WP, E.J. Dionne: Elegy for a Maverick

[DeepModem Mom]

Elegy for a Maverick
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, September 5, 2008; Page A21

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Once upon a time, John McCain promised to be a different kind of politician and a different kind of Republican. He was about straight talk, reform and nonpartisanship, a resolute foe of the slashing politics of the slaughterhouse. McCain tried to get voters to remember that man in his acceptance speech last night, the one who "worked with members of both parties to fix the problems that need to be fixed." But that man has disappeared.

The stage in the middle of the cavernous Xcel Energy Center was rearranged so McCain could conjure the feel of the town hall meetings he loves as he laced into "partisan rancor" and "the Washington crowd." Yet a set change could not disguise the fact that this convention -- including the big speech Wednesday by his running mate, Sarah Palin -- dripped with divisive ridicule as speaker after speaker worked to aggravate the country's cultural schisms and replay worn-out harangues against weak liberals.

The Republican crowd here has gleefully played into the worst stereotypes of their party as a privileged class resistant to change. When Rudy Giuliani referred to Barack Obama's past as a "community organizer" Wednesday, the crowd broke into ugly, patronizing laughter. These, presumably, are people who never needed a neighborhood advocate. Imagine if Democrats ever reacted that way to someone who worked as an entrepreneur or a church leader. And it's unlikely that even a convention of the American Petroleum Institute would erupt into raucous chants of "drill, baby, drill!"

McCain could not change his party, so he changed himself. McCain has pandered to a Republican right wing he once disdained on issue after issue, from oil drilling to immigration to tax cuts for the wealthy. Just as important, he decided that his last chance for the presidency rests on a systematic effort to make the old politics of demonization work one more time. If McCain's convention is a prelude to the fall campaign, he will leave behind a legacy of bitterness that will turn his promise of a new day into ashes.

His single most cynical act was choosing Palin as his running mate, "cynical" being the word used by former adviser and friend Mike Murphy, the Republican consultant caught by an open microphone....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090402842_pf.html

[Merlot]

1. "His single most cynical act was choosing Palin as his running mate..."

The more I read about her, the more I realize she's bush#2. On steriods.

This leaves me to believe that rove picked her. Everything about her, the distractions etc, are typical of what rove does. I do think mcsame wanted liberman, but I think rove wanted palin more.

[GoesTo11]

2. Except he was never a maverick, just played one on TV

He's been a total sellout for 4 years. Before that, he was posing as an independent type just because he thought it was expedient.