Back in 2000 I had the great good fortune to encounter Senator John McCain at a party. We talked for about ten minutes and I was charmed. So charmed that I bought his book, Flags of My Fathers (then actually read it), and subsequently purchased an additional copy to give to a friend. I have never voted for a Republican in my life (okay, once, when Giuliani ran against the incumbent Mayor David Dinkins in New York, and that's a whole other story) but I thought I could actually see voting for this guy. He seemed human, he had a terrific sense of humor, and when I asked him what he thought of George W. Bush, by whom he had recently been shivved in the South Carolina primary, he demurred in giving an answer while not masking his obviously dark feelings. So now I must pose the question on so many people's lips: When, exactly, did John McCain sell his soul to the Devil?
As a novelist, I revel in complexity, and am interested in the behaviors of people whose internal contradictions make them act out in new and sometimes alarming ways. My new book is about a regular guy, a family man with serious money problems, who goes against everything he stands for when he is presented with the opportunity to become a pimp. Before you can say Eliot Spitzer he's driving down the 405 freeway in a minivan full of hookers.
I don't have a deep and abiding interest in the prostitution industry, but I find it to be a particularly resonant metaphor for so much of life in our buying and selling obsessed culture. Especially when writing about politicians.
John McCain has had a long an honorable career. He has showed more courage than most humans would be capable of as his supporters are happy to remind you. And yet he and his Rovian acolytes apparently do not think his resume taken in combination with his positions will get him to the White House. The recent week of lying about Obama's canceled visit to the German hospital was only an appetizer, a morsel nibbled on the path to his current condition. This was ratcheted up (or down, if you prefer) the other day with the campaign ad conflating Barack Obama with the celebutards Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. You've got to love the racial subtext, the subtle and insinuating where-the white-women? of it all. It worked against Harold Ford in Tennessee, so why not try it nationally?
Is this essentially the hidden message of the McCain campaign? Psst! He's black!
The McCain camp's thinking: Let's put the virile black guy, the good looking slick talker who can drain three point shots in front of a crowd of soldiers in Kuwait, next to a couple of blondes known for flashing their honey pots in public. Then let the masses draw their own subconscious conclusion. Can you say Mandingo? Karl Rove can! This is particularly rich since the pummeling McCain absorbed from Bush eight years ago in the South Carolina primary was partially fueled by allegations that Psst...He fathered a black child!
John McCain pledged to run a campaign that would be honorable. He would be respectful. He would stick to the issues. And now the ghost of Lee Atwater is leaving money on a dresser while Straight Talker looks on, recumbent, from the bed.
Hello, Sailor.
McCain's #1 mission is to serve corporations' demands, not those of middle income Americans.
While IMMATURE AND UNSTATESMANLIKE McCain is "cracking jokes"
middle America is DYING FINANCIALLY.
THAT'S NOT FUNNY at all.
Which isn't to say that the democratic party isn't just as destructive (all you have to do is read some of the posts here).
Here's hoping Obama keeps his soul...if it's not too late.
To a few, but it's "Psst! It doesn't matter if he's black!" to many more.
Somehow or another, way deep in the recesses behind the scenes, the RNC has the ability to coerce (blackmail?) their ranks to keep them in line and playing faithful. I'm sure they had the goods on McCain (recall the 2000 Primaries when conservatives themselves swift-boated McCain on his "statement of apology" to the Viet Cong in the Hanoi Hilton?)
RNC folks are factoid wonks, dig deeper and twist things better than anyone on the planet. They put Goebbels to shame! Somehow they've managed to keep many of those who would (or should) know better within their sway -- even folks like Colin Powell! What they had on him, I don't know, but if they can have even him doing a 180 on his own statements and principles, then yes, they can do the same with McCain or any other of their wayward flock. And it's not done with a shepherd's hook these days, but with a high-intensity cattle prod!
IMO John McCain sold his soul to the devil when he was adamantly against torture and against allowing the Geneva conventions regarding torture to be changed.
McCain then went into the Bush WH defiant and came out in TOTAL agreement. It's like he was given a labotamy while he was there. I have every reason to believe that it was at that moment in time he was promised to be the next POTUS by Bush (and his cohorts) as long as McCain showed fierce public agreement for the changes to torture.
John McCain was once a very straight-forward honorable man. He has done a 360 degree turn on who is is and what he stood for.
Nah, they just let him listen to his old NVA interrogation tapes........
He sounds just like a neo-con with his "rogue state rollback" talk.He is a super hawk and a narcissist. He even regards Russia as one of those states that qualifies as a rogue state that threatens our values. If elected we would probably be looking at regime change in Russia.That should scare the hell out of anyone.
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/10086
Before he gives examples he begins with:
"John McCain, a member of the House of Representatives in the mid-1980s, often held court at a table near the bar at Bullfeathers, a popular Capitol Hill watering hole, telling jokes and matching hangers-on drink by drink.
"As a Capitol Hill chief of staff, I often drank at Bullfeathers and was invited to join the throng at McCain's table one evening. A few minutes listening to the racism, bigotry and homophobia of the Arizona Congressman told me all I needed to know.
"McCain loved to tell jokes about lesbians, blacks, Hispanics and the Vietnamese community that occupied a large section of Arlington County, Virginia, just south of the District of Columbia."
While it is also obvious that the McCain camp continues to put forth the same hero stuff without being challenged. This man's life was about a whole lot more than just the 6 years as a POW. There are 60+ other years, and he wasn't charming and heroic throughout all of them! I'm talking about critical review of his dealings in Congress, from the Keating 5 to treatment of colleagues and adversaries, to money taken from lobbies, to flipflops. It's ridiculous that his people have been allowed to totally control his spin.
I don't expect Obama to go after McCain in this way. They need to concentrate on issue differences and vigorously counter McCain camp attacks. However, the media needs to start turning the microscope on McCain. If I hear one more time from the media that the public know all they need to know about McCain, I want to puke! Most people only know that McCain wants them to know (ex. most women still think he's prochoice). Voters have a right to have all the information.
2000 but he lost his appeal for me when he folded to the nasty tactics used against
him and his family.
Why did he do so?
Was he promised the election of 2008?
Was he told the Bush Gang had more to use against him and would do so unless
he folded?
Who knows?
The McCain of 8 years ago, disappeared 8 years ago.
Today's McCain is truly a mannequin of Bush.
McCain=Bush is true.
VOTE FOR OBAMA!
The "real McCain" has been hidden to us for many years.
It was said by a conservative magazine that he gets "far too much pleasure out of
being in the spotlight". The "Maverick" has evolved from conventional Republican to
relentless interventionist. Beware!