John McCain, Loser: Reputation Gone?

John McCain has been an army officer and an heroic POW. He survived the Keating 5 scandal, where all evidence is that he should not have been "charged" with ethics violations, unlike the four Democratic Senators who made up the rest of the "Keating 5". John McCain won a nomination he appeared to have lost early. McCain has served all of those years in the U.S. Senate. He has put his name on some pretty bad legislation, including McCain/Feingold, McCain/Kennedy (immigration), and McCain/Lieberman ("global warming"). John McCain just lost the election for President, being beaten soulndly.

Through all of this, John McCian's reputation has never looked worse than it looks tonight. That is not because McCain lost an election. It is because of what McCain has allowed to be done to Sarah Palin by people associated with him.

Tonight, John McCain reputation stands ruined, or at least permanently tarnished. McCain, and those around him, look like sore losers tonight: losers in every sense of the word looking for scapegoats.

Am I being too hard on McCain? Not on your life. I remember McCain jumping all over a conservative radio talk show host. What was the "crime" of that talk show host who introduced McCain at a rally? It was that the talk show host put some emphasis on Obama's middle name (still "Hussein"). McCain has jumped on his own crowds for adverse reactions to a mention of Obama. McCain definitely knows how to condemn people for trashing other people.

Yet, McCain's own staff has been quoted as trasing Sarah Palin for a week or more, now, with the latest stuff being back fence gossip of the most malicious, evil and virulent kind. The (comparative) silence from McCain has been deafening. I am not talking about silence in "defending" Palin, although McCain could have been much more emphatic over the entirety of the past two days. I am talking about the lack of a strong condemnation of McCain people spreading this hateful gossip. McCain needed to read the riot act to his staff privately, and strongly condemn those trashing Sarah Palin publicly.

For me, McCain has no reputation left. He has lost it over the past week--not by an election loss but by the way he handled that election loss. If a commander-in-chief is responsible for his troops, McCain is responsible for his staff. He has shown little recognition of that over the last week.

John McCain: I no longer respect you. I would not have said that before tonight, even though I have never supported McCain politically. I now have no hesitation saying it, and I am right. John McCain deserves no respect tonight. Oh, his past military service will always deserve respect, but not his present incarnation as a politician who is letting his own chosen running mate be trashed when it was his obligaton to do something about it.

I am more glad than ever that John McCain is not President-elect of the United States. We deserve better. I am confirmed in my decision not to vote for McCain. It was the right decision.

P.S. I have not forgotten Fox News, which I have criticized for more than a year maybe years) as a huge part of the mainstream media problem, and no part of the solution. I was way ahead of Rush Limbaugh (as usual) on this, although Rush is coming around to my view (pretty much as usual). Fox News deliberately fed the newest trashing of Palin with perhaps the worst back fence gossip, from anonymous sources, I have ever seen. I have one message for you tonight: Do not watch Fox News, forever. I long ago gave you that advice with regard to MSNBC and CNN. Yes, Fox News is better than those two networkds, but only slightly. This is like my decision with regard to John McCain, which I regard as having been proven correct over the last two days. I refuse to promote the "lesser evil" (and "evil" is a word which applies to Fox News tonight), when Fox News is part of the problem. Nope. It is past time to abandon Fox News, as it was past time when I disavowed President Bush and the Republican establishment. As with CNN and MSNBC, I expect to meet a number of the Fox News people in Hell, if Hell exists (as I devoutly hope it does).