Vanity Fair: McCain - FAKING IT - Has To PRETEND He's Religious Conservative

From Vanity Fair, John McCain waffles on evolution and his "faking" support for the religious right:

Nor, presumably, was it straight talk last summer at an Aspen Institute discussion when McCain struggled to articulate his position on the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. At first, according to two people who were present, McCain said he believed that intelligent design, which proponents portray as a more intellectually respectable version of biblical creationism, should be taught in science classes. But then, in the face of intense skepticism from his listeners, he kept modifying his views -- going into reverse evolution.

"Yes, he's a social conservative, but his heart isn't in this stuff," one former aide told me, referring to McCain's instinctual unwillingness to impose on others his personal views about issues such as religion, sexuality, and abortion. "But he has to pretend (that it is), and he's not a good enough actor to pull it off. He just can't fake it well enough.

"http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/01/mccain-just-faking-his-support-of.html

http://www.vanityfair.com./politics/features/2007/02/mccain200702

just so that he can be President. John McCain is no "maverick"!

will go with someone else more to their liking, like Alan Keyes.

What happened to McCain? I never liked his politics, but it seemed to me that he was an honorable guy at one point in his life. It's almost like he's become the right-wing version of John Kerry: a victim of consultants and his own political ambitions.

"Up, Simba" by David Foster Wallace from his recent collection "Consider the Lobster". DFW did a piece for Rolling Stone on McCain for the 2000 election. It's a pretty fascinating read (in retrospect) considering that DFW covered the week preceeding the SC primary when the then largely unknown Governor of Texas began push-polling folks in SC and smearing McCain's name.

DFW's assertion is that McCain initially never really had any intention of winning in 2000; before the NH primary, he was polling around 3% and was able to speak about honesty, integrity and what-not because there was no way he was ever going to win. (Similarly, I think one could apply this hypothesis to someone like Kucinich too; McCain was using that election to air some issues that he felt strongly about without really being beholden to anyone.) However, following his win in the NH primary, everything surrounding him changed. Suddenly, all his handlers and advisors realized that they might actually have a shot at winning and, as the national media began to take notice, McCain's "maverick" qualities were toned down and scaled back.

DFW, of course, goes into much more detail and analysis of the situation. If you're interested, check out his article; as I said, it's pretty fascinating -- especially in hindsight. (Though, while reading it, I did come to the scary realization that most of this nation's politics and politicians are being orchestrated by some 50-100 WASP'y Ivy League bow-tie wearing nerds. Having lived on the East Coast for 5 years now and having encountered a number of these people, I'm truly astonished that the country hasn't fallen apart much sooner...)