CNN's major story today: The Night That Changed McCain's Life
September 1967:
Larson recalls being stunned at what he heard.
"You know Chuck, I might have to get out of the Navy," McCain told him. "And I said, 'Why is that John?' and he said, 'Well I want to be a serious naval officer. And when I go places now, people tend to not take me seriously. They hear all the stories, they look at the early days and if they can't take me seriously, I don't know how I can perform.' And I said, 'John, you're going back.' "
So he wanted to quit the Navy because "they look at the early days" and can't take him seriously. The early days of sucking at the Academy, you mean? Like Cafferty brings up in another article on CNN's front page?
John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being admitted. His academic record was awful. And it shows over and over again whenever McCain is called upon to think on his feet.
So, CNN's "McCain Revealed" has the McCain's major life-changing moment be the fact that McCain wanted to quit the Navy because "no one takes me seriously" but was talked out if it by his buddy, Larson. Not the subsequent crash of his plane and his capture in Vietnam - but the fact that he wanted to quit because too many people there knew about his "early days". (And just what are those "stories" he mentions anyway?)
For god's sake, people.
Am I reading this right? Is McCain's shallowness really splashed on CNN in not just one, but two articles on its front page?