Flipping the Ticket

Frank Rich speculates on the next gimmick to come from the McCain campaign:

You have to wonder how long it will be before they plead with him to think of his health, get out of the way and pull the ultimate stunt of flipping the ticket. Palin, we can be certain, wouldn’t even blink.

Frank Rich, Pitbull Palin Mauls McCain, New York Times, Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Bitterness of Modern Politics

From an article in today's New York Times titled With a Month to Rally, McCain Hones His Attacks:

But some Republican strategists who once worked for Mr. McCain say that the attacks and false statements have weakened the brand he built over the years as a straight talker who lamented the bitterness of modern politics. More than half of the respondents in a New York Times/CBS News poll said late last month that Mr. McCain spent more time attacking Mr. Obama than explaining what he would do as president.

McCain's campaign this year casts his previous lamentation about the bitterness of modern politics in a new light. He wasn't lamenting personal attacks or unfair attacks or even attacks against him, so much as he was lamenting attacks against him that were effective in derailing his campaign.

Make-Believe Maverick

Reading this story about John McCain at the Rolling Stone titled Make-Believe Maverick:

But the truth of the matter is that ambition is John McCain's basic character. Seen in the sweep of his seven-decade personal history, his pandering to the right is consistent with the only constant in his life: doing what's best for himself. To put the matter squarely: John McCain is his own special interest.