Vanity Fair article on McCain: Prisoner of Conscience

[ProSense]

Politics

Senator John McCain (with his springer spaniel, Sam) takes a break from fishing the creek on his property in Arizona. Photograph by Jonas Karlsson.

Prisoner of Conscience

Given his popular status as a maverick war hero, John McCain has a good shot at winning the 2008 presidential election—if he can get his party to nominate him. But one minute he's toeing the conservative line (on gay marriage, say, or immigration) and the next he's telling someone what he really thinks.
by Todd S. Purdum February 2007

Snip...

But the plain truth is that the Straight Talk Express, Version 2.008, is often a far cry from the Magic Bus of 2000.

"Let me give you a little straight talk," McCain tells the crowd at a house-party fund-raiser in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for Senator John Thune, the Christian conservative and self-styled "servant leader" who defeated the Senate's Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, in 2004. The minute Thune was elected, McCain says, he became an important figure in the Republican Party and the Senate.

That's not straight talk. That's partisan pap. Nor, presumably, was it straight talk last summer at an Aspen Institute discussion when McCain struggled to articulate his position on the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. At first, according to two people who were present, McCain said he believed that intelligent design, which proponents portray as a more intellectually respectable version of biblical creationism, should be taught in science classes. But then, in the face of intense skepticism from his listeners, he kept modifying his views—going into reverse evolution.

Snip...

Two years ago, McCain was unsparing in his criticism of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who slimed his friend and fellow Vietnam veteran John Kerry. Kerry felt close enough to McCain at the time to make multiple and serious inquiries about McCain's interest in running for vice president on a national-unity ticket (and McCain basked in the courtship, even if he knew nothing could ever come of it). So the alacrity with which McCain joined in demanding an apology from Kerry—whose "botched joke" last fall about George Bush's intellect came out as a slur against American troops in Iraq—was surprising, if not unseemly. Once upon a time, the two friends would have talked about the issue privately, and McCain might well have given Kerry his frank advice. As of mid-November, they had not spoken since McCain's statement condemning Kerry's "insensitive, ill-considered, and uninformed remarks"—which McCain once again read from a piece of paper, by the way. When I asked McCain if he thought Kerry was really trying to insult the troops, he answered only indirectly, and with some annoyance: "I accepted it when he said, 'I botched a joke,' O.K.?"

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Kerry did no such thing. This was simply another one of McCain's opportunistic attempts.

McCain's rhetorical flirtation with the idea of becoming Sen. John Kerry's running mate is just the latest act in an ongoing intramural psychodrama that began in 1999, and no amount of common geostrategic purpose in the post-9/11 world can end it. He is a proud man, a fierce fighter with an ego to match the pride and ferocity. He wanted the Republican nomination in 2000, wanted it badly, and raged against what he saw as a system rigged against him.

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Biden made his comments on MSNBC TV's "Hardball" when moderator Chris Matthews asked him: "Do you think McCain is seriously — and I mean this professionally — flirting with the idea of accepting a second place on the ticket with John Kerry, and creating a fusion ticket to run against the president?"

Replied Biden: "I think that this is time for unity in this country, and maybe it is time to have a guy like John McCain — a Republican — on the ticket with a guy he does like. They do get along. And they don't have fundamental disagreements on major policies."

The red and the blue

When asked by Matthews if he would support such a ticket, Biden said, "I would. Yeah, if John Kerry said that's who he wanted, and McCain — I'd encourage McCain to say yes. I doubt whether John would do it. I doubt whether John McCain would do it. But, you know, we need some unity here, man. The red states and the blue states — we've got to have something to coalesce around here."

The notion that a lifelong Republican like McCain would join the Democratic ticket is widely dismissed by many Washington observers, but McCain himself fanned the flames when he said last week on an ABC News show that he would "entertain" joining Kerry on the Democratic ticket.

"John Kerry is a close friend of mine. We have been friends for years," McCain said on "Good Morning America" on Wednesday. "Obviously I would entertain it."

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Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has been asked for months whether he would join the Kerry ticket, said Wednesday he has never been offered the job of Kerry’s running mate and would not accept such a position. He declined to comment on whether he and Kerry had discussed a unity ticket. The Associated Press reported that discussions ended last week with McCain rejecting Kerry’s request to consider being his running mate.

“I’m not going to talk about private conversations I’ve had with senators. I’m just not going to do that. But I was never offered that,” McCain said. The Arizona Republican said he will campaign for Bush’s re-election.

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There's also been a prominent Republican prospect — John McCain, the independent-minded Arizona senator, former Vietnam prisoner of war and good friend of Kerry's. When a Florida man asked Kerry about McCain this month, Kerry assured him that "I've never hesitated to think out of any box."

Kerry brought up the subject several times with McCain over a period stretching from late last summer to last month. McCain said Wednesday on NBC that "I've never been offered the job." Despite his frustrations with President Bush and his party, he says he'll stay a Republican.

So the search and the speculation continue. Kerry, 60, flew back to Washington from Columbus, Ohio, late Wednesday "to meet with colleagues." They turned out to be Gephardt and Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana.

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Through a remarkable orchestration of behind-the-scenes politicking, John McCain's advisors thrust him in the middle of the John Kerry Vice Presidential selection process - the McCain as VP rumors started not in the Kerry camp but in the McCain camp.

By elevating his status among Independents and Democrats, John McCain dramatically increased his appeal and political power. In fact, McCain currently outpolls some potential Democratic 2008 candidates among DEMOCRATS.

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[Leilani]

1. Your Vanity Fair link does not work

[ProSense]

2. Sorry, fixed now. Thanks. n/t

[blm]

3. Why do so many supposed 'journalists' keep promoting a story that NEVER HAPPENED?

The laziness of so many in the media is just appalling - and the reason for this nation and its democracy's vulnerability at this point.

[beachmom]

4. Extreme urban myth!! Kerry didn't ask McCain to be his VP.

Interesting how McCain keeps trying to push the botched joke thing. He's kind of like the far right. Other than that extreme faction, nobody is now arguing that Kerry insulted the troops. Didn't anyone tell McCain it's the troops themselves who don't like his "more troops" in Iraq idea?

[ProSense]

5. "McCain lost a presidential race running as himself, so now he’s trying again...as someone else."

January 03, 2007

McCain ‘trying to square the circle’

Posted 3:30 pm | Printer Friendly | Spotlight
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Vanity Fair has a fascinating profile on John McCain in its new issue, filled with enough tidbits to write days worth of blogs posts (and I just might). But there are a couple of angles that stood out.

The point of the piece will seem familiar to anyone who follows the political scene carefully: McCain lost a presidential race running as himself, so now he’s trying again, running as someone else. It’s left him dazed and confused — telling the party’s far-right base what it wants to hear, while slipping occasionally and accidentally saying what he believes. “(T)he plain truth is,” the article explains, “that the Straight Talk Express, Version 2.008, is often a far cry from the Magic Bus of 2000.”

The examples are abundant.

Snip...

I almost feel sorry for the guy. His desperation is so intense, he’ll take any position, repeat any talking point, compromise on any principle, just so long as he gets the nomination.

By the end of the year, John McCain won’t even know who he is anymore.

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[Placebo]

6. If I hear "maverick" one. More. F'N. TIME!

:nuke: