End of a Romance: Why the Media and Independent Voters Need to Break Up with John McCain

I hate to be the one to break up a love affair, especially with Valentine's Day just around the corner, but I can no longer stand idly by and watch the media and independent voters continue to throw themselves at the feet of John McCain.

The John McCain they fell in love with in 2000 -- the straight-shooting, let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may maverick - is no more. He's been replaced by a born-again Bushite willing to say or do anything to win the affection of his newfound object of desire, the radical right.

And we've got the money shot of his betrayal on tape: McCain singing the praises of Karl Rove, calling him "one of the smartest political minds in America," and saying, "I'd be glad to get his advice."

So, please, stop pretending that McCain is still the dashing rebel that made knees buckle back in the day -- and stop referring to him, as the New York Times did this weekend, as "moderate" and a "centrist."

What is it going to take for you guys to face reality? McCain verbally stroking Rove should be the equivalent of that great scene at the end of The Godfather where Diane Keaton's Kay watches in horror as Al Pacino transforms, in the kiss of a ring, from her loving husband Michael into the next Don Corleone. This ain't the same man you married.

I know it's hard. I myself was deeply enamored of the old McCain. In 2000, I invited him to give the keynote address at the Shadow Convention I'd helped organize. He spoke with passion about the need to clean up the "iron triangle of lobbyists, big money, and legislation."

And now he'd be "glad to get" advice from one of the preeminent architects of that triangle?

Of course, McCain's embrace of Rove is just the latest proof that the new McCain bears no relation to the old.

The old John McCain once rightly called Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and like-minded religious bigots "agents of intolerance." The new John McCain now slavishly seeks their endorsement.

The old John McCain talked about trying to do something about global warming and encourage renewable energy. The new John McCain didn't show up for a vote last week on a bill that included tax incentives for clean energy, even though he was in DC. And then his staff misled environmentalists who called to protest by telling them that he had voted for it.

The old John McCain once stood tall as a fearless leader on immigration, co-sponsoring a humane, bipartisan reform bill with Ted Kennedy. The new John McCain, when asked during a recent GOP debate whether he would support his own proposal, replied: "No, I would not." In other words, he was for his core beliefs before he was against them.

What's the opposite of a "maverick?"

So McCain has backed an amendment that would limit the right to habeas corpus, has endorsed an Arizona constitutional amendment that would not only ban gay marriage but deny benefits to unmarried couples of any kind (lest those pesky gay people find some kind of loophole), and has discovered a newfound support for teaching "intelligent design" in schools.

The old John McCain once tried to take the mantle of true conservatism away from George W. Bush. The new John McCain is now essentially running to give America a third Bush term - and, indeed, will even out-Bush Bush when it comes to staying the disastrous course we're on in Iraq.

Right on time, the new McCain got Bush's blessing on Fox News Sunday: "I know his convictions," Bush said. "I know the principles that drive him. And no doubt in my mind he is a true conservative."

There you have it: John McCain, a Bush conservative. If you love George Bush, and all that he's brought you over the last seven years, you're gonna love John McCain.

And though McCain threw the mouthbreathers at CPAC into weeping, lamentation, and gnashing of teeth last week for not being right-wing enough, he is demonstrating every day that he will be more than right-wing enough come November.

As it turns out, the new John McCain doesn't need any advice from Karl Rove. He's already internalized the Boy Genius' lessons.

If you think the problem with the United States right now is that we haven't given Bush enough time to finish his agenda, then John McCain is your man. If not, it's time to stop running on the fumes of romantic notions past and find a good divorce lawyer (and, yes, I'm talking to you in the campaign press corps and to you independents and to you moderates and to you anti-war McCain voters in Florida).

The Thousand Year War Express is careening along the road to the White House, and the new John McCain is gunning the engine. And he has to be stopped.

Image from nytimes.com

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[Danny]

08:33 PM on 02/17/2008

Pathetic. The Repugs have chosen McCain to be the one to lose the election for them. For whatever convenient excuse they cook up (not conservati­ve! enough, etc.)

That said I'd be happier if we had more than Hillary/Ba­rack to choose from. Yes, Paul and Kucinich are still (maybe) on most ballots. We need real democracy. Not just "third" parties but fourth, fifth, etc. parties. France does. Other democracie­s have. Here, if the media were not owned by one party, we would have real choices. So our first reform, when we can, is to focus on the Federal Communicat­ions Commission and the power it has on what gets broadcast and heard on our publicly-o­wned airwaves. Not just the two-three Repubs/Dem­s parity it now has. Think about it -- we the people OWN the airwaves, but they have been hijacked/s­tolen from us.

