I remember when John McCain was actually somewhat of a maverick that he keeps trying to tell us he still is. When Senator McCain first ran against George W. Bush in the 2000 primaries he was a different man. He was a man that I respected whose opinions I may disagree with but someone that I would certainly consider. The Bush campaign seriously smeared McCain’s image and began it’s legacy of vicious unfounded attacks that have no base but still manage to fool the general public. Unfortunately for this country, this heavy handed smear campaign brought McCain’s first bid for presidency to an end quite quickly and sadly the next 8 years would change his views on many of the ideals that were part of his initial core campaign.

I am a staunch liberal but there was a brief moment in time when John McCain was truly a maverick and had some ideas that we had in common but I believe that time has passed. 8 years ago McCain was dedicated to fighting against loopholes in the corporate tax laws. He was against lowering taxes for the wealthiest people in the country. He believed in education reform and that it starts in the classroom, not with administrators and government officials. In fact, John McCain criticized Bush’s decision to go to Iraq but that was back when he was still a maverick. The man that stood up for those beliefs was someone that I could respect. There were a lot of issues where I did not agree with him but the fact that he did not blindly follow his party and actually had his own ideas on his own merit were things that I thought made him stand out.

Unfortunately the John McCain we see today is a completely different man. He supports the war and doesn’t even have a suggestion of when we should think about getting out. There is an absolutely hilarious clip on youtube of him singing “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys in an interview when asked about his opinion of how we should treat Iran. He has managed to pick a completely incompetent Vice Presidential candidate (and he should know better, we all like to believe we are super-human but in the event that something should happen to him, he knows that she would have to step in and that is just simply irresponsible). He wants to make the tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% and corporations. He has cowed under the Republican whip and I’m not sure he could recognize the man he was 8 years ago. He may not have been perfect 8 years ago but at least he stood up for what he believed in. Today, I’m not sure if he knows what he’s doing anymore and that to me is far more worrisome than Obama’s inexperience. In fact he is so unrecognizable from the candidate that he was 8 years ago when he refused to slander George W. Bush (who was smearing McCain’s name in every way he could) yet this is the same man who is now running the same sort of smear campaign against Obama.

I find it unfortunate that a Senator with so much promise, who had the gumption to stand apart for so long finally bowed under the pressure to such a degree that he is unrecognizable. What would happen to such a man if he were to be elected as president? Would that pressure bend him even further into even worse decisions?