1115.org

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John McCain’s campaign continues to lurch from embarrassment to embarrassment. Just in the last five days, we have witnessed:
— McCain declaring that “it’s tough, it’s tough in some respects” to be proud of our country.
— McCain claiming to hard-core Clintonites that he will not be appointing Scalito and Robertss and Bork wannabees to the federal bench, and that he has a very enlightened position on gay marriage, “the same as [John] Kerry’s position.”
— Further developments in the “how-sleazy-are-the-lobbyists-in-charge-of-my-campaign?” story-line
— The revelation that McCain (who once angrily called his current wife a c*nt in public) had no problem with Clayton Williams — best known for acontroversial and offensive remark during his 1990 campaign for governor of Texas, when he compared bad weather to rape: “As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it — being a major fundraiser for the McCain campaign.
— McCain’s spirited attempt to claim that he never has and never will support privatization of Social Security even though there’s video of him proudly declaring his support for privatization, and even though he explains that his current policy is that younger workers should be allowed to divert part of their Social Security taxes into private investment accounts.
— McCain claiming that “the economists” never predicted “this housing crisis we’re in”, thereby ignoring Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Dean Baker, and Duncan Black (among others).
— McCain demonstrating his Bush-like belief that town-hall meetings are best conducted with carefully screened audiences.
— The revelation that the man who angrily rejects the charge that he’s running for George Bush’s third term was proudly claiming just three years ago that “on the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I’ve been totally in agreement and support of President Bush”.

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All of which has me wondering how prescient my post about John McCain two years ago may have been. Here’s a slightly revised version:

It’s been a very long time since I put on my fly-on-the-wall hat. So I’m really proud to bring you this latest undercover exclusive.

Here’s the real scoop on Senator John McCain, which no one has cottoned on to yet. The Real McCain. Revealed for the first time ever.

The man is a true patriot. Selfless to the core (the full extent of which will astound you, as you read on). A man who has sacrificed all personal ambition, in order to rid the country of the potential prospect of being re-visited by the biggest scourge in our country’s recent politics—a Republican President who owes the far right big-time, and feels compelled to try and pay them back every so often. McCain knew full well exactly how much scorn and ridicule would be heaped upon him, how he would be vilified, when he chose the path he’s on. But he went ahead with it anyway. The fact that much of this scorn is coming from people who used to be admirers has got to hurt. But McCain knew up front what the cost was going to be, and how it was going to have to be paid. And he knew it was well worth paying.

He sat through the first four George W. Bush years with growing dismay. It is not known when he first framed the question in his mind: what can I do to make sure that in 2008 we don’t end up with a Republican president? A Republican president who is in thrall to the far right. A Republican president who grinds the rule of law and every principle that America once used to stand for into the dust. A Republican president who will finish running this country into the ground.

It is not known when he came up with the answer. But the rest will one day be history.

It has been amply documented in the last few months to what extent McCain has totally reversed positions he previously espoused (especially when he ran for the presidency in 2000). For example, the Democratic National Committee put out the following release yesterday:
Arizona Republican Senator John McCain tonight will headline a New York City fundraiser for his Straight Talk America PAC. Unfortunately, as McCain has laid the groundwork for a 2008 presidential run, his famous “Straight Talk Express” has morphed into the Double Talk Express. On issues ranging from the Bush tax cuts, to the use of ethanol, to a Constitutional Amendment on marriage, to abortion, Senator McCain has flipped his positions on issue after issue in an effort to pander to the extreme right wing of the Republican Party.

“In light of all of Senator McCain’s flip flops and blatant pandering, New Yorkers are wondering which John McCain they’ll see tonight,” said Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera. “Will they get the John McCain who opposed President Bush’s radical special interest tax cuts or the John McCain who voted for them? The John McCain who said he opposed a federal marriage amendment, or the John McCain who told Jerry Falwell he would support one? The John McCain who derided ethanol or the John McCain who went to Iowa and advocated increased investment in its use?

The presumption, however, has been that he has executed this continuing series of major flip-flops in order to further his smoldering presidential ambitions. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The simple fact of the matter is that you cannot flip your position on so many significant issues so blatantly and so transparently, and still have any reasonable hope of being elected President. And whatever else his detractors have accused McCain of being in the last few months, no one has ever accused him of being a fool.

So what the heck is McCain doing? He’s executing his own clever, and much more complicated, version of William T. Sherman’s famous “If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”

The idea is, of course, to sabotage his own candidacy, to conduct his campaign in such a totally pathetic and blatantly dishonest manner that the American public will never elect him President.

This is a man of true vision, a man of an unimaginably fierce integrity, of an unbelievably pure and intense patriotism. So I applaud you, sir.

Hopefully, one day you will be able to admit your role in reshaping American politics, and have your honor and dignity restored to more than its previous glory. But I know that just knowing in your own heart what you did, and why, is more than enough for you. And for that, sir, I applaud you again.

(Also see: When McCain Drops Out)

*** Update, 7:11 am ***

It appears that McCain may have sworn Newt Gingrich to secrecy and recruited him to the cause. Gingrich is now earnestly pushing Piyush “Bobby” Jindal as McCain’s running mate. Jindal is 37 years old, of Indian origin, has held elective office for less than four years, and is rightly famous for having personally exorcised a demon. Despite having a degree in Biology from Brown University, Jindal believes that teaching only evolution in school, and ignoring intelligent design, is “wrong“.