Like Dangling Crack In Front of an Idiot

The 2000 election was a twin tragedy. Not only did Gore 'lose' but the John McCain of 2000 was one of the most thrilling and compelling political figures I had seen. He seemed honest and courageous, and had one of the most impressive biographies.

Either Gore or McCain would have been immeasurably better then George W. Bush.

I never thought I would register as a Republican, but I did - so I could vote in the California Republican primary for John McCain (which tells you closed primaries aren't that closed to people who plan). It was not a vote to sabotage Bush - or at least it wasn't only a vote to sabotage Bush; I genuinely liked McCain and felt he would make a decent, honorable president.

Now, whenever I see him on television I think of Greek tragedies. He is a larger then life heroic figure. He survived five and a half years of the worst torture imaginable and every day had the option, if he gave in, to be released. He simply refused and insisted that the first POW captured should be the first released. (He got 'special' treatment, in the form of even more brutal torture, because he father was the US naval commander).

John McCain is, in the truest and deepest sense, a hero.

But he also has a heroes ego and a heroes weakness. While he held out against torture, he caved to the most extreme elements of his party with relative ease. He even flip-flopped on an issue which imagine he would ever change his mind: torture. In a party of psychopaths and sadists he was one of the few with the courage to say that torture was wrong. That changed, however, because of political expediency.

I am sympathetic. I can't imagine how much the past seven years must have angered John McCain. He was the better, more substantiative candidate then Bush. He also was more bipartisan and more authentically conservative (he really does have a good record on spending and a conservative record on abortion).

Bush was inferior in every way: a coward born with a silver spoon who didn't know squat and slandered him with vicious lies including racist attacks against his daughter.

McCain decided to play the game.

I am reminded of another Republican war hero I admired - Bob Dole. Dole was funny, and competent. He was a genuine military hero with an impressive record of public service and bipartisanship. But in the waning days of a losing campaign he growled to a crowd something along the lines of "you want Reagan, damnit, I can be Reagan." It was, in a way, the ultimate surrender. He realized that, for all his accomplishments, and for all his service, to a small but critical group of kooks in his party, it would never be enough.

Despite his efforts to bribe them by twisting around his positions and pretending he agrees with them on some issues, McCain will learn the same thing.

Sadly, he's already sold his soul.

But every time I see him on television, I think of the man, and the President, he could have been.

[Exchange with Heather right now:

Me: "McCain is a very appealing Republican candidate, but he could have been a better one... but they wouldn't have them."

Heather: "THEY DON'T DESERVE HIM."

To which I agreed].