I got to thinking....Why does John McCain want to be president so badly? What's driving him down this incredibly dark road to the White House? I've said it a hundred times; John McCain of 2008 took John McCain of 2000 in the back and beat him to death with a lead pipe. Why? Because he couldn't possibly have run for president. John McCain truly is a maverick, I'll give him that, but in a toxic way...not a good way.
Whatever John McCain was back in 2000, he was relatively well liked. Not necessarily among other Republicans, namely because he was so respected by Democrats. Consider the idea of John McCain of 2000 making a successful bid for the Republican nomination of 2000. At the time, there was a simmering anger towards Bill Clinton for his horrible foray into adultery and a sense that eight years was enough of this tax and spend liberal that somehow managed to save our economy during the 90s. Things were going so well that a blow job seemed like a huge deal. John McCain wasn't the type of person (at the time) to bother with the politics of who is more moral. He wasn't wild about the religious right and he agreed with Democrats on a number of issues. Guess what, he didn't win the nomination.
Fast forward to 2008, election eve. John McCain is a man who's paid the ultimate price for the Republican nomination. He sold everything, which I would define as his soul, to be president. He courted the religious right and his conservative base after one of the worst batch of Republicans I've ever seen all sought the nomination and John McCain was the last man standing. He did things he never thought he would do. He was forced to pick Sarah Palin or dash his hopes of being backed by the base. He felt compelled to hire the very same people who in 2000 worked for George W. Bush and accused him of fathering a black baby. He told the world that he would not accept any negative ads about Reverend Wright and yet has said nothing as the Republicans sent out commercials including him in the last days coming up to the election. So what, exactly, is left...
I have a pessimism about tomorrow that creates a protracted and constant sinking feeling in my stomach that doesn't seem to go away. I tried as hard as I could to have the hope that Barack Obama would like to see us have but I have clear limits. I honestly don't have enough faith in this country that they'll choose hope over fear, togetherness over divison, and calm interpretation over knee-jerk reactions.
In the last 48 hours, the election is playing out like Shakespeare. But the question is will it be a tragedy, or will it end like A Midsummer Night's Dream. There is no reasonable expectation of a happy ending in real life, which is why we have to try our hardest no matter how little hope we have to do the right thing. The only residual hope I can manage to scrape up is that this country will prove me wrong tomorrow and vote for the man who is most qualified for the job, despite the color of his skin...and that I never have to see or hear from the man who sold his soul and his nurse again.
