And now McCain is left re-running Hillary Clinton's attack ads.

Sad.

McCain sold his soul and has nothing to show for it.
.

He will only regret his choices if he loses. McCain v2.0 was 10 times the man that McCain v2.8 is. I still wouldn't vote for v2.0, but he would be a lot more palatable than the current model. I know that I'm preaching to the choir, but I can't believe he has as much support as he does.

Stupid is as stupid does...

He only wants to be President so he can BE President and outrank his father and grandfather.

SO, since he is not driven by wanting to do good for people but only personal power, of course he will do anything to win.

Assuming McCain loses this election, whatever would he want his brand for? He's too old to run for anything again (except maybe Senator, and his behavior probably wouldn't endanger that). Thanks to Cindy, he has more money than God.

Burning his (undeserved) mavericky reputation makes perfect sense - Now is the last, best time for it to be worth anything to him.

People are wise to Rovian tactics which help to further the opine that he is just another Bush.

I really think this miscalculation is tied to McCain never really having to run a campaign, and a degree of narcissism that's hard to fathom. He'd always been able to deride the process, and the necessity of his having to participate in the process ridiculous as it is, to his "friends" in the press. He took for granted that he would get the same pass he'd always gotten. That may work in the early stages of a primary. But it doesn't work in a national campaign

You can take the lead out of the toys, but we still remember you giving the "OK" to use it in the first place. Fisher-Price = John McCain

I agree with LP. McCain will regret his vile tactics only if he loses--and maybe not even then. The rest of the country and the world will have massive regrets if he wins.

We're still a month away, folks, and negative campaigning CAN work. It's too soon to assume that this race is in the bag for Obama.

So why is the MSM actually questioning McSame in a way that they never questioned W? W got away doing most of the same stuff unquestioned and unreported in the last 2 elections, why has press coverage shifted now?

I think what has happened is that the money behind the GOP is terrified of a Palin presidency. Previously they have always been able to count on the religious right as useful idiots to be ignored after the election. Oh, yeah you can throw them small bones like cutting off contraception aid to Africa, but nothing that would threaten the corporate control of the government.

But President Palin could wake up one morning and decide that after reading her bible that credit cards are usury, and ban them by executive order. She is not from them. They have no hold on her.

Obama is less scary, and they can work with him. The conventional control tools (lobbying, pork, etc) will work fine.

Henceforth the word has come down to the reporters that it is OK to take McCain down.

If this analysis is correct on the inner workings of McCain's mind (that he can get away with stuff simply because he's John McCain), then it really shows the depths of his arrogance or lack of understanding of people in general. How can John McCain put country first when this is all about John McCain and his presidency?

John McCain > Country > Corporate Interests > the people

This is not an equation for a successful America. I'm not even sure if I have the equation correct. I might have Country and Corporate Interests transposed. Who knows.

I guess they didn't GET IT when McCorpse, the racist lying maverick, pulled his FipFop in South Carolina on those losers' battle flag kerfuffle, back in 2k.

He was slime then & he's slime now.

The Rolling Stone article:

Even as a toddler, McCain recalls in Faith of My Fathers, his volcanic temper was on display. "At the smallest provocation," he would hold his breath until he passed out: "I would go off in a mad frenzy, and then, suddenly, crash to the floor unconscious."

McCain is 72...
Any analysis of his future must consider he is entering his second childhood...
Without really having left the first....

He only wants to be President so he can BE President and outrank his father and grandfather.
SO, since he is not driven by wanting to do good for people but only personal power, of course he will do anything to win. Posted by: lilybart

After reading the Rolling Stone profile it's Shrub all over again, except that Shrub was, perhaps, a better pilot and stayed married to the same woman.

Like Shrub, McCain is a spoiled mediocrity that failed upward with the help of family and friends. In fact, if the Navy had followed its own rules, McCain's one claim to fame, being a POW, never would have happened because he should have had his flight privilege stripped and he never should have been sent to Vietnam as a pilot.

Getting to know you...

One need only recall that McCain is one of the most corrupt senators in Washington on illegal immigration to judge his character.

jayackroyd nails it.

If these reporters hadn't been in the McCain tank in the first place (he has always been a self-pitying, right-wing hack) then they wouldn't felt "had" later on.

Bad journalism, girls and boys.

McCain's political capital turned out to be a sub-prime loan.

That's Just What I Said

I expect that McCain will soon begin running ads that imply that Obama has fathered black childen.

I expect that McCain will soon begin running ads that imply that Obama has fathered black children.

I've been saying for weeks now that the Obama campaign did a masterful job of managing the media over the last couple of months.

They laid back on attacking McCain directly for much of the summer (which many, including me, criticized) but they recognized the power of McCain's brand and his support among the media. They knew that any attack launched would be swallowed up by the MSN and derided and ignored (a correct assumption).

But throughout August one could hear a subtle change in the Obama camp's message about McCain. They began to quietly push the 'good man gone bad' meme. This culminated in Biden's strong speech at the convention outlining the differences between 'canidate McCain vs Senator McCain'.

