Senator John McCain's obsessive quest for a ninth domicile – which appears to be transforming the senator into the political world's own version of Popeye Doyle every day – is about to take an extremely ugly turn. An MSNBC.com headline last Saturday (Oct. 4) read "McCain plans fiercer strategy against Obama." Wow. We've all seen how nasty and untruthful Republican campaigns become when they don't announce that they're about to launch a "fiercer" campaign (which, as everybody by now should know, is GOP translation for a "reality-challenged, policy-avoiding, personal attack-driven" campaign), so one can only shudder to think what kind of crap the bad boys in the GOP have up their sleeve this time. With its constant whining about unfair treatment from the formerly adoring mainstream media as well as its infantile strategy of repeating lies in the hope that nobody ever notices, the Republican Party is fast approaching self-parody. In other words, don't believe for a second that a doctored photo of Obama with a "666" on the back of his head is out of the question. The Republican Party – and John McCain in particular – is that desperate. Consequently, Senator's McCain's promise to run "a respectful campaign" – reported, appropriately, on April Fool's Day earlier this year – is looking more and more McCain-like every day. That is, it is looking like nothing more than just the latest in a series of flip-flops and outright lies on the part of Senator McCain in a pathetic attempt to fulfill what has become his tragic ambition to become President of the United States of America.
John McCain is a fairly unhappy dude these days. Of course, who could really blame him? He's still trying to win the Vietnam War for one (sorry, Senator: John Rambo went back and won it in 1985, remember?). The mainstream media, which was sharing the senator's favorite donuts with him earlier this year, is not rolling over and presenting every Republican lie as a legitimate campaign matter any longer. In fact, unlike the past two elections, the mainstream media is actually doing its job and debunking at least some of the crap the GOP passes off as fact. But what must enrage John McCain the most right now should be obvious: the man has aspired to be president for a very long time, and he is watching his chances of fulfilling those aspirations vanish before his very eyes – and he has George W. Bush to blame for it. Again. Think about it: McCain had his first chance at the presidency stolen from him by the less than curious "cowboy" and his sleazy team of campaigners from Texas in 2000; now, eight years later, McCain finally has his shot at the presidency – and it's quickly vanishing again because of that same "cowboy" and his sleazy, incompetent administration's failed policies! One can only imagine what is running through the slip-sliding mind of John McCain these days, though I would put good money down that this thought has been bouncing about his head quite a bit: did Bush really screw things up so badly that a white war hero is going to lose a national election to an inexperienced black guy? Really? And I don't suggest that thought to imply that Senator McCain is racist in any way; to the contrary, if he is a realist in any way, the gravity of that scenario must have occurred to him by now, given its unlikelihood even in the year 2008. Combine the aforementioned circumstances with his sacrifice and service in the Vietnam war, and it seems that if anybody should feel entitled to something, it is John McCain to the White House. The man most certainly has paid his dues, much more than his far younger rival. The problem is that McCain, despite having sacrificed so much as POW in Vietnam and serving twenty-six years in Congress, is not entitled to the presidency because of that sacrifice any more than Obama is simply because he is the first African-American to be nominated by one of the two major political parties. Circumstances do count, and the country's circumstances are most definitely not helping John McCain right now. Numerous other factors – including personal charisma, voting records and sheer luck among others – play a part as well, and almost none of these factors is helping McCain, either.
