Eulogy for John McCain's lost integrity

christiefan915 said:
He was for being a maverick before he was against it...

"We are gathered here today to pay our final respects to John McCain's integrity.

It died recently -- turned a triple somersault, stiffened like an exclamation point, fell to the floor with its tongue hanging out -- when the senator told Newsweek magazine, "I never considered myself a maverick." This, after the hard fought presidential campaign of 2008 in which McCain, his advertising team, his surrogates and his running mate all but tattooed the ‘‘M'' word on their foreheads.

Indeed, not only did they call McCain a maverick, but so did the subtitle of his 2003 memoir. Heck, his campaign plane when he ran for president back in 1999 was dubbed Maverick One. Yet there he is in the April 12, 2010, edition of Newsweek, page 29, top of the center column: "I never considered myself a maverick."

And his integrity kicked twice and was still.

The death was not unexpected. McCain's integrity had been in ill health for a long time. Once, it had been his most attractive political trait, drawing smitten prose from political reporters and intrigued attention from voters sick of the same old, same old from politicians who would bend like Gumby for the electorate's approval.

The illness began in that selfsame campaign.

By his own admission, McCain lied to voters about his opinion of the Confederate battle flag, fearing that calling it what it is -- a flag of treason, racism and slavery -- would cost him votes in flag-worshipping South Carolina.

In later years, he embraced right wing religious extremists he had once condemned. And reneged on a promise that he'd be open to repealing ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' if military leaders advised it. And went from opposition of offshore oil drilling to ``Drill, baby, drill!'' And etcetera.

Two things here: One, all the nattering about flip-flops aside, there is nothing wrong with changing one's opinion. It indicates a thinking mind.

Two, McCain is hardly unique. Indeed, they have a name for people who change their opinions in order to win votes: politicians.

But these are not just changes of opinion we're talking about. Rather, they are betrayals of core principle. And while that might be politics as usual, there is a higher standard for the politician who has positioned himself as a man of uncommon integrity, a purveyor of straight talk in a nation hungry for same. When that man panders, the disappointment is keen.

So it stings to see McCain knuckle under to the ideological rigidity that makes it heresy to cross the aisle, question the orthodoxy or have an independent thought. There's a sense of loss for those who ask of leaders, leadership. It reinforces the cynical notion that there is no one out there who is authentic.

One is reminded of that poignant scene in The Truman Show where Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank has just discovered his entire life was a made-for-TV fiction. ``Was nothing real?'' he asks. A voter who believed in John McCain, who regarded his iconoclastic singularity as a stirring example, might be forgiven for asking the very same thing.

``I never considered myself a maverick?!'' Wow.

With those words, McCain completes his transmutation into an avatar of all that is wrong in American politics.

May his integrity rest in peace."

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/...ohn-mccains-lost-integrity.html#ixzz0lgE5XVVy
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Speaking of integrity, BO has none.
 
Southern Man said:
Originally Posted by RStringfield View Post
Dude, no one was talking about you. I made a comment about McCain and how he was nominated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RStringfield View Post
Who was your pick?
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And your point? I asked who you picked. I did not make any assumptions or statements concerning you.
 
RStringfield said:
McCain never had any integrity. Only the left ever really thought he did. The Repubs who supported him knew that he was a fraud but being partisan hacks they went along with it anyway.
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As a lefty, I agree with you about the integrity. I thought McCain was okay back in 2000 when he was campaigning for the presidential nomination, and was really annoyed at bush's smears about him.
 
TuTu Monroe said:
Speaking of integrity, BO has none.
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As if you would ever think otherwise. :palm:

I respected McCain's former stance on illegal immigration but now that he's in a fight to keep his seat, he's pandering to the worst elements of the party. How can you not see this flip-flopping, his sell-out?
 
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