I'll admit it: Back in 2000, I was duped by John McCain.
But for a while there, it seemed like everyone was. Full-throated, vigorous support for John McCain was coming from both sides of the aisle — Time and Newsweek were declaring John McCain the future of American politics and a breath of fresh air in an otherwise vicious and partisan campaign. For a while, John McCain seemed like the answer to a lot of the voting population's problems.
He seemed to be the perfect candidate: A Republican who seemed more pragmatic than knee-jerk, a war vet who seemed to take a fairly rational stance on military issues, a politician who stood firmly against pork barrel spending and a man who listed individualists like Teddy Roosevelt as his personal and political heroes. He was the iconoclast, the maverick who was going to ride the "Straight Talk Express" from the underrepresented backwaters of America to Washington, cutting through partisan bickering and ushering in a new era of change during which things were going to get done.
Well, that was seven years ago. And, as it turns out, a lot can change in that short amount of time.
A large political shift to the right. A terrorist attack turned crass, jingoistic political opportunity. (Think the Republicans would be trotting out Rudy Giuliani if it weren't for the connection to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks? Please.) A bitter, divisive election. And, perhaps most damagingly, a war.
Suddenly, the renegade Republican from Arizona who took New Hampshire in the 2000 primaries disappeared. The candidate who the public and the press fell in love with disappeared. A new McCain stepped forward, ready to make a run at the White House — but something was different.
Gone was the air of moderation. In its place, outlandish statements and strange decisions spilled from the candidate. "I've always supported overturning Roe v. Wade"? Full-bore support of the Iraq war and the troop surge? Getting progressively chummier with the Bush administration? Giving the commencement address at evangelist reactionary Jerry Falwell's Liberty University? Wasn't this the guy that in 2000 condemned people like Falwell as "agents of hate"? What was going on?
At first, I thought maybe he was just warming up to the administration and the religious right in an effort to garner more hard-liner support in his party. But after his vociferous support for the troop surge, even while public opinion was quickly turning against the war and the aforementioned "Roe v. Wade" comment, I realized this was not some calculated maneuver to get more votes — this was just McCain showing his true colors. McCain isn't anything new; he's just another rank-and-file Republican offering more of the same.
So it was with no small amount of amusement that I heard McCain was re-launching the "Straight Talk Express" and going out to stump as the hellfire independent thinker he tried packaging himself as seven years ago. It's not gonna fly.
In 2000, McCain was savvy enough to realize there was a market out there for a particular set of ideas, and he exploited that (while deftly manipulating a media that was desperate for campaign stories to fill its 24-hour news cycle). Now, seven years later, the media has moved on and as the public gets a clearer idea of just who John McCain is, popular support will erode as well. Already, the surprisingly liberal — and, of course, tragedy-sponsored — Giuliani has pulled 10 points ahead of McCain in the polls, while moderates distance themselves from someone they view as betraying their ideals. Hard-liners want nothing to do with him because A) They're not too keen on the standing administration right now, and B) They're still pissed about what he said in 2000, disingenuous though it may have been.
In attempting to please everyone, McCain has only succeeded in alienating everyone. And that may not be such a bad thing.
After all, I seem to recall another candidate from 2000 who ran on the idea of being "a uniter, not a divider," stood firmly against nation-building and unnecessary military conflicts overseas and won people over by "talkin' plain." During the course of seven years, all of those promises were quickly abandoned, save for the simpleton speech. It's bad enough the American electorate was duped by that twice, but fortunately, we may have wised up quick enough to stop it from happening a third time.
Pete Nichols is the State News opinion writer. Reach him at nicho261@msu.edu.
