Whither McCain?

Back in the 2000 primaries, John McCain charmed the mainstream media, a whole lot of moderates, and more than a handful of Democrats with his persona as a straight-talking, no-nonsense anti-politician. But in the past little while, some of McCain's admirers have become worried as he seems to have taken something of a right turn. A spokesperson said he would've signed the bill banning abortion in South Dakota if he'd been governor. He's buddying up to Jerry Falwell, accepting his invitation to deliver the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University. In fact, Falwell even claims McCain told him that he'd be willing to lead the charge for a Federal Marriage Ammendment.

But if you're a McCainiac who feels spurned by the object of your affection, Jacob Weisberg in Slate assures us that McCain hasn't changed--he's just hiding in the closet. McCain isn't turning his back on his perceived principles because he's changed his mind. He's only doing it because he has to if he wants to be elected president. In fact, through some sort of logic I wasn't able to follow, Weisburg seems to be arguing that betraying his principles should actually be taken as proof that McCain still holds them.

[McCain is] trying to win over enough of his party's conservative base to win, for sure. But this is a stratagem--the only one, in fact, that gives him a shot at surviving a Republican presidential primary. Discount his repositioning a bit, and McCain looks like the same unconventional character who emerged during the Clinton years: a social progressive, a fiscal conservative, and a military hawk. Should he triumph in the primaries, we can expect this more appealing John McCain to come roaring back.

Pay no attention to the man in front of the curtain. Apparently thinking that this is somehow an argument in McCain's favor, Weisburg tells us, "He was a conservative before he was a liberal before he became a conservative again." You think McCain's taken a hard right turn? Weisburg says, "McCain's smoke signals spell out something different." Ah, yes. Whenever straight talk isn't possible, smoke signals are always the next best option.

I'd love to go on, but there's no way I could match the elegant take-down Weldon Berger executes at BTC News:

The short version of this nauseating elegy? "For now, my hero is pandering to the yokels. But as soon as the primaries are over, he'll lose those cretins and start pandering to his real base: journalists! Lawd, lawd, get me that seat on the Straight Talk Express. . . ." We can expect two more years of this crap, and worse, if McCain runs.

There's more where that came from. Read the whole thing.