The strategy got a little off track with the Palin nomination sucking up all the media oxygen for a couple of weeks but went back into full swing in late September. And by then one could see more and more media outlets and pundits picking up the same meme. John McCain has 'sold out' and 'will say anything to elected' and the 'good man gone bad' meme is widely accepted in the MSN.

I don't mean to diminish McCain's self inflicted wounds but the Obama camp did a very good job of manipulating the medai narrative. Now Obama has room to launch his own attacks on McCain and get them a somewhat fairer hearing by the MSN than would have been possible back in July or August.

As I've said before, the smart thing about this meme is that it allows the MSN to keep their illustion that McCain was a great guy back in 2000 and that they read him correctly. They did not make a mistake, McCain changed. McCain feeds this meme when he started denying access to reporters, limiting interviews and attacking his 'base' in the MSN.

Again, many of McCain's wounds are self-inflicted but credit must be given to Obama's rope-a-dope strategy recognizing the existing meme and working to change it.

I genuinely fear for the future of this country if McCain becomes president. I'm afraid he (or Palin) would quickly eclipse Bush for the 'Worst President Ever' title.

We can't afford that.

Don't overestimate the press. They'll attempt to mask their self loathing by overcompensating with the faux balancing act.

Excuse me but I think the bigger story here is the absolute lack of a press corp questioning McCain over the years that helped produce this "maverick" bullshit in the firstplace. If they had done half the job that bloggers have in digging into McCain's background we wouldn't be seeing this so-called meltdown today. He'd never had the chance to run as a candidate had the press done their job.

He'd developed a degree of credibility and good will, and thought he could simply reclaim it after lying and smearing his way to victory.

I often wonder whether the same thing has happened to Hillary. It has with me.

I think another piece of this is the smokescreen McCain-Palin camp is raising to keep attention away from her tax returns. She didn't declare $43,000 "reimbursement" from Alaska for travel expenses for Todd and the kids. Other problems too. The press needs to focus.

Best. Keith. Ever.

Sunshine revealed the man behind the curtain. This is always who McCain was. Let's just be glad the meddling kids pulled the mask off before old man McCain got away with it.

It's very sad, really. While I would never have voted for McCain, his heroism was real: not because he spent five years being tortured in the Hanoi Hilton; but because afterward he led the effort to reconcile with Vietnam. Not only does that tinge his current incarnation with tragedy; consider what it says about the GOP "base" he's trying to bring out: They don't care about heroism. They don't admire forgiveness. They hunger for rage and hatred and smears, and are willing to abide ignorance and incompetence to get it. Well, they've feasted on it for eight years now. And look where it's gotten us.

McCain wants to BE our POTUS. He's decided that nothing will stand in his way, that he is the one to lead our country.

It's his mission. He even said so in his book. I won't dredge up the quote since I've done it time and time again, but ya can find it if you so choose.

So, his mission now is to destroy our country as he and Sarah bludgeon us all on their (hoped for) way to the Whitehouse.

Enough. I will not see my country tear itself apart while some self-serving folks manipulate the masses.

Our economy is in tatters, we must not fall for John and Sarah's treasoness behavior.

Yes, I used the 'T" word. To incite discord, to be tangentally tied to successionist movement (AK), to be mum while supporters yell "terrorist." and "kill him" is a very, very serious road to go down.

I hope the debate tonight reveals this dark side of where John and Sarah would have us go.

God help us.

Campbell Brown and others in the media are now attacking Obama for playing the sleaze game "You said you weren't going to go there".

What did they expect? It makes me furious they are bringing this up, and it's under the guise of being a fair journalist, without looking at the entire picture.

When Obama is attacked about his patriotism, his association with unseemly characters, when he's accused of palling around with terrorists, and when McCain campaign doesn't back off but presses on, with hate enciting questions such as: "Who is this guy really?"

This has not been anything close to a sort of equal throwing of mud. For a long time, it's clearly been apples and oranges in terms of degree, scope and severity of attacks.

I'd like to ask Campbell Brown and others: What do you think Obama should have done? Nothing?

I don't want to say "He (McCain) started it, but well--he did. And in a big way. And when you are being bullied, you don't just ignore all of it. Especially when you are being accused of horrific untruths. These potent slanderous labels and links stick.

Chris Mathews (who is doing a great job recently) brought up a good analogy yesterday--it's like suggesting to someone:
'Don't think of a blue cow'. Well guess what you are now going to think of?

Once you put out any suggestion of dishonesty--
and especially if you do it as blatantly and boldly as the McCain folks have been doing--it's out there--it serves quite well at exploiting any unrest and uncertainty that is out there--and believe you me, with a black candidate who has a different sounding name--there's toxic levels of uncertainty brimming below the surface of a lot of voters.

"he knew exactly what he was doing when he hired Karl Rove's operation and deliberately abandoned his integrity for electoral gain."

You seem to assume that he had integrity in the first place -- or more than the average politician. IMHO McCain was always a fairly standard Republican who had a couple of issues -- notably campaign finance & recognizing VietNam -- but on most other issues he toed the Republican line.

