'Cause the plane's already paid for.

The weasel, twelve monkeys and the shrub.  I honestly did not think that this was going to be politics especially with the title of the article.  And John McCain of all people? Really? In my opinion that guy isn't all that great.  I do understand why not many people voted for him though, it is because he is older looking.  Even though he may have more knowledge and experience, that didn't matter.  But back to the article about McCain.  I don't really enjoy reading about politics because I don't really enjoy politics in general.  The author David Foster Wallace or DFW wrote this article for Rolling Stones Magazine.  Rolling Stones sent out DFW to cover the John McCain against George W. Bush not because he is an awesome journalist or anything but because he wasn't a great journalist.  By "twelve monkeys" DFW means the humorless, immaculately dressed, no talent ass clowns (sorry for the language it seemed to fit), who represent what has become known as the top dogs of media.

I think that DFW did a great job and getting underneath the skin in this article.  He captures what it was like for McCain during the Vietnam War, what happened to him and how he became a prisoner.  DFW talks about McCain's unbelievable honor and balls that he showed with a prisoner in North Vietnam.  McCain was imprisoned in a box by himself while getting tortured and not receiving any food.  That is a pretty intense thing for someone to have to go through.  The pictures that are shown in this article are gruesome: "got bayoneted in the groin; a soldier broke his shoulder apart with a rifle butt.  Plus by this time his right knew was bent 90 degrees to the side with the bone sticking out." Things like that are not something that i want to picture, and I don't think anyone would want to. 

Wallace makes it a good story because he seems to know how to use his words in order to make people think.  The article showed me that there is more the some of the people in politics than you could ever imagine, it shows you that you should look underneath something to fully understand it.  I really liked the glossary that was included especially how the shrub is George W. Bush and how the twelve monkeys McCain's press corps, and the weasel is the gray fuzzy thing sound techs put over their boom mikes at scrums to keep annoying wind-noise off the audio.  I didn't know all of those before I read this article.  I think one of my favorite parts in this article is when one of the monkeys is talking to Mike Murphy.  I like when the monkey asks Murphy to talk about why he is going to fly to Michigan if he wins or loses in South Carolina, the Murphy answers: " 'Cause the plane's already paid for.  It makes me think that he doesn't really care what the result is, all he knows is that there is a set schedule to follow.  I just think it is funny.

DWF came about writing this article by using an anecdotal type article.   He is telling a story of how the life of McCain was like and the conversations with the people that were close to him during the campaign.  I think that it was a good way to start the article because it gives you the background information about McCain and also tells you about what happened to him and with his followers and whoever during the campian against George W. Bush and what he had to go through.  I came into this article not wanting to read it, but after reading it in full I really like it.  It is just a must read.