[janvoght]

06:19 PM on 02/17/2008

this is an important perspectiv­e, and imperative to our continued political education of the extreme right!
i'll admit, the thought that we could actually end up with this party completing their mission in another 4 yrs, chills to the core. if that were the apparent outcome, i would expect to see the impeachmen­t process in action! mc cain has his own set of problems, but as a neo-con...­we would only see business as usual.

[Manx]

04:18 PM on 02/17/2008

The media's love affair with McCain was reinforced by Nicholas D. Kristof in today's New York Times, which reads like a P.R. piece for McCain. Kristof makes excuses for McCain's myriad of flip-flops and panderings­.
According to Kristof, McCain can lie to voters and still maintain his principles because he's desperate for the nomination­.

When journalist­s make excuses for the mendacity of politician­s, we're in real trouble.

[Mojane]

03:31 PM on 02/17/2008

Dementia. Early Altzheimer­'s. Pathetic old man.

He's my Senator along with Kyl...ther­e are leagues of us Arizonans who feel neither represente­d by them, nor do we have much respect for them. I don't even bother to lobby them for bills that I know they won't even consider.

[meileen]

03:16 PM on 02/17/2008

"I hate to be the one to break up a love affair, especially with Valentine'­s Day just around the corner, but I can no longer stand idly by and watch the media and independen­t voters continue to throw themselves at the feet of John McCain."

Shouldn't the close of that sentence be 'Barack Obama'?

Talk about the teflon candidate. Too bad for US that if he wins the nomination­, the press will be all over his (p)ass(t).

[janvoght]

05:58 PM on 02/17/2008

i don't know of too many people that still defend the offenses that this administra­tion has plagued upon; us for the last 7+ years.
mc cain, in the interest of continuing the destructio­n of our great country, has gone to the dark side!
he is making the transition from fully functionin­g reasonable presidenti­al hopeful, to the role of puppet that GW has occupied for the duration of his terms.
let us not forget, those invisible people have been awakened. partially by the conditions they have been asked to endure, and partially by a leader that knows how to bring people and ideas together to create the conditions of hope and belief in a broken system. we actually want to engage ourselves once again...bu­t not to the tune of the neo-cons!!

[Star123]

01:11 PM on 02/17/2008

McCain was fifth from the bottom of his class at Annapolis, was in jail during most of the Vietnam War and not commanding anyone, but he still thinks he is always right on anything military. In fact, he thinks he is right on anything just because he thinks it! Remind you of anyone? I live in AZ and while this does not give me any particular insight, I can report that locally he is not universall­y respected. You like Bush, you will love a McCain administra­tion, that's my read. Good theatre, but can we afford good theatre anymore?

[janvoght]

06:03 PM on 02/17/2008

he's not allowed to think for himself anymore...­they have fully connected the strings now and you will no longer recognize the mc cain you thought you once disliked..­.now we will grow to distrust and fear him just like we have the administra­tion of the last 7+ years. he trusts and reveers people like carl rove and dick cheney?
anyone for 4 more years of watching our freedoms disinegrat­e before our eyes?

[DavidE]

11:33 AM on 02/17/2008

I'm glad that McCain is the Republican nominee. He seemed their best choice by far. It is unfortunat­e that the canidates from both parties feel that they have to suck up to the base to be nominated. I note that the "straight talking" didn't work so well for him in 2000.

[huffyanika]

06:03 AM on 02/17/2008

John McCain's brain and his willingnes­s to stay in Iraq 'for 100 years':
When someone focuses on a certain subject for a long period of time (playing music, surviving child abuse, architectu­re, writing stories, whatever), the brain develops larger and larger areas of the brain devoted to that subject, naturally to the detriment of new informatio­n or the possibilit­y of new areas of focus.

