The continuing leitmotif of the McCain camp throughout the campaign has been that the McCain/Palin ticket represents Joe Six-Pack, while the Obama/Biden ticket is elitist.  I've always found this bewildering since McCain is the one with the family with the long Washington/Military Complex background, whereas the Obamas are actually an American success story of people who have succeeded through hard work and grit.  

Let's take a look at the recent article in Rolling Stone on McCain's background. Before everyone goes berserk saying that I"m quoting a die-hard drug-smoking-heavymetal-listening-pinko publication - so what?  Most of what is in the article is well-known and has been known for a long time. 

John McCain, Make-Believe Maverick portrays a self-serving man who, rather than giving straight talk, has always been willing to bend to the wind of what suits him. A volatile self-centered man with a wandering moral center. A man who makes George Bush appear to be a responsible self-disciplined individual. And a man you'd never want to have pilot your airplane. 

This is the story of the real John McCain, the one who has been hiding in plain sight. It is the story of a man who has consistently put his own advancement above all else, a man willing to say and do anything to achieve his ultimate ambition: to become commander in chief, ascending to the one position that would finally enable him to outrank his four-star father and grandfather.

In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.

In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.