A lot of people have been speculating that McCain has been trying to turn his campaign around, build up some momentum, and so forth. The Sarah Palin pick was one element of this, and I think the escalation of these attacks over the past few days is another. What you're describing (and I presume this is in your mind as well) would be a real turn around, something that would actually shock the nation, I think. McCain would certainly gain enormous moral stature in my eyes, making up for a lot of the recent past. (He'd still be wrong on policy, though.) It's odd and sad that there's no chance in practice that this would happen (in my opinion; it would alienate too many Republicans who may believe the rumors).

Fat f%^&*g chance, Kent. Character is destiny, and the vein of heinousness in this man is not of recent origin and is not removable by surface mining. It is deeply embedded. Like Rob, I'd oppose him on policy anyway, but I go back to the eighties with this not an officer and a gentleman.

WOOF

Now we know why McCain really picked the little known, underinformed, incurious, anti-thought governor of Alaska.

If you cast your mind back to Palin's first two speeches, which were filled with gleeful, impudent jabs at Obama, and you see the vitriol she is now spewing, it is hard to resist the conclusion that this is exactly the role envisioned for her from the start, by Schmidt if noone else: to spread a jaundiced view of Obama that would be most credible not with conservatives per se--certainly not with country clup or Wall Street types--nor with women per se--certainly not with moderate Republican soccer moms--but with a certain regional, exurban, ;ower middle class profile that Palin herself so perfectly identifies with and as. She really is the perfect messenger for a series of slanders that I'm sure she entirely believes and so helps others to believe. McCain surely doesn't believe in this style of campaigning and wants little personally to do with it. But from the time of his convention, he has been persuaded to secure the fruit of this strategy, even if he could never entirely commit to picking it himself.

That's a really good speech you wrote for McCain.
But it's too good to be true.

Hey, If this were a movie (which it sometimes feels like) it could be one of the alternate endings on the DVD extras: McCain Makes the Change.

And now that I think of it, Sarah Palin's character is kinda like Holly GoLightly.... so this election WILL make a really great movie one day. Maybe Oliver Stone can work on it as a sequel to W.

Kent, I think your appeal was very good, with a great generosity of mind (an incredible speech really, apropos to our yearnings for another reality). I'm not sure McCain has it within him to divest his present turpitude. He should see this nonetheless.....maybe in a moment of reflection, there could be some affect. There are just so many errant forces clutching at the man. So many of our colleagues actually had a great deal of affection for McCain atone time. The disintegration of the man is very sad indeed.

thanks Kent. this is a great piece you wrote.

Great read. A fantasy? Probably... I am all for hope and appreciated the sentiments here.
The Republicans are the party of any means to an end. The tragedy of John S McCain is that he has sacrificed for his country (GOP) the last measure--his good name.
Thanks, Kent.
rated and appreciated

Kent, excellent writing. Thank you for voicing what has been so viscerally disturbing to so many of us -

But, if it even makes sense to say it this way, John McCain is picking an especially bad time. As a nation, we're too on edge for other reasons. We don't need manufactured reasons to fear one another.

However, I think the die is cast. McCain has lost control of his campaign and it is showing. Even if he were to give this remarkable speech, it wouldn't stop the NOBama folks who would do anything to ensure a black man with a foreign-sounding name will not get elected.

Showing my cynicism, I think it would be a last half-gasp for McCain to try to reclaim his honor and provide a "game-changer."

And, finally, as much as I'd love to hear him give that speech and see real movement toward "reaching across the aisles," I wouldn't want to give him any insights that might actually help him win.

Thanks again for a great read.

I so wish McCain would do this. He's even got Cindy lobbing grenades. Unfortunately, I think he thinks this is all he's got left, and maybe it is.

Several people seem to have commented as if they think this piece was about election strategy. To underscore, it's not. I actually found myself getting short with someone and realizing that, in part, it's the tension of the day, the economy. It takes away from the buffer we have that shields us against our inner selves. The election is a concern right not to me, but not a big concern right this instant, not as much--Obama is ahead, so probably that's the best it's been for a while, and we just have to not lose focus. I'm not failing to care, but I'm not panicked. I think the election can't be the cause of my stress. I think it's the economy. And I'm doing reasonably, by which I mean, I'm still gainfully employed and I'm not facing foreclosure.

But, I thought, what about people who have economic stress worse than mine and are the same time being pumped full of hate. Hate is easily directed at targets, even when those targets were not related to the problem. When people are upset, they want someone, anyone, to blame. Will they do more than just get cross at someone? Will they take to the streets? I'm nervous about that. This was really a piece about the economy and only very peripherally about the campaign. It has the side-effect of speaking to McCain, but its primary purpose was not that. It was to comment on the powderkeg. I was originally going to title it powderkeg to draw attention to that. But this title occurred and seemed better. Maybe I ended up missing my point, though. Alas. I'm still glad people liked it, but I'd like them to at least know what motivated me.

Thanks for your explanation of the "powderkeg" image as a motive for the piece. It only fleshes out the idea more for me. An added dimension, with more of a trancendental character to it.

