Senator John McCain visits Oakland County Republican Headquarters and Victory Center.

Located on Woodward Avenue just south of the shopping center on the northwest corner of Square Lake  and Woodward  is the Republican Headquarters for Oakland County. The building is easy to identify . It is the one with all the campaign signs in front. Yesterday evening  Senate Candidate  Pete Hoekstra  celebrated his birthday by being the warm up speaker for the much anticipated John McClain.

Hoekstra took  the opportunity to blast Obama's Middle East Policy. Initially Hoekstra says he took a wait and see attitude to Obama's  initiatives which seemed to emphasize freedom in the region with a tolerance of the more extreme aspects of religion. Later he came to realize Obama's policies simply  replaced 25 years of stability and measured success with a failure to back our allies  and a dangerous destabilization. All under the threat of  a nuclear Iran.

McClain followed in similar vein but emphasized the President's unwillingness to be forthcoming  about the terrorist attack on the American Embassy and the assassination of the United States Ambassador. The Senator said the attack was obviously from the beginning not a protest about a movie but a planned assault . To emphasize the point he mentioned that the Turkish ambassador had been at the Embassy earlier in the evening meaning until the coordinated attack the embassy was not a dangerous place to be. He chastised Obama for appearing on a program "as weighty as The View " and "failing to  acknowledge the truth.  He was also appalled at President Obama's disrespectful  and condescending remarks about aircraft carriers and  rival presidential candidate Romney's knowledge of said.. As it so happens neither Candidate has served in the armed forces.

That was not the case with Senator McClain who hails from a military family, and graduated from  the Naval Academy (whose graduates also include Presidential Candidate  Ross Perot  and President  Jimmy Carter).

In 1967 McCain's, aircraft carrier launched fighter jet, was shot down  over North Vietnam. McCain  spent five years (two in solitary confinement) in a grim prison  it's inhabitants called the Hanoi Hilton.  Because he was the son of an American Admiral, the North Vietnamese offered him, (probably for publicity purposes) an early release. McCain declined  stating that U.S. Policy on early release was first in, first out. When the American involvement in the war ended and McClain was released he returned home with broken bones other injuries that had not healed properly during captivity.

If one is interested in jets and aircraft careers, James Michener wrote  an excellent Korean War vintage book  titled The Bridges of Toko Ri.. Launching the planes and retrieving them at sea is art based on tides and wind. Returning Banshee jets  brake by hitting trip wires. The fewer the wires ripped through the smoother the landing.The worst is for the jet to take them all out and crash into ocean.The yaw and the pitch of the ship are also factor in landing. That is why a sailor waving orange paddles guides the plane in. In Michener's novel that person is named Beer Barrel and his inner gyroscope is reported to be the beer sloshing around in his belly.


If you are curious about the 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John McCain, the book Game Change is rather complete study and story. It suggests  that McCain was a bit of a loner and happiest when he could fly a jet off a an aircraft carrier and go on a solo mission.

Last night  as  the crowd filed out of Republican Headquarters that very topic came up prompting one to remark that  McClain seemed very presidential on the occasion of his visit to Oakland County.
 After some thought  another agreed and  offered  the following revision,.... Maybe Senator McCain  just didn't like a room full of Starbucks fueled  yuppies telling him what he had to do to to become President.