John McCain: No longer a Maverick. No longer his own man.

In the primary campaign of 2000, I liked John McCain. A lot. His soft-spoken approach suggested unspoken intelligence and stood in sharp contrast to the noisy and clearly unintelligent George Bush. He was keeping his promise of running a clean, positive campaign against his opponent and slipped only when Karl Rove unleashed push polls in South Carolina. His campaign for president was finished. His career was briefly jeopardized when the crazed extreme right attempted a recall election; he easily survived, but it was clear that he was not a mainstream Republican.

For the next 6 years, John McCain generally played nice -- campaigning with Bush and other Republicans -- while maintaining an air of bipartisanship and not infrequent criticism of Bush's war in Iraq. He was a regular guest on The Daily Show and a favorite of Jon Stewart.

In 2006, he started his run for President, and McCain slowly abandoned his Straight Talk Express and began compromising his maverick image. He started leaning hard to the right and doing anything necessary to shore up his conservative base. He abandoned a number of his previously non-partisan stances in favor of his new conservative image. He began to embrace Bush, figuratively and literally. He started letting his minions horribly insult the Democratic candidates in ways that were similar to treatment by Bush in 2000. Some of this was understandable considering that this was his last shot at the presidency. But, it didn't end there.

McCain was generally quiet and nearly invisible as Obama and Clinton slugged it out in the final stages of the Democratic campaign. When the RNC Convention rolled around, the metamorphosis of John McCain was complete. He desperately wanted Joe Lieberman for his VP pick, but he allowed himself to be talked into choosing Sarah Palin. This move suggested he was losing control of his campaign. He started allowing various GOP speakers to unabashedly lie; at first, they ignored the truth in his absence. He then started touring with Palin who repeated known lies while standing at his side. The final blow was delivered when McCain started repeating these lies.

He no longer represents anything resembling change.

He has given away his maverick image.

Sadly, he has given away the last crumbs of his identity.

Goodbye, John.

mav·er·ick (mvr-k, mvrk)
n.
1. An unbranded range animal, especially a calf that has become separated from its mother, traditionally considered the property of the first person who brands it.

mccain's been branded all over
see who owns him: http://stone-waves.blogspot.com/2008/09/mccain-palin-maverick-reformers-not.html