McCain the Mimic: Arizona senator's backing of Bush's war is indefensible (SLTrib)

[struggle4progress]

Tribune Editorial
Article Last Updated: 03/28/2008 07:42:30 PM MDT

McCain the Maverick had an irresistible appeal. But that isn't the McCain who emerged last year from the political purgatory assigned him by the religious right to become the party's would-be heir to the White House, and to the wreckage of George W. Bush's failed presidency ...

McCain's current incarnation was on display during a fleeting money-raising stopover in Utah on Thursday. And we have to say that, based on the evidence, we prefer McCain the Maverick to McCain the Mimic, an appellation we believe accurately reflects McCain's support for Bush's decision to invade Iraq and, five years later, to continue the occupation for as long as it takes to bring peace to a region that has seldom known it.

Indeed, if the war had been the only topic up for discussion, the Arizona senator could have employed President Bush as a stand-in and saved himself the trip ...

We categorically disagree with McCain's belief in the efficacy of an unending war with shifting goals that has claimed more than 4,000 American lives, killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and is bleeding the federal budget at the monthly rate of $13 billion. And we believe that the American people won't buy it either ...

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_8734041