The interesting thing is, that just might win him the election. Talk about a game changer.

Kent - I think the election, the economy, and the powderkeg all go hand in hand.
There's a post today about a disgruntled, racist voter in La (sorry, folks!) threatening violence
The Face of Hate

you are definitely on to something that the tone of the campaign is fueling feelings of insecurity, vulnerability, and rage during a time of economic uncertainty.
Worse, it gives license to the lunatics who will walk into churches in Tennessee and open fire on "liberals" or take to arms to keep the black man out of office

It may be more about the economy than the campaign. BUT, without the campaign, there isn't a peg for ignorant people to quasi-legitimately amass in groups to fuel the rage/racist/nationalistic/xenophobic sentiments.

Stunning. Thank you for this!

Gosh, I'd love to hear McCain say all that!

I fear it IS too good to be true as another commenter has already said. I used to sort of respect him as the Loyal Opposition. Not anymore. I fear him and I fear Palin should they ever get elected. They'd ravage whatever George Bush left of the country, which is why we must work as if WE were the underdogs to get Obama elected. THEN we can celebrate.

He's still the Opposition, but he's chucked honor and loyalty straight out the window, and it's McCain first, and Country last.

But your speech would have been a great attempt at redemption!

Wonderful post, Kent.

In my own life, I use my daily 45 minute commute to work to gauge my temperment. And of late, I've found myself hitting the pedal a little harder,being a little more impatient with all the pokey drivers. When I noted this, I was reminded of what it felt like to drive to work in the period following the 9/11 attacks. It seemed everyone was a little more patient, a little more forgiving on the road. Was that just my experience? Don't know, but I think not.

The reason I mention that is because I came to approximately the same conclusion - that we as a country are being polarized against each other. This has been the halmark of the Republican Party since the pronouncement of the left as "Nattering Nabobs of Negativism" (at least in my lifetime) by Nixon's first VP. The current campaign is just more of the same, if perhaps a little more in your face than in times past.

Pogo said it best: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Tim, Orson Scott Card's Empire (while not his greatest work, also not his worst by any means) is quite relevant to this. It treats the possibility of a modern American Civil War issuing from the polarization. It's got a few political biases in there but they're mostly low-key, and it's hard to write such a piece leaving them all out. I think he at least made an attempt to be balanced and to focus on the situation. Also available on audiobook, which is how I do these things.

Kent,

This is very well written and a noble sentiment. It's a pleasing and nostalic thought to think that, if a turn around of this nature were possible, timely and genuine, that we could get our Walt Disney ending and "all live happily ever after." But.....how would the story end?!?

My fervent wish is to live long enough to have this kind of sanity overtake the political process. However, the common sense lobe of my brain keeps whispering that it's a hard row to hoe to get to statements like this when mud slinging makes snappy sound bites. I give Obama and his campaign a lot of credit for instilling direct talk about the issues instead of more of the nastiness that continues to pour from the McCain camp.

To borrow a quote from the excellent movie The Shawshank Redemption, "I hope, I hope."

This is brilliant.

Exactly what I said last night after watching some of my very own neighbors and community members (in Strongsville, OH) feed on the tidbits that Palin and Cindy McCain and John McCain threw out to the crowd. Someone should simply show McCain the footage--on a morning show or something like that--and ask him for his reaction. Directly, on national TV. That should be that. Because at that point, he would simply have to reject all the bunk or lose the election.

Kent - you've inspired me and, along with some of the other related posts today, stirred up thoughts about where all of this hate-mongering might lead. I've addressed some thoughts in a related post -
Banning Books, Burning Books & the Slippery Slope

Kent, great post, and it was good to read your motivation for it, too. So... good post and good discussion!

This is great writing. Unfortunately, it is also exactly the type idealism that will lose us (the people, not just Democrats) the election, to what has become the violently ignorant conservative industrial complex. This is a machine, not a movement within the Republican party. It contributes to, then exploits peoples' fears of ______ (WHATEVER.) The fact that nothing is out of bounds or off limits for this complex, is particularly frightening. Its implications is that we are - many of us - devolving into the cavemen in the GEICO commercials, sans the makeup. The tragedy, and the villainy is in the details, which are most often skipped over by the most astute observer. The fact is, that by having guests on their show who happen to have PhD's, Fox News and the like are given automatic validation of their talking points. As in the judicial system, denial of guilt is not tantamount to exoneration. Remember 'proof,' Hannity?

Whether it is OJ or John McCain on trial, or even Ayres, who admitted his guilt, the verdict doesn't prove innocence. A guilty or innocent verdict only proves that either the jury, the losing attorney, or the criteria by which the jury arrives at the verdict, are either inadequate or flawed.

Why was John McCain never turned into a 'Slick Willy,' or 'Tricky Dick?' It doesn't really matter. When you have some of our fellow citizens refusing to reason with the fact, because they are reported by a network who doesn't babysit their ability to reason by GIVING them the news, rather than reporting it; what do you expect?

