One of Us (John McCain Profile by Esquire, Part 1 and 2)

The way it felt yesterday, the way it will feel again next week, when his immigration bill will pass, when, after his colleagues vote in favor of cloture -- in favor of limiting further debate and voting on this difficult, tempestuous thing -- he will stand in front of a gang of reporters alongside an unlikely coalition: senators Graham, Specter, Martinez, and Obama, shoulder to shoulder, and they will heap the praise on him that the students of the New School and hundreds of angry citizens on his office phones did not. And from a side door, in will lumber another senator, big and stooped and white haired, looking like a whaling ship somehow, cruising slowly toward its target: rival and friend John McCain.

Even in that loud, chaotic room, there will be an evident chemistry between them, born of some shared history as Capitol Hill behemoths, but also, rare these obnoxious days, of battles resolved. Without saying a word, Ted Kennedy will slowly dock next to McCain, take the papers that McCain is holding rolled up in his hand, and in his shaky script write triumphantly: 72-23.

"In August 2006, Chris Jones wrote this intimate portrait of John McCain's quest for the 2008 Republican nomination. Look back at the early, uncertain days of the McCain campaign."

"In August 2006, we published this intimate portrait of John McCain’s long fight for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. In January 2008, weeks before voters began voting in the primaries"

Two-part "intimate portrait" of John McCain through the eyes of Esquire writer. Esquire is a Hearst publication, which is decidedly politically liberal.

...That's why John McCain would like to tell you a story -- and why he would like for you to listen to it -- his story of countrymen and friendship, of reconciliation with David Ifshin and with Vietnam, the country that saw to it that he would never again be able to comb his own hair, and he would like to tell you that all wounds can heal, that all memories can be made good, and that every state can be New Hampshire, in the middle of summer, enjoying an ice-cream social with Senator John McCain.

Gag! McCain is so accepting of communists, leftists and Clintonistas. What a big hearted guy!

Gag! McCain is so accepting of communists, leftists and Clintonistas. What a big hearted guy!

Hey, you are no longer able to say these things about RINO McCain on FR anymore. It has become a home for fearful RINO republicans that pinch their nostrils every election and tell themselves they are doing it for the good of the troops.

I suppose they will keep doing this for the next 100 years, the length of McCain's plan for Iraq.

That will be long after the US has been turned into part of Mexico, via good old boy McCain. Maybe next election, Juan Hernandez will get the GOP nod.

Gag is right.

Across the aisle from McCain, where political strategist John Weaver or campaign manager Terry Nelson might have been expected to recline, sits long-retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Orson Swindle, strapping himself in. --- shades of John F. Kerry, "reporting for duty" because he "served in Vietnam"?

.....

For months, mindful of poll results and his staff’s urgent pleas, McCain had tried to separate himself and his candidacy from Iraq. He had to get past it, he was told often enough to make his ears bleed. While he would necessarily confess to the failures there, and he would repeat his belief that the consequences of a grander failure would be devastating, McCain dutifully tried to turn the conversation to issues of broader electoral appeal: Social Security and Medicare reform, balanced budgets, overhauling the tax system, reducing our dependence on oil. Only at sunset last night, in an airport hangar in Sioux City, backdropped by flags and bowlegged heroes, was that vain effort decisively abandoned. McCain has decided to ignore the numbers and the whispers -- easier now that he has surrounded himself with apparitions -- and tie his waning presidential hopes inextricably to America’s fate in the Middle East.

.....

His run had been under way for more than a year, predating the midterm elections of 2006, when McCain was one of the few life rings left for floundering Republicans. Then, the man exuded uptick. While he told reporters that he hadn’t made up his mind about what to do with his surging popularity, he was holding fundraisers and building an elaborate organization... --- who else on GOP side was preparing for presidential at the time?

.....

In 2000, the senator had been sunk in the end by the perception, especially among religious conservatives, that he was a Republican of convenience. The bipartisanship that McCain had trumpeted as the only way to get things done in Washington had made him look too willing to compromise, casting him in a traitor’s light. Later, to restore his reputation as a good soldier, McCain decided to swallow his pride and align himself strongly with the new president, including cosponsoring a Senate bill authorizing the war in Iraq. Although McCain couldn’t help criticizing Bush’s strategy as being short on troops and foresight -- a recipe for a new Vietnam -- he was careful to pin most of the blame on Donald Rumsfeld,

.....

dutifully tried to turn the conversation to issues of broader electoral appeal: Social Security and Medicare reform, balanced budgets, overhauling the tax system, reducing our dependence on oil.

Yeah... Campaign Finance Reform---some appeal! And now he brings us Global Warming cap and trade! This man has no vision, no core--he just flies in the wind looking for a popular note to carry him to power.

Later, to restore his reputation as a good soldier, McCain decided to swallow his pride and align himself strongly with the new president, including cosponsoring a Senate bill authorizing the war in Iraq.

Ahhh... so the great CIC-wannabe had to swallow his pride to go along with Bush?

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