In the Tank - The Case Against McCain

"Candidate McCain of the past six months has too often seemed the victim of political sorcery, his good features magically inverted, his bad ones exaggerated." - The Economist



John McCain is one of the greatest American heroes this generation will ever know. He has made countless sacrifices to his country, and served as an exemplary legislator. However, the 2008 campaign has shown the American people a different John McCain. We have come to know an ill-tempered, pessimistic, nasty old man who is spiraling toward irrelevance, with almost no discernible solutions on how to make this country great again. John McCain is not fit to serve as President.



In an effort to become President, Mr. McCain has sold out nearly every shred of his once unimpeachable integrity. Employing the tactics, and disciples of, Karl Rove, Mr. McCain has attempted to unleash on his opponent the same politics of fear that undid his own promising bid of 2000. Mr. McCain seems almost allergic to offering his own solutions to the many problems our nation faces, and instead opts to speculate on who his opponent had coffee with 10 years ago. He has campaigned towards people's fears, employing robocalls to broadcast his tawdry message. Mr. McCain has dubbed himself as a "maverick" for his willingness to go against party lines to accomplish what is right. However, in this race, he has only moved further to the right, hoping to rally his reluctant base, all the while alienating the center he used to so comfortably occupy.



And perhaps the most garish example of his rightward trend has been his selection of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential candidate. Having previously met the Alaska Governor a whole two times, McCain felt confident putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the most important job in the world. Palin has shown herself to be incapable for this position (namely by not being able to define this position). It stands to reason that Mr. McCain chose Mrs. Palin on account of her gender (tapping into potential Hillary holdouts) and her positions on right-wing hot button issues like abortion (tapping into his reluctant base). It is clear that he did not chose Palin with America's best interests at heart. It was a Hail Mary, a shot at the end zone, and it has backfired miserably. Not only has Palin become a liability in this campaign, at times it has appeared that she is running a separate campaign from McCain.



Mr. McCain has shown that he will stop at nothing to get elected. His pursuit of this highest office in the land has led him away from the core values and integrity that once made him great. He has run on the platform of "Country First." Mr. McCain's track record leads us to believe that he would put the 'country first,' but his candidacy leads us to believe that he'll get around to this prioritizing just as soon as he gets elected.