The Mugging Of John McCain

What exactly are they doing to John McCain? The so called straight talker and maverick of Washington is looking more and more like a smiling version of Dick Cheney. The man who pleaded for honesty and decency in campaigning is following every move in the Karl Rove playbook.

Something happened to McCain during the Democratic Convention. The polls were pretty close to even but someone on his strategy committee had to have shown him that the "fundamentals" of the election were not in his favor. The economy was in the doldrums and the wars in the Middle East had no end in sight. Democratic registration and enthusiasm and fund raising were through the roof. Defeat was inevitable.

McCain is known as a lone wolf. He is hard headed and certain about his ways of doing things. So why at that moment when the Democrats were meeting in Denver did McCain give in to the neocons and the fundamentalist religious right and change directions?

Why would he pick the unknown Sarah Palin? The real John McCain had to believe in his heart of hearts that she was no way prepared for Washington, DC. Not a shrinking violet, but McCain also became convinced that he might as well throw out that old kitchen sink and attack Obama with lie after lie. Why did this once honorable man become so convinced that he had to run against himself to gain the White House?

One has to wonder if the addition of Karl Rove henchman, Steve Schmidt, was the beginning of a change for the McCain campaign. Surrounded by a new group of radical advisers who would not stop at anything to gain power, McCain became cornered. Joe Lieberman and the rest of the America first foreign policy folks got into McCain's brain and won him over to their extreme positions. McCain could not have made the decision by himself to pick Governor Palin. Christian leaders like James Dobson must have had input on this new darling of the Evangelical movement.

So a moment of crisis was reached. Remember that Palin was essentially picked before Obama's incredible Thursday night speech. McCain had to decide if he would lose honorably (like a Bob Dole) or come out swinging in one last attempt at the prize he had eyed for so long. Money and important endorsements were being held from him if he did not give in to these powerful Republican forces. The maverick faced the reality that his go it alone ways would seal his doom. He looked into his soul and made a deal to give himself up to the political operatives who so masterfully lied and defeated both Gore and Kerry. It was the way of truth or the way of deceit that McCain had to choose from. Mugged from the right, the Arizona senator chose the dishonorable course.

Under his new direction, McCain still might win the presidency. But at what cost to a nation teetering on the abyss and to his own personal values is an answer that we will have to reckon with in the not too distant future.