John McCain was on The Daily Show tonight. It was his tenth appearance on the show in seven years.
"We got into a bit of a tiff the last time you were here. I don't even remember what it was about, now." (or something like that, said Jon Stewart)
I remember.
McCain came on after he had started his slow and painfully obvious slide to the right, after a painfully awkward photo op of him shaking hands with Bush. Stewart could've let him off the hook; he nailed him to the cross instead.
To be fair, Stewart gave him a chance to redeem himself, asking McCain why he was turning his back on the liberals who liked the fact that McCain talked straight, made sense, impaled the current administration and didn't come across as an evil, conniving prick. McCain had the opportunity to, in the new forum of intelligent political discourse that The Daily Show was shaping up to be, say, "Look. I NEED these people, and that means making compromises. It sucks a bit now, but stick with me and we'll all come out of this stronger."
He equivocated instead, and Stewart kicked his ass. Politely, but thoroughly, and McCain's political aspirations evaporated, audibly, over seven minutes of conversation.
Fast forward to tonight. McCain is making jokes, telling stories, taking a stand against administration policy, old-school McCain, albeit toned down from his former time in the limelight. And I think, "well, isn't that interesting."
...and I realized, it's because he's already lost the election. His campaign has been rocked in the last few weeks by allegations of financial mismanagement and by the conduct of a top advisor being made public. He doesn't have a hope in hell of winning anymore, of even coming close, so he's back to telling it like it is.
Thing is, if he'd only done that from the beginning he'd've had it both ways - he'd be a frontrunner and his integrity would be in check. Now he's neither, and he knows it.
It's sad, is all.