Elf Sternberg

Omaha, I think it's pretty clear that McCain's family history is not particularly unusual for Baptists _or_ secular humanists, so why are you trying to make such a big deal out of it?

The guy certainly has raised a bunch of kids, which is pretty much the ultimate family value. They seemed to have turned out okay.

http://www.johnmccain.com/about/mccainchildren.htm

When he divorced his first wife, his three kids with her were 14, 18, and 20. I haven't seen anyone-- not even the Daily Mail-- claim their lives were ruined by the loss of a paternal role model. They'd gotten along without him for many years anyway, while he was on duty in Vietnam and in prison in North Vietnam. This certainly wasn't a case of a man abandoning his family as you're trying to paint it.

Anyway, the fallacy in your position is called Ad Hominem Tu Quoque. McCain's as human as the rest of us. He may hold and pursue values he can't personally achieve, but that doesn't make him wrong or hypocritical.

And I generally find it distasteful when people criticize others for failing to adhere to beliefs the critics don't even hold. Liberals complaining that conservatives aren't religious enough? C'mon. This usually leads to the argument that the target of the criticism doesn't deserve the support of his or her political base, but that's both ridiculous and pointless; they aren't listening.

You may believe you have proved with geometric logic that McCain is a hypocrite and that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox did exist, but really, you're wrong and you're wasting your time.

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