You could see the right wing pundits puff up their chests as they talked about it: with the Palin pick, McCain had recovered his patented maverick mojo. After being bashed as just another cog in the great GOP machine, McCain was showing again that he was different. Sure, ninety-percent of the time, his Magic 8-Ball says "Just Listen to Bush," but when that other face finally flips to the surface, stand back! When it's maverick time, anything can happen.
Choosing Palin for his VP is a very good illustration of this principle, and it's a jarring reminder that having this kind of erratic, unpredictable, inconsistent "maverick" in a leadership position is a very bad idea.
Opinion polls consistently show that the American public has more faith in Mr McCain as commander-in-chief. He looks like the safe choice for dangerous times.
But this is wrong. Mr McCain will not run a "safe" foreign policy. He adores rolling the dice. His decision to select Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate typifies the man. It is a big risk. It could turn out to be inspired. Or it might turn out to be a disaster. But it is not "safe".
Mr McCain approaches international affairs in the same spirit. His instinct is always to take the radical option and to march towards the sound of gunfire.
For the past eight years, the public found their part-time maverick charming only because it meant he occasionally made a pretense of confronting some idiocy generated by the Bush administration, but as a general principle, "try for a hard six" is not a desirable means of governing a nation.
When the press pushes the idea of "maverick" as a good thing, they really mean "nonpartisan." McCain is not that kind of maverick. McCain is confrontational, stubborn, full of himself, uncooperative, and prone to taking a long shot chance even when it makes no sense. In other words, where you see "maverick" read "jerk."
Mr McCain says that President Teddy Roosevelt is one of his heroes. But Mr McCain’s proclamation in the aftermath of the Russia’s invasion – that "we are all Georgians now" – was the opposite of Roosevelt’s famous advice to "speak softly and carry a big stick". It was tough talk, with very little to back it up. ... Mr McCain is aggressive, unorthodox and radical.
Aggressive and radical -- that's what maverick really means. Not "moderate," but "lacking all reason." And that's McCain's good side.