Lawrence Lessig explains the Keating 5 ethics scandal: http://lessig.org/blog/2008/10/and_then_things_got_ugly.html
Tim Dickinson shreds McCain in this month's Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain
Everything that I've followed seems to check out, to the best of the Internet's ability (I have no idea how to get facts about the PoW situation). Issues aside, how could someone with this sort of past still be a viable candidate for the presidency? Also, this article offers examples to shoot down my prior argument that McCain will turn moderate once he doesn't have to worry about the election anymore. RS is biased, so it may not be that bad, but the chance that he really is as mercurial as he's looked over the last few years is really frightening to me.
A cranky Matt Taibbi's take on Palin is much funnier: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23318320/mad_dog_palin