Thus, when it became apparent that he would not be able to sweep into the White House simply by rotating the words "POW," "maverick," and "reform" in and out of sentences, John McCain was left with two choices: to run – as promised – a clean and respectful campaign based on personal policy records and future policy plans or to run a nasty campaign with many of the same sleazy people using the same dirty tricks that had cost him his first chance at the White House eight years earlier – or, more simply and accurately, to sell his soul for the White House. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is exactly what John McCain is doing. If one simply looks at McCain's actions over the past ten years, it becomes impossible to describe it any other way. It is clear in hindsight that John McCain has been campaigning for at least the past ten years, not just the past two, and that this ongoing campaign has called his character into question countless times now. While there are so many examples of McCain's actions that raise red flags about his character (my favorite is his flip-flop on the Confederate flag issue in South Carolina, a flip-flop he admitted to undergoing strictly for political gain), here is a list of the five most important soul-destroying steps taken by the "maverick" from Arizona in his endless campaign for the White House:
John McCain is a fairly unhappy dude these days. Of course, who could really blame him? He's still trying to win the Vietnam War for one (sorry, Senator: John Rambo went back and won it in 1985, remember?). The mainstream media, which was sharing the senator's favorite donuts with him earlier this year, is not rolling over and presenting every Republican lie as a legitimate campaign matter any longer. In fact, unlike the past two elections, the mainstream media is actually doing its job and debunking at least some of the crap the GOP passes off as fact. But what must enrage John McCain the most right now should be obvious: the man has aspired to be president for a very long time, and he is watching his chances of fulfilling those aspirations vanish before his very eyes – and he has George W. Bush to blame for it. Again. Think about it: McCain had his first chance at the presidency stolen from him by the less than curious "cowboy" and his sleazy team of campaigners from Texas in 2000; now, eight years later, McCain finally has his shot at the presidency – and it's quickly vanishing again because of that same "cowboy" and his sleazy, incompetent administration's failed policies! One can only imagine what is running through the slip-sliding mind of John McCain these days, though I would put good money down that this thought has been bouncing about his head quite a bit: did Bush really screw things up so badly that a white war hero is going to lose a national election to an inexperienced black guy? Really? And I don't suggest that thought to imply that Senator McCain is racist in any way; to the contrary, if he is a realist in any way, the gravity of that scenario must have occurred to him by now, given its unlikelihood even in the year 2008. Combine the aforementioned circumstances with his sacrifice and service in the Vietnam war, and it seems that if anybody should feel entitled to something, it is John McCain to the White House. The man most certainly has paid his dues, much more than his far younger rival. The problem is that McCain, despite having sacrificed so much as POW in Vietnam and serving twenty-six years in Congress, is not entitled to the presidency because of that sacrifice any more than Obama is simply because he is the first African-American to be nominated by one of the two major political parties. Circumstances do count, and the country's circumstances are most definitely not helping John McCain right now. Numerous other factors – including personal charisma, voting records and sheer luck among others – play a part as well, and almost none of these factors is helping McCain, either.
Thus, when it became apparent that he would not be able to sweep into the White House simply by rotating the words "POW," "maverick," and "reform" in and out of sentences, John McCain was left with two choices: to run – as promised – a clean and respectful campaign based on personal policy records and future policy plans or to run a nasty campaign with many of the same sleazy people using the same dirty tricks that had cost him his first chance at the White House eight years earlier – or, more simply and accurately, to sell his soul for the White House. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is exactly what John McCain is doing. If one simply looks at McCain's actions over the past ten years, it becomes impossible to describe it any other way. It is clear in hindsight that John McCain has been campaigning for at least the past ten years, not just the past two, and that this ongoing campaign has called his character into question countless times now. While there are so many examples of McCain's actions that raise red flags about his character (my favorite is his flip-flop on the Confederate flag issue in South Carolina, a flip-flop he admitted to undergoing strictly for political gain), here is a list of the five most important soul-destroying steps taken by the "maverick" from Arizona in his endless campaign for the White House:
• He voted against the Bush tax cuts – citing the fact that they unfairly benefited the wealthy, a statement he later completely denied having made, of course – every year until 2006, the year prospective presidential candidates began jockeying for their respective party's nomination for the 2008 election. Now, of course, he is dead-set on making those tax cuts permanent.
