While I work on a few posts, here’s an excellent profile of John McCain from Rolling Stone. There’s no attempt to appear fair and balanced – but the piece gets a number of people who knew John McCain to talk on the record.
In this piece, Tim Dickinson blows up the myth of the maverick John McCain who grew from a reckless youth to a mature and seasoned patriot while in prison in Vietnam.
Plus, there are some interesting tidbits – like the fact that a young navy pilot named John McCain caused a major diplomatic incident when he deviated from his flight path for a joy ride just above the ground and cut some power lines causing a blackout in much of Spain. Normally, that’s enough to get your wings clipped – but neither that nor the two planes McCain crashed previously seemed to affect his career path – as his father and grandfather were important admirals.
Perhaps this incident helps explain why McCain still apparently bears a grudge against Spain.