The Forked Tongue Express

John McCain has a roughly fifty-percent chance of becoming the next president of the United States, no matter how much the American public has had it with the Republican Party. Never underestimate the ability of the Democratic Party to self-implode. For the most part in his political career, McCain has enjoyed a reputation as a "maverick," labeling his campaign the "straight-talk express," admired by those who consider themselves some kind of hip free-thinking independents. That might have been true in 2000, but if you're a voter who chooses the person over the party, take a close look at what McCain has been up to in the eight years since then.

Just the other night I read an article in The New York Review of Books by Michael Tomasky. He's reviewing three books by those who beg to differ with the media-created perception of McCain as some kind of straight-shooting truthteller. His background, beyond the well-publicized stay in the Hanoi Hilton, is largely unknown. He is the son of an admiral, of course, but managed to get into politics in a series of fortuitous circumstances. First of all, his second wife, Cindy (his first marriage ended because of his tomcatting behavior) wed him to a large fortune from a beer distributor and put him a state he had never lived in before that had a propensity for electing Republicans, and was adding a congressional seat after the census. The seat added was in Tucson, which did him no good, but the Phoenix congressman conveniently retired. McCain beat back challenges from competitors who called him a carpetbagger with this: "Listen, pal, I spent twenty-two years in the Navy...We in the military service tend to move a lot....I wish I could have the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the First District of Arizona, but I was doing other things. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi."

Tomasky points out this wasn't exactly true (McCain lived longer in northern Virginia) but point well-taken, and it's one that has served McCain well over the years. Tomasky refers to McCain's career as being "thoroughly laundered in mythology," but there's no argument that he was heroic by enduring a horrible experience as a prisoner of war. But there's also no argument that this experience, whether or not McCain has played the card, has helped his image in the media. Some of McCain's critics explain it as a reporter being charmed by McCain, a very amiable man, and not being able to avoid thinking that while he was sitting in a cell with broken bones they were at Woodstock.

This led to McCain's being something of a hero to the press, and got him the maverick and straight-talk express labels. Covered up to a great extent have been his ethical lapses, such as being one of the Keating Five, and his at times obnoxious displays of temper, such as a time when he called his wife a cunt (in front of several witnesses). Worst of all, though, has been his shameful flip-flopping in an attempt to pander to the Republican base.

Shall we list them? Let's start with the legislation that McCain is best known for--McCain/Feingold, campaign finance reform. Earlier this year McCain announced "he would not abide by primary spending limits he had previously accepted." McCain rarely mentions campaign finance reform anymore, perhaps because the conservatives hate it. Tomasky lists some more flip-flops: the Bush tax cuts (formerly against them, now for them), Roe v. Wade (was against overturning it because it would lead to back-alley abortions, now says it wouldn't bother him, and has praised the appointments of Roberts and Alito, coded language that he would appoint pro-life justices), and no longer supporting rape-and-incest exceptions to the GOP platform plank. McCain's position on abortion is about as strong as Sam Brownback's. Petulant liberal women who say they will vote for McCain instead of Obama as payback for Hillary's defeat should run this around their brains a few times before carrying through that foolish decision.

Finally, McCain is softening on the issue of torture, which he bravely stood against with his own experiences as a backdrop. He has stated he is "satisfied with the infamous Military Commissions Act, which contained provisions that prevented prisoners from challenging the basis of their detention. The bill gave the White House the power to ignore the Geneva Conventions if it wished to."

What McCain is doing, of course, is walking a swaying tightrope: he is trying to woo distrustful conservatives while simultaneously hanging on to independents who were enamored with him since 2000. Like Janus, McCain is presenting two faces and trying to be all things to all voters who might cast a ballot for a Republican. This is particularly tricky considering the lack of popularity that President Bush has. It's currently at twenty-nine percent, but McCain can't win without those twenty-nine percent, so we get comedy like the fund-raiser that barred photographers (McCain and Bush were seen together for a forty-seven seconds, about forty-six seconds longer than McCain would like, I'd warrant).