Over at the American Conservative magazine's website, Daniel Larison rejects the notion that McCain has "changed." You'll be unsurprised to hear that his assessment resonates with me -- like Larison, I've always thought McCain was a snake hiding behind a manufactured media image.
Excerpt:
Contrary to the conventional pundit interpretation that McCain has “sold his soul” and abandoned his once-honorable former self, the thing to understand about McCain’s lies in this campaign is that he invests these misrepresentations with his utter contempt for his opponents. From McCain’s perspective, this infusion of contempt seems to transform shoddy, baseless attacks that disgrace him into indictments of the other politicians (e.g., Romney wants to surrender in Iraq, Obama would rather lose a war than lose an election). If McCain thinks he is always honorable, resistance to him and his ideas must ultimately be villainous and vicious, and we have seen him deploy his perverse, solipsistic ends-justify-the-means concept of honor against Romney and now against Obama. McCain’s admirers have largely missed this either because they happened to agree with McCain on policy or because they have mistaken his language of honor and principle to refer to the meanings that they attach to these terms.
Exactly right. McCain has spent the past twenty years telling people what he wants them to think he is -- be it a maverick, a straight talker, or a man of honor -- and too many have swallowed this, rather than examining what the man has actually done.
(h/t: Andrew Sullivan)
[Added] On a related note, also via Andrew, another conservative voice registers displeasure with McCain. If you don't already know the ideological stance of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, I'll put it politely and say that they are farther to the right than any media outlet not having an employee named Limbaugh. Today, they're down on McCain for his attempt to scapegoat SEC chairman Christopher Cox.
Conclusion:
In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a candidate searching for a political foil rather than a genuine solution.
Hit him from the left. Hit him from the right. Get up, stand up, fight, fight, fight.
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