Who McCain was, and who he has become

Finally, it seems, the media is noticing the profound and craven about-face McCain has undertaken in his dogged pursuit of higher office:

From the latter:

McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains — his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that’s all — but just as honorably. No more, though.

I am one of the journalists accused over the years of being in the tank for McCain. Guilty. Those doing the accusing usually attributed my feelings to McCain being accessible. This is the journalist-as-puppy school of thought: Give us a treat, and we will leap into a politician’s lap.

Not so. What impressed me most about McCain was the effect he had on his audiences, particularly young people. When he talked about service to a cause greater than oneself, he struck a chord. He expressed his message in words, but he packaged it in the McCain story — that man, beaten to a pulp, who chose honor over freedom. This had nothing to do with access. It had to do with integrity.

McCain has soiled all that. His opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir — the person in whose hands he would leave the country — is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that. He means to win, which is all right; he means to win at all costs, which is not.

4 thoughts on “Who McCain was, and who he has become

  1. Obama is the least qualified presidential nominee EVAR! No one on either side even argues the point, and you pimp this fuckwad who lambastes McCain for his treasonous selection? Come on Kettle.

  2. I need to read more?? While I may not put away the novels like you do, I read about 4 hours a day for the job. YOu know economic rags, and business journals and such.

    If you like Ican go ahead and send you several references that have Obama as the least qualified presidential candidate ever to be nominated. In fact I’ll bet you a bottle I can find more that says so than you can find otherwise. You game? As for Lincoln he brought us the IRS and was onlytheemancipator when he had to justify the war agaisnt the South. Seeing as you hail from MS Iwould have thought your view of Lincoln would be somewhat different.

  3. If you’d read more, you’d know Lincoln had substantially the same resume as Obama. Maybe you read economics all day, but you’re clearly not consuming much in the way of political analysis.

    Frankly, I don’t know why I bother with these conversations. I figure it doesn’t matter to you; you’ll vote for whomever is the most reactionary anyway, or whomever promises to cut your taxes regardless of whatever else gets burned in the process.

    (I’m supposed to be anti-emancipation because I come from a secessionist state? What the fuck? Do you know me at all?)