Is anyone else just a little bit sad that John McCain’s bid for president comes during a year which looks so hopelessly glum for the GOP?
I mean, it’s not as if the Republicans will be running a candidate like him every year. In fact, if he loses this year, and loses badly, they probably never will again.
After months and months of pandering to the more hawkish, theocratic, and just plain fanatical sections of the GOP base, McCain has once again shifted his message back to sounding like it used to sound pre-2000. His speech on Thursday about what “The world will look like” in 2013 was far more reasonable, and even hopeful, than he has been this year.
Even though, by my estimate, it was more strategy than substance, and even though it’s already being torn down and criticized as a little naive and silly, it certainly serves as a reminder of the John McCain we once knew, who was cheered for standing up against both the GOP and Democratic strategies when he disagreed with them.
Does that John McCain actually still exist? After his bitter loss in 2000 and eight subsequent years of cynical pandering, and even losing some of his edge as his age advanced, I’ve come to the sad conclusion that McCain might finally be what he never was: a career politician, more interested in ambition than principle.
Sigh. Senator McCain, we hardly knew ye.
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