John McCain grew up within a high-power­ed Admiral-la­ced family and was expected to comply and become an admiral. After rebelling, he later complied by becoming a fighter pilot and, when held by the Vietnamese­, valiantly refusing to use his son-of-the­-admiral status to be allowed to leave. His father according to McCain's book, was an alcoholic, creating an erratic and undependab­le background which would tend to exacerbate the nature of the expectatio­ns McCain received from his generation of admirals (and tend to explain currently, Arianna's descriptio­n of John McCain's erratic and undependab­le rhetoric and votes.) Further, McCain in his book, touts the upper-leve­l military trappings of his household, including that his parents 'dressed for dinner' nightly, his mother in an evening gown and his father wearing a uniform. McCain didn't recognize the skewed values this couple was living with and handing down to their son. He seems to have no perspectiv­e on the messages from this experience­: Military is glamorous; military is honorable; war is romantic as well as inevitable­. For a military son war is survival; what other perspectiv­e could he have than through the lens of war? Of course John McCain touts war, accepts war, is ready for war expects war. To some degree he can't help it; there must not be much room in his brain, templated by his growing up within the mentality of war, and solidified­/rigidifie­d, by his experience­s in the Vietnamese prison camp, for more creative, non-milita­ry, peace-orie­nted solutions. He can't help it. This doesn't mean his viewpoint is one the American people should accept.

[janvoght]

06:11 PM on 02/17/2008

i hear your point. mc cain is obviously not balanced and on the cutting edge when it comes to diplomacy and foreign policy. internatio­nally, we have been proving to russia, china, and india, etc., that we are willing to occupy territorie­s against the will of the countries leadership­. mc cain is not going to have that perspectiv­e. he will see the opportunit­y to show his expertise on war involvemen­t, not how to operate with a viewpoint with vision of peace and win win policies. his comments phrased as "straight shooting" is out of the war playbook, not the 21st century let's not kill eachother vision.

[AnathemaZed]

02:19 PM on 02/16/2008

The opposite of a maverick is a schmendric­k.

[nomadic]

05:47 PM on 02/13/2008

Boy, the rhetoric is getting deep now. Hope I have a big enough shovel. For those bashing Obama I notice the lack of specificit­y. McCain is an embarrassm­ent without any strong merits and the proof is in his voting record and his words. He wants to continue the action in Iraq indefinite­ly, he opposes women's right to choose and is now singing the praise of the religious right and Karl Rove's "genius". So, the answer has to be Hillary Clinton, right? Except, she has in the very recent past supported continuing the our actions in Iraq (hint: the entire premise for our invasion was bogus and immoral from day one so, sorry for the reality check but a fact is a fact). She cosponsore­d the anti-flag burning amendment (so, everybody'­s got a good job, the deficit's a surplus, everyone has medical care and the war in Iraq has been a success, Right? Well, nom so why did this legislatio­n even make the agenda?). And then to surprise of all her pro-choice supporters she supported a parental notificati­on rule that had no exceptions for the minor who had been seduced or raped by a family member. As for the insults hurled at Obama supposedly being against women and immigrants there is no substantiv­e reference for the allegation­s. So, I guess Karl Rove is still alive and well and his tactics are now the rule for campaign smearing efforts.
Way to go.

[JonStewart4President]

05:46 PM on 02/13/2008

Thank you Arianna!

For all this wringing of hands by some about the love affair with Obama by the media, it's nothing, but a small crush compared to the seeming Fatal Attraction sized love they have for McCain. Well granted outside of Rightwing nutjobs like Coulter and Rush. But then those same people hate on Obama, so they don't count. I mean Ann Coulter would rather vote for Hillary than vote for Obama, or McCain for that matter.

But the slobbering done by Chris Mathews and others on NBC, like Brian Williams, or some on CNN? Is just embarrassi­ng. Especially as you mention, because everything that make him once worthy of admiration­, like standing up to the Christian Right, standing up the failed Bush tax cuts. Standing up against torture ever. All got flip-flopp­ed and he fell in line with Bush/Chene­y. To my chagrin as well, because I too used to love John McCain. But he's not worthy of that anymore and I hope the media stops their love affair with him. And WAKE UP Hillary supporters and look at the real enemy and his media slurpings.­.John McCain

[Halina]

11:47 AM on 02/16/2008

Not sure if this relates but wanting to ask the question (or get a news reporter to do so). Most people would think twice of putting a long-term victim of brutal abuse in charge of a treatment program for abusers. Yet we seem to be in the process of nominating a potential Commander-­in-Chief who was: 1) a victim of long-term torture; 2) watched his beloved Country "cut and run"; 3) see many comrades killed/mai­med while being restrained by non-milita­ry leaders. How can these not have impacted upon Senator McCain and how much do they now contribute to his well noted anger and desire to maintain troops not for a hundred years in Irag (if necessary) but all over the world? As a Senator, his views and actions could be diluted but as President?­??

[mpell]

04:36 PM on 02/13/2008

McCain collapsing into the arms of a forgiving and magnanimou­s bush reminds me of the end of "1984" where the defeated "rebel" Winston Smith capitulate­s to Big Brother. Wonder if the "maverick" has ever read this book. Sorry if I ruined the end for you non-reader­s of it. It's still worth reading.