As far I was concerened his integrity went out the window with the Lincoln S&L and Mr Keating.

I dont think it will matter. I think he's going to look back and think he did everything in his power to become President. This would have made up for failing to become an Admiral.

This "maverick" title could be turned on him. My mother watched the debate with me on Thursday, and I thought it was funny when she turned to me and said "they keep calling themselves mavericks, like it's a good thing".

Who does the GOP blame for losing in 2008?

McCain seems like an obvious scapegoat. The far Right doesn't like or trust him. Most of his Senate colleagues think he's a preening tool.

Plus, the dude probably has health problems.

There's a good chance he retires rather than complete his term.

The answer to the press is "You know what? You can rise above the attack ads, if the people call your opponent on his poop flinging. If they won't, who will? This country does not want a president who stands there covered in poop. So we're wiping it off, and pointing to our opponents poop covered hands. And we're saying look who's throwing poop! And you know what? It's their poop. They're throwing their poop, and saying we smell. I don't think it's a fair question to ask me why I've stopped just letting the poop hit me. That's not rising above it. That's getting covered in it."

The problem being a maverick is that you're always gambling, getting into fights, and getting thrown into the mississippi from a riverboat.

So why is the MSM actually questioning McSame in a way that they never questioned W? W got away doing most of the same stuff unquestioned and unreported in the last 2 elections, why has press coverage shifted now?

Two things to keep in mind -

1) W didn't have the "straight-talk reformer" image to bandy around. The press "knew" who he was from the get-go. He was an ambitious, kinda dense son of a former President who was a "charmer". And in 2000, with a press corpse rabidly angry with Clinton and taking their anger out on Gore, that was all he needed. Once 2004 came around, the corpse was "all in" and so ignored a lot of stuff that they should have reported because they ignored it in 2000, so bringing it up in '04 would be "old news".

2) W's lies were subtler. To explain how W was lying you needed a level of nuance. Kerry got tripped up over and the press isn't into nuance - if it isn't black and white then they don't bother with it. Obama can do the nuanced explanation thing better than Kerry, but McCain's lies are so blatant and so easily debunked that an 8th grader with Google can point out how he's lying.

Don't discount the power of point 2 up there. The press doesn't mind being lied to so long as they know that the guy doing the lying doesn't think they're idiots. McCain and his camp decided to treat the press like they were idiots and put out easily debunkable lies and smears. The press corps as a whole, even the "dead from the neck up" ones, don't like being treated like they're stupid.

Maverick? You can be my wingman anytime!

Background shows pictures of beach volleyball, then plane being shot down.

While we can look forward to Hon. Sen. McCain's apologia, I think that an aspect of his descent into the caricature we see before us today should, if there is any justice in the world, be most important because of how the world will judge Senator McCain, but because of how we will judge those who defended him. With any luck at all, the opinions of all the hacks who would say any outrage to support such an obvious faker, should make them irrelevant.

I hope tonight that Obama calls McCain on it. Question his integrity right to his face. Ask him why he is condoning this type of politics, call him a fraud. McCain's 'Obama didn't agree to Townhalls' excuse should be called in too. "We're here John, and you are running a vile campaign. What do you plan to change John? Why are you deliberately trying to incite the flames of division?"

Let's see McCain take ownership of this tonight!

When is McCain's senate seat up for re-election? He lost any integrity he might have had and deserves to lose his position along with his reputation.

I suspect that McCain will not survive much beyond next year, he knows it, and so anything goes.

The original "Maverick" was a San Antonio lawyer who also owned a ranch near San Antonio. He refused to brand his cattle, claiming he didn't want to hurt them. This was before fences.

Actually what he did was go out and any time he found a cow that was unbranded he claimed it was his. It was a form of cattle rustling that only a lawyer could love.

This is the story I have always heard. It is not a good thing to be called a Maverick.

You are close, Rick - My husband is writing a book about that era and came across the origins of "Maverick" last summer and I just had to post about it, it was too delicious to pass up. Here is the gist:

In the mid-1800's a New England lawyer named Samuel Maverick decided to try his hand at ranching in the San Antonio River Valley, but he was something of a stubborn sumbitch who thought he knew better than everyone else, and refused to brand his cattle. In less than a year, he discovered that his avaricious neighbors and outright rustlers had made off with his stock, so in spite of having good land and plentiful water, he was out of business in a year because he neglected the basics.

Soon the Texans of that era and area were applying the term derisively, to mean a person who was too stubborn or stupid to attend to business and ended up losing their shirt.

One nit to pick first:

When McCain began his descent into becoming a partisan hack

That implies, of course, that he wasn't a partisan hack before and simply managing his brand better.

But moving on: There's been a lot of talk of late about whether McCain, win or lose in November, will regret how pathetic he became over the course of this campaign.

He'll only regret it didn't make him win.

After George W. Bush took eight years to ruin the Republican Party's brand, it took McCain only eight months to ruin his own. Now, that's an impressive achievement, my friends!