Sure the New York Times, MSNBC, and CNN have a slant, bias and spin. It's called reporting to your audience. Intelligent, discerning and educated - rather than simply titled - people, have a reasonable expectation that they won't be talked down to. Intolerant people who don't show any ability to discern truth from common slander, do not on the other hand, deserve to share my right to vote. This is not race or class warfare, this is why people like the founder of Planned Parenthood turned to eugenics.

This is wrong, and misguided, however it clearly points out distinctions in intellectual capacity. Some Americans seem literally unable to see the forest for the trees, the river, the grass...and the rest of the venomous crap spewed by McCain's increasingly dishonorable campaign. A campaign that is no longer being waged upon the lowest common denominator. As many have recently pointed out, ignorance, apathy, and short attention spans are simply an increasingly common factor in elections.

I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I am embarrased by my fellow Americans' capacity to think for themselves, and by extension, their equal weight and influence with regard to the outcomes of elections. Seems like the red states took the blue pill, and yet the jury is still out on John McCain:

dissenter (maverick): dissident, heretic, maverick, mutineer, nonconformist, protestor, rebel, recusant, schismatic, sectary, separatist

http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/maverick

In any case, people who think consistently and rationally, are not the ones who NEED convincing. It's the people like Sarah Palin and her cult followers that need a mind-meld with a squirell to improve their IQ. I absolutely detest condescension in general. When McCain condescends toward a man and his supporters who are of obvious intellectual superiority, I draw the line. It is now, as I suppose it has always been, US against the morons who will fall for anything. The solution is to beat them at their own game. Rational arguments work for us, but not the sponges. Think VERY basic.
"I used to trust Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac too." "I used to have investment at Lehman Bros." "I have changed my mind now, and so have you. " "Welcome to the flip-flopper club."

As people, we are free to change our minds as we have access to more information. That is the foundation of individual advancement, which, it follows, it the basis for our strength. Knowlege is power, is not a myth. Why, you ask? Because if ignorance is bliss, bliss is ignoring reality, and ignoring reality is weakness, then weakness comes from being ignorant.

John McCain, pretends that NOT understanding the economy is a position of strength. Would you call yourself a knowlegeble builder that could compete in today's market, if you did not know about rebar? Could you call yourself a doctor versed in the latest techniques, if you let your patients die, because you decided that you didn't need to learn how to do heart transplants?

You may say all of this is out of bounds...doesn't make sense, or isn't relavent to the political process, or the economy. I don' t know more than all of you about economics, but I can share with you what I do know, and have attempted to grasp. I can't serve you from a position of strength, if I don't even acknowlege that strength matters, as John McCain has both implied and explicitly stated, with respect to the economy. I have devoted my career as a lawyer, having studied and taught constitutional law, to how I can best uphold and stay true to the Democratic ideals that are fundental to our strength as a nation, and ensure that we can remain truly strong for generations to come.

John McCain on the other hand has - as he has accused me of on multiple occasions - either not understood completely, or been so naive as to actually think, that the fundamentals of our nation's economy are strong. As a nation doing business globally, affecting and being effected by international markets, I will not lie through my teeth, in order to avoid admitting a position of having insufficient information to develop an opinion. That isn't a leader?! A leader does his due diligence, develops an opinion and gives the people who entrust him with the power to safeguard their future...an answer they both understand, and fundamentally deserve. I have dedicated my life to training my mind to find the most likely outcome and design a course of action, in order to ensure that outcome becomes probable. Military stategy is much the same. After having graduated 895/899, I think this proves the depth of his devotion to protecting his nation. If you can't take school seriously, even when future lives are at stake, you are not a student, nor a protector, and definitely not a future leader of millions. If all your Academy buddies are even saying you'd rather booze around and womanize than study and plan for the future, what does that say about your ability to willingly sacrifice and put country first? A leader simply cannot be an opportunist. A leader must put 'country first,' even before his or her pride. A leader cannot hide in his clubhouse (Camp David,) when the going gets tough. A true leader gets tough, after asking himself or herself, the tough questions. THEN they do what may sound naive to Senator McCain. They deliver on a promise without going back on it 5 years or even 6 months later.

I may not be as diplomatic as Obama must (?) be, but you all get the point. The gloves must come off, and the brass knuckles must be well hidden before we put them back on.

I am really quite tired of discussing how gullible or even stupid many of our fellow Americans are - for a more fleshed out argument, please see my blog:

http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=27180

Sorry for the typos. It is late, and I just ended a day volunteering for Obama. Even some of his supporters can be lazy. This too, is scary...don't get too comfortable with 'the lead,' is all. Perseverance and dedication to the truth, vs. left or right - not momentum...

An Absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence:

A lead is not yet a win.

I've got hope to spare. I figured I'd spend some of it here.

GOOD INVESTMENT!

Oddly, there was actually a slight motion in precisely the suggested direction today, though it met with resistance from the people he was speaking to. See followup on this in my article Hate On The March.