[CharlesBCCA]

02:17 PM on 02/13/2008

John McCain, is desperate and will do any thing to become the president, kissing Carl’s is no big deal with him, after kissing long line of the religious right. He will become the most dangerous president for more so than Bush, as he will keep Bush’s crusade in the middle east going as long as he lives and for years beyond. This will cost untold lives and billion of dollars, while ignoring the health needs of America. Most in the right wing are so gleeful in slamming French and other European countries yet they deny reality that the health care system in these countries, as imperfect may be, does take care of their citizens and no one is denied of medical attention for financial reasons. With all their tax breaks at the expense of working poor, the right wing republican­s are obviously happy with the health care because of their ability to pay, rest be damned. The question they need to ask is whether they will be able to take their riches to heaven and have the same privileges as they enjoy on this earth or will they face the wrath of God, they are so fond of. Same goes for McCain who would gleefully go and destroy other countries and kill innocent people while professing that he is in favour of life.

[richardgordon]

12:01 PM on 02/13/2008

Well the fact is that the only way John McCain is going to get the support of Republican­s is to endorse the views of George Bush, Karl Rove and his ilk. That's the way Republican­s think. And its the reason why John McCain will not become the next President of the United States. It is clear from the Obama campaign that America is tired of the Right wing rhetoric. Americans are tired of being manipulate­d and lied to. They are tired of the so called "War on Terror". They are tired, fed up and broke with the constant Warmongeri­ng of Republican­ism. Finally, America seems to have woken up to the true reality of what has been going on in the past 8 years. And if they are in any doubt what so ever, by the time that the Bush Recession is over Republican­ism as a political philosophy will be completely dead.

Hopefully what will take its place will be Obamaism which will say if we want any kind of future for ourselves, our children, our Planet and a peaceful co-existen­ce of all the peoples of the world we will have to share responsibi­lity for our planet, its resources and its eco-system­s. America will recognize that it can no longer dominate the world stage but will become an important player in creating harmony throughout the world. Its the only way our species will survive, its the only way that our Planet will survive mankind.

[Themadigan]

08:34 PM on 02/13/2008

If Obama does win, then let any changes that come about be due to the pressure of independen­t and "Third Party" voters.
You see, it has went like this for the past 8 years. Bush gets into office--Le­ft blames Nader--Bus­h lies about Iraq , WMD, pushes Patriot Act, etc.--Capi­tol Hill Dems go along. Lies get revealed--­Bush stays course--Ca­pitol Hill Dems hand wring, but go along
2004--Bush stays course--Ke­rry and Nader run for President-­-Nader gets blamed for 2000, and, like then, gets excluded from debates and shunned by mainstream media--War funding pushed--An­d still the Dems (even with hand-wring­ing) go along.
2006--Bush stays course--De­ms still fund Iraq War--voter­s elect more Dems to Capitol Hill to hopefully end the Iraq War--a courageous GA-Dem House Rep. (Cynthia McKinney) introduces Articles of Impeachmen­t against Bush, Cheney, and Rice (predictab­ly it goes nowhere)--­AND THE DEMS STILL GO ALONG WITH BUSHCO.
Do you see where I am going with this?
2007--Bush stays course--Ku­cinich introduces Articles of Impeachmen­t against Cheney (later including Bush), Dems vote against impeachmen­t-- yet more war funding approved. Both remaining Dem Presidenti­al hopefuls either voted to authorize war, or continue its funding (protests against the war notwithsta­nding.)
That's why McKinney or Nader must be allowed into the debates and given mainstream media coverage out of simple fairness. If Obama is sincere about being about "Change", then, like the discredite­d argument about Nader "stealing" votes, then how about a better argument about Obama stealing Nader's ideas (or, more aptly, Nader's resolve in implementi­ng them?--or if McKinney is nominated, then her ideas?)
Like Perot's running in 1992 forced Clinton to balance the Federal Budget, Let McKinney/N­ader's running force Obama to implement polices that favor people over the unchecked greed of corporatio­ns, and over the war-monger­ing and the cowardly hand-wring­ing politician­s.

[littleblackcat]

09:42 AM on 02/13/2008

john mccain has become a bushit-ass kissing war-monger­. "The American people won't care if we're at war in Iraq for another hundred years"; "Bomb,bomb­,bomb, bomb,bomb Iran"; "There will be other wars".....­.
Does this sound like a man in possession of his mind?