Knowing him, he'd probably fuck it all up and end up being down there dressed as Robbie Rotten.

Or Johnny Rotten.

At the ending of a debate, he could say to the audience, "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"

Or Johnny Rotten.

An aside: the authorities tried to stop the Sex Pistols' album, "Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols", on grounds of obscenity. They were represented by the human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson. He argued that the word bollocks was in fact an English word of impressive pedigree, and for instance had once been the testicle-synonym of choice for English translations of the Bible. With the King James Version, however, 'bollocks' was replaced by 'stones'.

Whereupon Mr Rotten informed his lawyer not to worry if they lost, because they'd just rename the album "Never Mind The Stones, Here's The Sex Pistols".

I think it has more to do with historical generation issues and the hometown hero aura.

The US had a draft from 1940 to 1975 (though the last conscription intake was 1972), it wasn't until Edwards in 2004 that a presidential or vice presidential candidate was able to say that they were never had to do anything to avoid the draft. So there was a period of 1908 to 1948 where no president had military service, and before that you start running in candidates that had to explain where they served during the Civil War (Grover Cleveland hired a substitute, perfectly legal at the time...)

Plus, military service tends to be very useful early in a politician's career. It serves in lieu of a legislative record since the rise of the all-volunteer force. When you can't run on what you have done (since you haven't done anything yet inside government yet) military service reassures voters that you have the willingness to serve rather than just being in it for yourself, since military service is seen as not the road for personal enrichment...

I'm eating oatmeal, but I had to put brown sugar in it to make it palatable. I feel like I failed somehow.

I always sweeten my oatmeal!

And brown sugar's better than white sugar, right? Less processed?

but I had to put brown sugar in it to make it palatable. I feel like I failed somehow.

Are you kidding me??? You haven't failed at all! Putting things on oatmeal to make it tasty is a time-honored tradition! My favorite is almonds, dried cranberries, and a little brown sugar. And I cook the oatmeal in milk so it's creamier. I cook the almonds with the oatmeal to soften them up a little and diffuse the almondy goodness.

Must get some oatmeal!! It's that time of year.

I don't mean to take away from what he did go through, but it frustrates the hell out of me that there's no qualitative component to this. There are good people in the military. There are great people in the military. There's also Gomer Pyle.

My best friend here is as a left-leaning liberal as I am, but she has a blind spot when it comes to the military because her husband's Navy. She said to me the other day that the one thing she would never question is McCain's integrity because of the fact that he chose to remain in captivity so that his subordinates could be set free. She said that it spoke a lot to his character.

I told her that from everything I understood (and heaven knows I could be WAY off base here) was that everything he'd done with respect to his military career had been driven by a deep, deep desire to best his father and grandfather. That maybe he did the right and honorable thing in that circumstance, but that I wasn't altogether sure that it was for the right and honorable reasons.

We've agreed to disagree.

Brown sugar is a time honored traditional oatmeal accompaniment!

Oooh, I forgot I had almonds. I did put dried cranberries in it.