What's Eating John McCain?

Watching the last debate I began to wonder out loud about where the John McCain of the year 2000 went? Kate and I recalled that we even toyed with the notion that he wouldn’t be that bad as a president after all. He was a maverick and he was okay on Roe V Wade and was certainly not your die hard right wing Republican nut. In fact, when asked in 2000 about the abortion issue, he said while he did not favor abortion, he would not look to overturn Roe V Wade because of the harm that it would do to so many women. We thought that wasn’t so bad. So it occurred to me last Wednesday, what happened to the McCain of 2000?

Having watched him through the debates, I have always had a feeling for his discomfort. He seems to be playing some kind of a weird role that makes him itchy in his skin. His thrashing about on the bailout suspending, the campaign, then rushing to Washington and rushing back to the debate showed a man in confusion. The weird choice of Sarah Pailin as VP had many sober Republicans wondering “what on earth is he thinking?” She was the final sop to the devils on the right.

Then came this Greek chorus of people, mostly Republicans, who were complaining that “he should just let loose and be the old John McCain.” In the Wednesday night debate, when asked about Roe V Wade, he said he would be in favor of its repeal. That’s what sent me wondering what happened to the “old John McCain?” Ahaa I thought, he had made a Faustian bargain with the right wing devils in order to ease their concerns about his “maverickisms.”

In the Faust legend, Faust makes a deal with the devil for one supreme moment in a life that would go on forever. Of course the bargain doesn’t work out that way once the the Devil, Mephistopheles, takes control and Faust is doomed. For McCain, his supreme moment in life would be the Presidency. His bargain with the right wing nuts of the party will make him their prisoner. No matter how the election turns out, this could be his doom. Even if elected, I don’t believe he would be able to cancel the deal he made with the right wing and thus would remain their prisoner. Not a very assuring scenario considering the problems the next President will be confronting.

Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.