• In 2002 McCain accurately labeled the late Reverend Jerry Falwell an "agent of intolerance" for his publicly stated belief that the US brought the horror of 9/11 on itself because of its tolerance of homosexuality (among other things, though he curiously forgot to mention intrusively unethical US foreign policy in his list). Four years later – in 2006 again, that is – McCain reversed course and found Falwell politically helpful enough to give the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University.
• In 1998, Senator McCain answered "yes" when asked in a National Right to Life Committee questionnaire if he supported the complete reversal of Roe v. Wade. A year later, near the start of the presidential nominating process, McCain caught conservatives off-guard by announcing that he would not repeal Roe v. Wade, a position he would hold (seemingly) until – you guessed it! – 2006, when he announced in November that "the Supreme Court should — could overturn Roe v. Wade" and return the matter to individual states. Why the sudden about-face? "Because I'm a federalist," McCain explained – except when he's not. To summarize: John McCain was for the repeal of Roe v. Wade before he was against it even though he was also against it before he was for it. Apparently the chicken did come before the egg.
• In April of this year, Senator McCain announced that he respected Barack Obama and therefore would run "a respectful campaign." McCain's wife, Cindy, went so far as to vow that the public would not see any negative campaigning "at all" from her husband because "he is absolutely opposed to any negative campaigning." A few months later, the McCain campaign fired the first shot of negative campaigning in the 2008 election with its television advertisement that attacked Barack Obama for not having "visited Iraq in years" and for having "voted against funding our troops" – all while conveniently leaving out the fact that McCain had voted against funding our troops around the exact same time as well. And the negativity has been piling up ever since. Another television ad that premiered soon afterwards went so far as to blame the high cost of gas on Barack Obama! Soon after the broadcast of that advertisement, the levee broke on McCain's campaign, flooding it with filthy, dishonest negativity. McCain began personally questioning Obama's patriotism; distorting his publicly stated positions on numerous issues, most notably by claiming that Obama wants to invade Pakistan and teach comprehensive sex-education to kindergartners; lying about his own positions and the positions of his running mate Sarah Palin (most egregiously that she was opposed to the "Bridge to Nowhere" – which she was for originally – and that she never requested earmarks as governor of Alaska, which she has); encouraging Governor Palin to lie about her past and distort Senator Obama's policies and personal dealings even more forcefully and dishonestly than himself; approving more television ads that purposely distorted many public statements made by Senator Obama; and finally – most incredibly – blaming Senator Obama for bringing the negative campaigning on himself by not agreeing to take part in a series of "town hall" structured debates!
• Just last week (October 3), John McCain – the same John McCain who cheated on his first wife with his current wife (and a few in between), and who vowed to run a respectful campaign only to start airing dishonest attacks both on television and in personal speeches – told the Des Moines Register that he always tells the "100 percent absolute truth." Really? Yes, really. Where does one begin to psychoanalyze somebody who makes such a blatantly dishonest claim with 100% conviction? Wow.
Now, after all the shameless, vote-grabbing political flip-flops and blatantly hypocritical attacks on his opponent – not to mention a complete lack of personal honesty and a possibly lethal amount of self-righteous self-delusion – John McCain is ready to "take the gloves off" in his fight to secure his dream house. With the loyal disciples of Karl Rove – the man whose dirty tricks doomed McCain's first bid for the White House eight years earlier – on board his Double-Talk Express, John McCain is going to intensify his already obsessive quest for the United States presidency. Considering all of the personally damning evidence, including his own admission in 2002 that he had decided to run for President not out of patriotism, but simply because it had become his ambition to be president – an ambition he had held "for a long time" as it turns out – there is no telling how far Senator McCain will go to achieve this ambition, especially when he promises "a fiercer strategy" to do so.
One hopes the more moderate John McCain will appear on the scene in the nick of time to prevent what's looking more and more like the true John McCain from completing the sale of his soul. The more one observes John McCain's actions, however, the more likely he is to believe that McCain will ultimately finalize the sale of his soul in order to fulfill his long-time goal of occupying the one house he and his wife cannot buy.
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