It's difficult to respect your political commentary when they are mixed with insults or being patronizing. Whatever irritation you have with Guild seems to be getting in the way of making your words palatable to your audience.
Guild doesn't want a serious conversation, he just wants to troll and see how much effort I spend responding to posts he puts none into.
The mistake is mine for responding to him. I knew as soon as I did it that I'd made the wrong decision. Chalk this one up to the fact that I just miss Clutch and am so desperate for a contrarian viewpoint that "I'll hold the football and you run up and kick it" actually sounded like a reasonable proposition.
I'm happy to continue the conversation with any of the rest of you who are actually serious about it and, to that end, would like to extend my thanks to SCD for some posts that manage to disagree with me AND actually prove themselves to be well-thought-out and insightful. More like that, please.
On an unrelated note, and it does not change the commentary at all, your words sound like something I once read from a political-commentator-blogger. I don't suppose you remember offhand reading something that sparked making this connection about McCain's personal leanings?
I can't think of a particular source offhand, but I know lots of bloggers, both liberal and conservative, have connected the dots the way I have. I believe his record speaks for itself.
The media has its own narrative about McCain, and it's an affectionate one. He is far friendlier to the press than most politicians, and they love him for it; he's also a charming, funny, likable guy. Of course, the payoff is that the press just gushes over him and presents the public with a skewed image of him; as Chris Matthews remarked, "The press loves McCain. We're his base."
While I never really believed the "maverick" label, I DID believe McCain was a man of principle, that rarest of things, the honest politician, until a few short years back. I even voted for him in '04, back when he was putting up real resistance to Bush on the torture issue. I believe, however, that, knowing this is his last chance to get the Presidency, and having the bitter experience of 2000 behind him, he has compromised that integrity for the sake of winning.
Barry Goldwater was wrong about a lot of things. His efforts to dismantle the New Deal and his rabid anti-communist militarism are obviously stances I disagree with, as was his filibuster of the Equal Rights Amendment. But he said what he thought, and he voted how he felt, and he never compromised his integrity. And, all right, he got his clock cleaned by LBJ for it.
McCain sits in Goldwater's chair (when he bothers to show up for a vote), but he has turned his back on his legacy.
