A reader signing herself Judy declares:

I'm in agreement with your assessment of John McCain. I live in Phoenix, so I've been able to see this guy's bag of tricks for a few years, going back to the Charles Keating/Lincoln Thrift debacle through the spin control on his wife's theft of mood-altering drugs from her own charitable organization, and let's not forget his notorious temperament. I, for one, am definitely uncomfortable with the idea of him having his finger on the button.

Yes, Judy, I too am nervous about the hair-trigger McCain in charge of our military -- and not because of his Vietnam traumas. I suspect that McCain's psychological turmoil started long before in his subordination to an autocratic military father, from whom he got as big a jump-start in life as did George W. Bush from his own father. (Note how we've heard more about Bush's C average at Yale than about McCain's graduation near the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy.)

C.C. Karr writes from Kirkwood, Mo.:

Isn't it odd that McCain will try to achieve the presidency by stroking his political experience as a loser (prisoner in an un-won war) vs. Eisenhower, a victor as the Allied supreme commander in World War II, who told his GOP lackeys that he would never appear in a military uniform again, practically underplaying his military experience. Hmmm.

Exactly. McCain's coercive evocation of a glorious military past covers up his lack of genuine achievement in Washington. A disabled veteran and retired major, asking that his identity be concealed out of fear of "retaliation," writes the following:

I couldn't agree with you more on the sanctimonious senator from Arizona (I moved here last year from New Jersey). He is more than a Clinton-clone faker. John Sidney McCain is not the war hero he advertises himself as.

Please check Page 47 of U.S. News & World Report for May 14, 1973. In his own words, McCain (apparently prior to getting "political ambitions") reveals that on the fourth day of his captivity he said: "OK, I'll give you [his North Vietnamese jailers] military information if you will take me to the hospital."

There were more than a few POWs who were brutally tortured for four years and still revealed only "name, rank and serial number." Also, McCain appeared upon release to be much heavier in weight than his fellow prisoners. I wonder why?

Yes, he's "creepy" all right. Especially that weird "laugh" that makes my skin crawl. If any major media ever did a real investigation into his conduct during those five and half years, John Boy's "hero" image might be permanently punctured. I wasn't a flier, but I did serve part of three years in combat with the U.S. Army on the ground in Vietnam. And I know many veterans and POW-MIA family members who simply loathe McCain. Apparently with good reason.

James Kelm adds this interesting point of view:

I, too, have been getting a spooky feeling while watching John McCain's appearances over the past year. During his tantrum of a concession speech the other night, I suddenly caught myself thinking of Shakespeare's "Richard III," specifically Ian McKellan's performance in the recent movie adaptation. I can't get the image out of my head.

Joy Loth seconds my unease with McCain (which I attributed to "intuition"): "My intuition concerning McCain has to do with his face, which reminds me of a papier-mbchi mask. His eyes seem embedded behind it." However, Mike Davis sends me a scathing message from Ontario, Calif., titled "Intuition is no substitute for reason":

Considering your evocation of intuition as a legitimate basis to reject a candidate outright, where, might I ask, was this penetrating instinct when you voted not just once but twice for the man you now concede to be an embarrassment to the institution of the presidency? Maybe your intuition is in need of recalibration, or perhaps Laura Schlessinger was right when she so aptly pointed out that emotions fail us because they have no I.Q.

As for me, I'll opt for logo-centric rationality every time. It served me well in my early appraisal of Mr. Clinton as a facile obfuscator, as I suspect it has done in my support for the man toward whom you have expressed such an animus. Given that you are 0 for 2, perhaps you might consider a change-up this time around.

Touchi, Mr. Davis! While not an early Bill Clinton fan, I did indeed hope, after his first presidential nomination in 1992, that he would bring the idealism of my baby-boom generation to fruition. However, my very positive article on him for the San Francisco Examiner in 1992 (commissioned by David Talbot before he co-founded Salon) raised questions about whether he would be able to govern successfully. By the 1996 election, I had few illusions left, but there was no chance that I would vote for the robotic, saturnine Sen. Bob Dole, who showed few signs of consciousness of the contemporary world.

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