McCain's Not-So-Valuable Dignity

Next up from me are a couple of things that may seem obvious to a lot of people-- and I know I take them for granted-- but they are opinions that are not voiced in the mainstream media outlets much or even in the blogs, so if people are visiting this site to hear this kind of thing that doesn't get said most anywhere else, then these two things are things I want to make sure you've gotten to hear.

First, Kevin Drum writes this about John McCain (Kevin never used to write things quite this bad years ago-- I'm not one of those who considers his past support for the IRaq war to be an unforgiveable sin-- but more recently comments like this have become typical of him):

Not only will he lose the election, but he's going to wake up one morning and realize that he abandoned his dignity in the process. That's obviously something that's important to him,

I don't think so. He seems to know just what he's doing, and this kind of crap is just the standard operating procedure for guys on his side. Sure, it is undignified, but people like him grow up not caring about stuff like that. The only indignities people like him care about are things like being sent to prison, not being caught in a lie by people (the nation's liberals) who don't have a lot of power over them.

Then there is this:

I've never been a big John McCain fan. Even in the 2001-2004 era, when he was flirting with the left and opposing the most neanderthal elements in his own party, I didn't really warm to him.

To me, he mostly seemed like a standard issue conservative who had discovered a good schtick during the 2000 campaign and was milking it for all it was worth,

I think treating the Republicans' politicians at the national level (including John McCain) as if bipartisanship is something that can be for real with them is all wrong. People who believe otherwise are just not wise to the reality of politics in this country nowadays, and to what's going on. Kevin just sounds like he's by turns polishing John McCain (maybe there are some people out there whe will vote for a white guy over a black guy if they can just be made to believe of the white guy that "dignity is very important to him"-- how lovely!-- even if he has, in noble political combat, sometimes fallen short of his own expectations) and making excuses for him.