The Hollow Man (sorry if it's a dupe)

http://www.truthout.org/article/the-hollow-man

Sunday 31 August 2008

by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Columnist

photo
US Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain walks on stage at the Civil Forum on the Presidency at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. (REUTERS/Mark Avery)

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.

- H. L. Mencken

In this election, it is the character of the candidate that will matter the most.

That, and pretty much that alone, has been the core campaign message Republican candidate John McCain has been peddling to all and sundry for nearly two years. His devotion to this particular talking point has come to resemble the kind of passionate zeal rarely seen beyond the compound walls of survivalist militia groups; and the slavish dedication he has displayed in tolerating the mindless monotony of such endless repetition is matched only by the muddy mooing of sacred cows along the shores of the Ganges River in India.

Clearly, Mr. McCain has become deeply invested in trying to keep the entire presidential campaign conversation focused only on this mantra regarding "Character." To be sure, he has definitely put in the work. He began his second, and presumably final presidential campaign on the second Friday in November of 2006; in the six hundred and sixty one days that have passed since he became a candidate again, his maximum efforts have been focused on flogging the "Character" theme every step of the way.