Bush 44?
Or: Four More Years???

As you know if you've kept up with my fascinating musings, I've had a long-standing affection for John McCain. I'm not alone, of course--McCain has long had a good reputation among liberals despite the fact that he's quite conservative. Now, though, the change is is upon us. More and more--er, let's say enthusiastic--anti-McCain stories are showing up on the left wing of the interwebs. This is predictable.

But I have to say, my own fondness for McCain has faded. Oh, I still think he's admirable in many ways, and I think that the McCain-Obama race will be a much more civil and honorable affair than we're used to. But McCain really does need to work harder to separate himself from the astonishingly awful policies of this administration. I'd already lost a good bit of respect for McCain when he took it it from the Bush/Rove machine in South Carolina in 2000 and then fell in line as an almost sycophantic Bush supporter. The McCain that I had admired was, I thought, not the kind of man who would support the machine that had aimed racist attacks at his daughter. So that was one blow. Then McCain failed to stand up against Bush's irrational policies in the wake of 9/11. And that was, of course, very bad.

Now McCain is really starting to worry me. Sometimes it seems as if he is virtually running as Bush 44. And just about the very last thing the country or the world needs is four more years that those irrational, incoherent, counter-productive and disastrous policies.