1 Boring Old Man

The Hollow Man

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.

H. L. Mencken

In this election, it is the character of the candidate that will matter the most.

That, and pretty much that alone, has been the core campaign message Republican candidate John McCain has been peddling to all and sundry for nearly two years. His devotion to this particular talking point has come to resemble the kind of passionate zeal rarely seen beyond the compound walls of survivalist militia groups; and the slavish dedication he has displayed in tolerating the mindless monotony of such endless repetition is matched only by the muddy mooing of sacred cows along the shores of the Ganges River in India.

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There are several very good reasons why McCain would like to keep all debate and discussion in this presidential race right there with him in that slow lane. First and foremost is the simple truth that the man basically has nowhere else to go. His dilemma brings to mind that old maxim trial lawyers have lived and died by since time out of mind: when the law is with you, pound on the law; when the facts are with you, pound on the facts; if neither the facts nor the law are with you, pound on the table. That is John McCain’s entire political reality in a nutshell.

The facts reveal that Mr. McCain has thrown his support behind just about every asinine and idiotic decision made by the single most unpopular and unsuccessful American president there ever was and, God willing, ever will be. The facts reveal that he has boomeranged away from so many policy positions he once espoused, going so far as to denounce a whole sheaf of legislation he had personally authored, because the Republican base despised those issues; but since he needed their support if he ever wanted to have a chance of winning, it was whiplash be damned and the Devil take the hindmost…

1. "… the man basically has nowhere else to go" McCain really has no platform. He rebutts Obama. He maligns Obama. He defends Bush. But he generates nothing of his own. He claims to be a Maverick who knows Washington is broken, but then he evaporates like cotton candy.
2. "Mr. McCain has thrown his support behind just about every asinine and idiotic decision made by the single most unpopular and unsuccessful American president there ever was" His slavish support of the Bush Administration undercuts anything else he says. One wonders why he even wants to be President.
3. "… he has boomeranged away from so many policy positions he once espoused, going so far as to denounce a whole sheaf of legislation he had personally authored, because the Republican base despised those issues" This is the most striking thing to me. He starts off on something of his own, then renounces it in favor of whatever Bush/Cheney are pushing. Even now, when he has an opportunity to think for himself, he doesn’t.