A couple of rebuttals to Steve’s McCain comment:

Derb — I am definitely no McCain guy, but Sailer saying that McCain lost five jets as some sort of proof of incompetence is shaky ground. To most people, including this correspondent, it just means he has brass balls. That, I think, is one of McCain’s few endearing qualities and going after it makes one look like there are no real arguments to be made.

And this one:

Derb — I am by no means am a Mac man, but please, the 5 jets is a cheap shot, one of them was destroyed by an accidental misfire on deck of another jet’s missiles, and nearly killed Mac. If you protested the assaults on Kerry’s military record, I should think that a greater desire for scrupulousness about chopping at our semi sorta conservative (at least compared to Kerry) ought to prevail, esp. when the guy is an authentic war hero, hmm?

[Me] Darn tricky area, it seems to me. Given what he sacrificed, there’s a case for putting McCain’s entire military record out of bounds for polite comment, like Obama’s blackness. Still … 894th out of 899? …