Dear Republicans, Thanks for Gift-Wrapping the Undecided Voters

So, tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999.

Mainly because I still liked John McCain then, before he caved in defeat to the Karl Rove machine and spent the last eight years in step with his party's crazies in hopes that he'd be back in action tonight. Unfortunately, his moment has passed and the Republican philosophy has failed, at home and abroad.

What America does he live in, where he can say that equal access to education has been achieved? What world does he inhabit, where we've dealt Al-Qaeda a major blow? How can he call himself a Maverick while co-opting his opponent's "change" messaging, particularly as a member of the incumbent party?

It was frustrating listening to him tonight, and not because he's a champion of conservative ideology. (It doesn't make me angry when the Republican platform is presented thoughtfully, as opposed to "Drill, baby, drill.") It was frustrating because he once was a great leader with the ability to unify the parties, but now he's ceded that credibility to Little Miss Pit Bull and a slew of divisive others. I know conventions are fraternity parties and secret handshakes and winks are standard operating procedure, but the RNC programming did little to convince me that a McCain presidency will be an innovative departure from the last eight years. (And I vehemently resist the BO camp's over-simplified "Third Bush Term" moniker, so that's saying a lot.) Palin was a short-term mastermind move that will keep him competitive in the general election, but McCain is going to have to live with the extremity of his gamble.

What undecided voters are looking at the prospect of the return of the Cold War, invading Iran, a "mental recession," offshore drilling, teaching Creationism in schools, overturning Roe vs. Wade, a pregnant 17-year-old...and racing to the polls to vote Republican?

We'd all love to put aside partisanship and work together to solve issues we have in common, but both conventions illustrated that the divide runs much deeper than lip service. As Barack noted in Denver: The Republican strategy of top-down resource management has failed, and right now the American people who believe in equality of opportunity have rallied together in a grassroots movement that is going to push our future from the bottom up.

I would love to fight with John McCain, as he passionately implored me to. But as I absorbed the unbridled patriotism and teared up listening to him tell the sincerely heroic story of mentally defeating the prison guards in Hanoi with his belief in the country that saved him, I wondered how this remarkably tough man could succumb to the pressure of political posturing.

Sadly, we can't move this country forward on John McCain's previous acts of courageous service, we have to acknowledge who he is now. And this week, he showed us that the Straight Talk Express veered permanently off course somewhere in Crawford, Texas.

Comments

[wolfi101]

HuffPost's Pick

Now that the two conventions are over, one thing has become more apparent in me: The visions that each of these parties hold for America.

The Democrats gave hope, dreams, and brighter tomorrow. They spoke to the good in each of us, and said, "We can do better."

The Republicans belittled the disadvantaged and poor, our services to the community, and tried to instill in our hearts the fear of people different from us.

The irony is, that I do not believe, that the Republicans even realized what they have done or how out of touch they are. The honeymoon with Palin is over. And possibly this election, as well.

[Opus007]

McCain blatantly sold out to the GOP. He cut and ran from his principles. The Bush administration took the huge surplus from the Clinton adminstration and turned it into a monumental deficit. I can't believe that this country would elect McCain. If it does this country needs therapy for it's low self esteem.

[zedthewizard]

it was his last chance, he's 72.

but the gift wrapping is not only that she's not ready, but they won't speak to the press. mccain might have not went after the liberal media in his speech, but they ain't happy. he crossed the line, and he can't simply step back over. if they can't ask her, they'll ask him. if they can't ask him, they'll ask surrogates. if they don't get answers -- that's were the indepenents are lost. the risk is too high, and even with the prospect of lower taxes, no one wants to be voting with that in the back of their head. they may have also forgotten that theirs a lot of suburbs too.

[janinei]

I agree completely. I once had a great deal of respect for McCain, he used to say what he believed in and was open to change. Despite the fact that he was a republican (I admit, I vote Democrat no matter what because I am pro-choice and will ALWAYS vote on that issue alone for a candidate) I actually had to think of him as viable option. That was back in the '90's. It is sad to see him to loose all that credibility by hitching himself to the religious right. The republicans have lost all credibility by aligning themselves with the fundamentalists. I mean, I don't care what you do with your private life, why do you care what I do with mine. If I chose the path to damnation (according to your loving and forgiving god) let me, and you can save yourself.

[customgreen]

I hear this tone about John McCain being a great unifier of the past. When? As I remember it (I am old enough to go back to being able to vote in the Carter election) he only "reached" across party lines a handful of times. Other Senators with longer service have done that repeatedly. Luger, Warner, and other Republicans as well as a host of Democrats. So to me it is more of a self built myth than anything. As for his military service...He's the lucky one, he came home. My older cousin wasn't so lucky. My cousin along with over 50,000 others who died in that war are the true heros. Every time he uses the Vietnam war and being a former POW to win votes it diminishes both himself and the service that he did. My father in law who was a POW in Korea and was tortured is disgusted by McCain for using his POW status to get votes. John McCain has always been a cold calculating man, and not a unifier. He is in fact a man that ditched his wife for a rich beer baron.

[grendl]

Good article.

The thing that strikes me as odd, whenever I hear people like John McCain or Sarah Palin tout the war, the American cause, the troops and their country, is the arrogance and sense of elitism in their speech.

Pride is a sin, their bible tells them so. To place American lives over the lies of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's who have died in Mad King Georges sequel to his father's war, while it makes red white and blue hearts palpitate, it also ignores a fundamental assertion made by our forefathers,

They didn't say " All American men are created equal ( or women )", they said " All men are created equal", and that they have certain inalienable rights, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That means all human beings have that right.

We never talk about all the Iraqis who have died in this war, the innocent ones unfortunate enough to be attending a wedding or marketplace, or police academy when it was blown to smithereens, by some religious zealot or by American mishaps. We don't hear McCain talk about those unfortunate souls.

We're the bully in this war. And as Dafoe tells Charlie Sheen's character in " Platoon" , "We're gonna lose this war. I figure we been kicking ass so long, it might be out turn". Fighting for out country means cramming a doctrine down the throats of a people who don't even comprehend the fundamental precepts of democracy. At what cost?

[LeftRight]

McCain did NOT defeat his captors. They defeated him. There's no shame in that, and I don't hold his statements given while in captivity against him. But his story has been changing on this issue, like all the others over the last few years.