Could the 2008 Presidential Election Have Been John McCain’s Waterloo?

At one time, I had a great amount of respect for John McCain. I didn’t agree with him on much, but I did respect him. Perhaps I bought into the whole maverick image seemingly created by the media. Perhaps McCain did as well. But anyway, I felt that he always voted with his conscience on most issues and not along strict party lines.

Out of all the candidates in the 2000 presidential election Republican Party primaries, I thought John McCain to be the better candidate. And when George W. Bush and Karl Rove and his ilk threw a wrench in the works in South Carolina by suggesting that McCain fathered an illegitimate black child with a prostitute, I could only grit my teeth with the knowledge that such an honorable man as McCain, a straight talker and veteran, should be defeated by such dishonorable, despicable tactics.

Of course, Bush went on to a questionable and contested win in the presidential contest against Al Gore, and John McCain returned to the senate. I’m sure that McCain was bitter; he had to be. But he carried on dutifully and without complaint.

In 2008, by the time McCain had secured the Republican Party nomination for president, I was actively campaigning for Barack Obama; however, I still felt somewhat happy that McCain had been able to secure the nomination. But perhaps, securing the Republican Party presidential nomination was the high point of McCain’s political career because then it all started to go downhill.

From the time McCain gave his infamously horrid speech in front of the puke green backdrop to his concession speech, his campaign, and maybe his political career, was doomed. First of all, ironically then candidate Obama had early success tying McCain to the George W. Bush presidency; in a cruel twist of fate, the man who had defeated him by unscrupulous means in 2000 resurfaced to defeat him once again.

And then he selected Sarah Palin as his running mate thinking she would give him the best chance to win. However, as soon as it became apparent to most of the nation that she’s as absolutely dumb as a bag of hammers, the moderates and independents he needed most to have any chance of winning fled in droves. Yeah, she fired up the right, but in the same instance, I don’t think she garnered any votes or support for him that he would not have gotten already.

The town hall style presidential debate held at Belmont University, which supposedly played to John McCain’s strengths, perhaps defined McCain’s presidential campaign—an old, tired, bewildered man wondering around on the stage seemingly looking for inspiration and direction.

After his defeat, I guess I expected McCain to return to the senate again and play his position just as he had done before. I expected him to be the decent, honorable public servant that voted with his conscience that I had always imagined him to be.

Instead, upon his return to the senate, he found his party pushing hastily and vigorously toward the right, and he decided to follow. And in doing so, he adopted this “just say anything to win” posture. In an effort to stay politically relevant and viable, he contradicted most of his earlier positions. He looked pathetically inept and desperate as he switched from one position to another on issue after issue.

However, now not only does he look inept, now not only does he look desperate, he looks simply defeated. In his effort to retain his senate seat, not only is he running from his earlier positions; he is running from himself.

In an effort to appeal to right wing conservative voters, he stated that he was not and has never considered himself to be a maverick.

 Huh? What? Well, after years of publically claiming the label, after years of running for office on the label, after writing an autobiography which featured the label prominently in the title, he claims that he actually never was what he said he was, nor did he say he was what he said he was. It’s all like a surreal mavericky political Jedi mind trick.

Up until the 2008 presidential contest, John McCain had served his country and represented his district honorably and with distinction. However, at the point he realized that the terms of his continued service had changed, at the point he realized that his continued service would require him to sell his soul in tiny, excruciating increments, perhaps he should have just thrown in the towel. Now he just looks like the over-the-hill athlete, the punch drunk fighter that continues to compete long after his prime.

Had he chose to retire following the 2008 presidential elections, had he chose not to seek office again and go back to Arizona as a civilian, his defeat would have just been seen as an unfortunate end to an otherwise stellar career. However, his insistence on continuing on means that even if he wins reelection, the price he will have had to pay will have eroded whatever honor and dignity he has left. The 2008 presidential campaign will not be seen as the high water mark of his career, but the beginning of the end—his own personal and political Waterloo.