that the candidate can relate to their issues on a personal level, and you and your cohorts are having a shit fit over it. Why?
