"You are still an outlaw in their eyes..."

Maverick Walnuts McCain. Just a bit on Walnuts.

So the media's blowing up Maverick Walnuts McCain as some political bogeyman what should frighten Democratic kiddies in their beds as they dream of putting a black man or a white woman in office. Fear this way, fear that. Maverick Walnuts McCain's got appeal to independents in spades. They're so enamored of him they won't notice his affinity for wars and rumors of wars, his insistence upon continuance of the Bush policies in as many areas as necessary to appeal to the republican base.

Right, right. I still say Walnuts is dead in the water. But here's the real question:

A lot of attention's been paid to whether or not BarryHussein's got the gut for a protracted fight. They say he strongarmed his democratic opponents out of the race and then only had to run against laughingstock Alan Keyes after Jack Ryan was forced to drop out after it came out that he spent time trying to make his (smoking hot, Star Trek fanboy's wetdream of a) wife have sex in public. He's had no real competition, they say.

Fine. But neither has Hillary. She came into her senate campaign with the same mindset that she came into this campaign: assurance that the Clinton name would suck up all the air in the room. She ain't run a hard campaign. At least, she hasn't been at the head of a hard campaign.

Maverick Walnuts McCain's been in the Senate since Michael Jackson still had a career. Senate races are absurdly biased in favor of the incumbent. When he came in, he was taking over the seat vacated by Goldwater. Christalmighty. What're the chances Walnuts has had to run a difficult campaign?

The Republican nomination? Nope. That was Three Stooges in suits with flags. I remember writing you a year ago saying the Repubs couldn't field a serious candidate for 08. I stand by that. If you notice, there wasn't a "hard fought" campaign. It was McCain's "turn" and it showed early on. After winning in New Hampsire (a state where he was favored to win, if I recall correctly), there were, all of a sudden, well-coifed young Republican douchebags at his victory celebration chanting "Mac Is Back! Mac Is Back!" like some kind of demented McDonalds commercial. And it was set from there. Moderators at the debates didn't ask him any real probing questions. They didn't call him on his bullshit answers. They didn't skewer him on his twisting of Romney's words and positions. He was just the comeback maverick. Whole thing smacked of standard Republican "wait your turn" ism. Hug up on Dubya at the convention and we'll make sure you get the nod in 08.

So Walnuts ain't run a hard campaign, I'm guessing, in twenty-some years. Add that to his propensity for gaffes, ill-placed jokes, confusions of basic foreign policy terms, and other general screw-uppery, and this doddering old man will be retiring to bullheaded bitterness in the senate, come November.

All this is, of course, assuming the media gets tired of their "McCain=Maverick" narrative, which they've got to. They got tired of Obama=Messiah. If they turn on McCain after, say, August, then he'll be dead in the water.

Ugh. More later.

"Careful what you carry,
'cause the Man is wise
you are still an outlaw in their eyes."
-Steely Dan, "Kid Charlemagne"

-k