Wash Post: McCain The Maverick Is Back

A joke made its way around the Capitol yesterday: How do you know the 2008 election is really over? Because John McCain is causing trouble for Republicans again.

Two and a half months removed from his defeat in the race for the presidency, colleagues say, McCain bears more resemblance to the unpredictable and frequently bipartisan colleague they have served with for decades than the man who ran an often scathing campaign against Barack Obama. In some instances, he's even carrying water for his former rival.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[indiematrix]

Why is it when I see this image I picture Jack Nicholson with an axe saying "heeeeeere's JOHNNY!" :-)

[majormoderate]

Can we all please agree to never use the term Maverick when referring to a politician ever again?

[AndThenOneDay]

Back to burnishing the legacy. There are definitely worse pursuits.

[mmgbizgirl]

Your cover has been blown Senator McCain. The world knows who you are.

You are NOT a maverick though you aspire to be one. Maybe one day you'll get there but today is not that day.

[ILibertine]

McCain could have become president had he not so embraced right-leaning policies and advisors. It certainly did not exhibit the prospect of good judgment consistent with either his history or his image. But he had enough of an experiential edge to pull it off had he centered his campaign and run with a more pragmatic approach. It seemed that every decision McCain made during the campaign marginalized him more.

McCain definitely has the interests of the country in mind and is more of a free thinker than many in the senate and, so, we should respect him for his best intentions and his best reservations. As many have stated since the election, I think he may be glad to be out from under the hard conservative cloud.

[hortonhearsawho2]

What next The Ford Pinto hatchback...

[Sarahmay57]

I love that picture!

[Grunty1]

McCain looks possessed by a demon in that picture...

[hortonhearsawho2]

think cindy....

[leatherbunny]

Red Rover Red Rover let Mr. McCain cross over!

[hortonhearsawho2]

lol

[harriettubman]

Larry King asked McCain if he would back Palin if she ran in 2012. He stumbled and fumbled about that a bit too much. Then he started naming other friends who might run.

Please, I hope McCain brought the "real" him back to D.C too.

[Freesia2]

I think John McCain realized by the time of her first interview that he had made a terrible mistake. And it fueled his famous temper.

One thing that might come from the fact that Sarah Palin refuses to fade back into the obscurity she so richly deserves, is that she serves as a kind of irritant to him. A constant reminder. A poster girl for that cheap harsh far right sensibility that ultimately undid him. So when he's on Capitol Hill and those far right Republicans are urging his vote in their direction, he may just have to think of Palin and he will go the opposite. Ironically the woman who brought him down and ruined his reputation might serve as a well of inspiration - to run like heck in the other direction. That's assuming of course that he's learned a thing from the experience.

[kottison]

Man he reminds me of Jack Nicholson in The Shining after he went crazy.

[VOTER]

Too funny!

[helonias]

So they have adjusted his meds

[norkas]

Once the Sarah Palin selection was made the Republican party was bringing the extreme right into light and embracing them.

Mc Cain became part of the extreme right by embracing and selecting Sarah Palin.

Many Republicans ran from there party realizing it was now defined by hate of other cultures and color and were disgusted by the what kind of animals that are rearing there ugly head.

Sarah Palin represented everything i and many others in America feared and she often spoke to the extreme right and made sure Obama would be at the center of there hate and threats on Barak Obamas life.

Mc Cain proved he was no decision maker and was not the same but i hope he will stay on course now knowing he was set up by the most anti Americans in America

[sunny555]

I totally agree. It was a sad thing to watch, too.

[holyhandgrenaid]

One of the biggest problems on McCain's campaign was that he ran it backwards- you have to play to the base in the primary and be moderate in the general, which is the exact opposite of what he did. If he'd run his campaign in the logical direction, it would have actually been competitive. For this reason, I've honestly thought Mittens would have been more successful, as he actually has a relatively moderate record. Of course, the Republican voters saw through his play to the base in the primary.

I've talked in circles and lost my way in this post, but the important thing is that McCain is back to the way he was once, and actually its a good thing he lost his way for a while there

[Jacqueline3]

After this past election I will never look at John McCain the same way again. I still think he has mental issues that need serious attention.

[Freesia2]

I'm sorry. I'm grateful for any help he can be, not just for Obama but for my country, but .....

People make a choice in this life about what kind of person they're going to be. The hardest moments, when they're the most frightened, the most desperate, the most ambitious are usually where their real character is shown. As a "war hero" he should have understood that. Circumstances can distort it of course, there is such a thing as temporary insanity, but a man who wants to lead has be strong enough to resist both and he wasn't. He took the political process, and allowed his running mate to drag us, into places where no leader ought to go. That was his character.

I hope he rises to the occasion now. But I also now know how far he can fall and I just can't forget that. It didn't just go away.

[monkeysuit]

You must remember that he was being advised by Republican advisors and I don't think they did the calculation correctly. They tried to turn him right and he has always been and should have remained center. The true Republicans would have voted for him just to not see a Democrat as President. He should have remained center and picked up the center votes that Obama was able to steal because of McCain sudden hard right turn. He never got out of the GOP primary mode once he won the nomination and Obama quickly took a sprint for the center. And I truly hope that is where he stays.


Monkeysuit
http://randompoliticalthoughtsandnews.blogspot.com/

[Freesia2]

That's true. But it goes to an explaination, not a justification.

John McCain made 2 moves that destroyed him. He chose to listen to Rove's people. Bad folks the lot of them - but that was John's choice. The second was selecting Sarah Palin. Unlike him she's an ignorant person, but like him she has raw ambition. But he chose her. The combination of Rove's men urging him to bad places, and the enthusiastic willingness of the ignorant Palin to walk him there, and walk for him there, were lethal to his Presidential aspirations. And I'm so glad. Because he chose and had he been in the Oval Office, he would have chosen for us.

He got bad advice, made bad friends. But he chose both. And there he is. And there we would have been too but for a brilliant opposition.

[hortonhearsawho2]

Someone buy this man a house....

[Sarahmay57]

Snort!