Is it just me?

Ok. Time for me to fess up.

There was a time, in the not so distant past, that I actually thought I liked John McCain. Before the W. years and before his 2000 run for president, he occasionally broke ranks with the lock step Republican leadership and did something decent. Like the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. And calling the likes of Jerry Falwell an "agent of intolerance". I was frankly impressed. It disgusted me when he was running against W in 2000 when Rove et al. began using the dirtiest of smear tactics against McCain to win South Carolina calling him "the fag candidate", questioning his "temper" and "stability" and even suggesting that he fathered a child out of wedlock with an African American woman.

Then something odd began to happen. After W won, McCain started to cozy up. Wait... someone just called you a crazy, loose-moraled, traitor and you turn around and support him? Is it just me or does that seem lame? I had to ponder this for a while. If someone publicly tried to humiliate me and my family just to win an election, I can't imagine a scenario in which I would put on a happy face after it was over, even for the sake of political unity.

Unless....

I wanted to be president more than ANYTHING in the world, meaning that I would stoop to whatever levels I thought I needed to for the win.

And as a part of his complete retailoring, he began to oppose reasonable legislation that marked his "maverick" status before that bears his own name!! And abandoned his fairly progressive religious background, Episcopalian, to adopt a more "right wing friendly" Southern Baptist church. Listen, I know Southern Baptists and I know Episcopalians and trust me, the two are about as close as the south of France and Dollywood, Tennessee. Making the switch is not a simple decision like moving to a nicer neighborhood or putting the kids in a private school- going from one to the other is a major move. And let's say it was truly motivated by a change of spiritual direction, why now? How did he come to make this important life decision? How did he suddenly become "born again"? Just like we should have been able to question W about his substance abuse history and the steps he takes to maintain his sobriety, we should be able to ask McCain about his decision-making process in rejecting his former church and adopting a right wing theology.

He retracts his comments about Falwell and Pat Robertson. He changes his stand on multiple major issues (http://howinsaneisjohnmccain.blogspot.com/2008/03/mccain-never-met-position-he-didnt-like.html). He's very pro-Bush, but now says he's the candidate of change.

He picks a woman not exactly qualified to be on any major party ticket, doesn't fully vet her, rails against pork and earmarks, yet the very woman he picks asked for $27 million for her small town. He's for ethical behavior, yet was a part of the Keating Five scandal (http://www.slate.com/id/1004633/) and his campaign team is full of lobbyists (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/21/AR2008022101131_pf.html).

He has no original ideas for how to lead the country out of the huge mess W has made, so he makes the election about "character". He wants to call Barack a "cult of celebrity" yet brings a woman onto his very own ticket who does not have the experience or character to lead this country if he were to die. Who's the celebrity cult figure now? Wait....

I could go on and on, but it just seems to me that this is a man who will say or do anything to become President, not because he thinks he can actually change this country for the better (he's not offered any substantive new plans), but because he appears to have a burning desire for the position. Is it just me or does he seem like a little, shallow, shell of the image he used to project?

How the mighty have fallen.