The real McCain

Recently there have been several (here, here, here and here) articles speculating on the future presidential aspirations of the mainstream media's and the democrat's favorite Republican, John McCain. During his first run he was not a difficult candidate to support but I believe that his outwardly obvious political posturing of late doing everything he can to show himself against the Bush administration is going too far.

Although McCain considers himself a "straight talker", I believe that his opposition is purely a political consideration. This consideration is that after two terms the public will grow weary of the Republican party and be looking towards that mythical 'moderation'. McCain has played the media like a maestro, obviously knowing that a 'Rebublican' who always opposes Republicans will be portrayed as a hero in the press. He has played this line and now everything said by him is quoted in any newspaper as being beyond reproach.

The simple truth is that before everything, McCain is a politician first. Certainly he has his own political leanings and a right to those but he seems to be more reactionary and more than willing to play to the media and Republican hostile crowds. I bring this all up because of a part of an article that I read this morning with the following line, "...said Marshall Wittmann, who served as McCain's spokesman until last month, when he joined the Democratic Leadership Council."

The reason this line piqued my interest is that I remember in May, at the Arizona Republican Party convention, how lonely the volunteer collecting signatures for Senator McCain's reelection was. He has alienated a lot of Republicans in his quest for media legitimacy and his former spokesman now taking post at a democrat think tank just shows another reason why. Obviously this spokesman has had either democrat leanings or has always been a democrat. McCain's choice is his but it's of questionable judgment to assign such a prestigious post to someone of the opposing party if you want to be taken seriously as a Republican by Republicans.

This is why I think that the Senator's presidential aspirations will once again not likely make it past the primaries. While basking in the bright lights of political celebrity he has simply forgotten the party of which he proclaims himself a member and will pay for that oversight when that party votes for it's candidate.