By now, everybody must know that Rolling Stone magazine has the hots for Barack Obama. One need only look at the hagiographic articles and iconographic covers of the Anointed One which have graced the pop culture rag over the past two years. No longer content at tossing up puff-piece interviews like this, the magazine has decided to take up the cudgels on behalf of its candidate by going after John McCain's character.

In an October 16 cover story entitled "Make-Believe Maverick", contributing editor (and Mother Jones alumnus) Tim Dickinson attempts the demolition of McCain, hook, line and sinker--faux war hero, faux "maverick," corrupt politician, pampered child of privilege using his connections to get ahead. It's powerful stuff--if you could spread it on your tomato plants, you'd have a bumper crop.

It's a masterpiece of what a friend of mine calls "insinuendo"--half-truths, misdirections, hearsay, gossip and outright lies written by somebody who either has no ability to evaluate the information he was given, or more likely) just doesn't give a damn. Dickinson relies heavily on the stories of another POW, former LTC John Dramesi, not only for unsubstantiated statements about McCain, but as a contrasting personality, the "real thing," as opposed to McCain's "make-believe" hero. And, make no doubt, John Dramesi is a real hero. Shot down in 1967, he attempted to escape not once, but twice. Not content merely with passively resisting North Vietnamese torture and intimidation, he took a defiantly "in your face" approach

Dramesi, however, is a very controversial figure within the POW community, as indicated in an "A Question of Honor", a book review published in Air University Review in 1977. As the author of the review, himself a Vietnam POW, writes:

John Dramesi wrote the book. That he is its hero is admissible. But there were more tough men in Hanoi than he would lead you to believe. . . Dramesi's . . . own physical and mental strength [was] so singular and of such forcefulness that he apparently could not comprehend or tolerate the performance of those who could not match it. One wonders how he interpreted Admiral Stockdale's prison mandate: "unity over self."

Dickinson does not mention, in his breathless recounting of Dramesi's two escape attempts that, as a result of his actions, all the POWs in Dramesi's camp were subjected to harsh punishments, causing the senior POWs there to place strict conditions (including the possibility of outside assistance) on all future escape attempts. Dramesi apparently opposed this ruling, because it was a technical violation of the Code of Conduct (a prisoner shall always endeavor to escape and return to duty), but the camp leadership made a pragmatic decision based upon the probability of success and the costs of failure.