John McCain, and other notes on the campaign

Now something where I can feel good about Sullivan: he's written a favorable piece on John McCain. I'm still upset about his cozying up to the religious right, and in an ideal world he'd face some awfully hard questions about his embrace of Falwell, but frankly, of all the people who actually have something resembling a chance of getting a nomination, he's slowly become my top pick, for his experience, integrity, and lack of dynastic baggage. Sullivan quotes David Brooks, whose column on McCain is must-read material: "There have been occasions when McCain compromised his principles for political gain, but he was so bad at it that it always backfired."

I'm less impressed by his conspiracy mongering/drooling over Hilary-floated rumors that she has dirt on Obama. Really, this one isn't hard to understand: humans aren't naturally pure, if you want them to play nice with you, it helps to have a tit-for-tat policy for cooperation and retaliation. The thinly-veiled threat, "you trash me and I'll trash you," is completely rational, and it's exactly what I'd do if I were in Hillary's place. And if this is about Bill's philandering, and Hillary is intent on looking the other way, it's her own, er, fucking business. I believe that strongly enough that if she used some transparently insincere rationalization to hush it all up, I'd cheer. (See also Michael Reynolds' piece Character? No. Competence.)

Finally, I've thought of one more reason to vote for Hillary:


When I first saw this mash up of the old Mac ad, it struck me as a good expression of how fake she comes off as being. But you know what? That means she is a woman who couldn't sell a false pretense for war if her life depended on it. That, plus the fact that by Sullivan's own admission, she's extremely hardworking, intelligent, etc? Even if the dynastic thing yet drives me to vote Jon Stewart, I'd still take her over Obama.