I cannot help feeling that McCain’s campaign marks the end of the Republican juggernaut that has been dominating US politics since the Regan administration. After the Bush administration’s haphazard and flagrant two terms in office and the current credit crisis, it is no wonder why the campaigns of Obama and various Democratic Congressmen have been experiencing a wealth of popularity in political polls and from foreigners abroad. I still remember scraps of McCain’s speeches in 2000 primaries when he was running against Bush Jr. At the time, I liked McCain and I thought he would have made a good president; he was experienced, moderate, and he wasn’t tied up in the clutches of the evangelical Bible belt. Even in the 2004 elections, when Bush was positioning himself for a second term, I really hoped that Kerry would pick McCain as his vice president. It was clear that McCain was struggling with his party, even to the point that he began revaluating his party alliances.
McCain’s speech at Liberty University in 2006 was a transparent attempt to realign with the Republican powers, and it marked the beginning of McCain’s eventual devaluation. Like an outsider who had been teased with the promise of being the “popular kid,” McCain was trying reconnect with the Republican powerhouse that had denied him the presidency in the last two elections. But even in his submission to the Republican Party, McCain is awkward and mistrusted, and that is precisely why he was handed the nomination in 2008.
The Republicans have pushed McCain to the forefront in order to use him as a scapegoat. The US national debt has pushed passed ten trillion dollars, the economy is in bedlam, Iraq has been five and half years in the making, US foreign relations is splintered, and yet McCain is Republican’s poster boy. It is interesting to note how little competition McCain experienced in the primaries while big-name conservatives like Romney stepped aside. No Republican wants to inherit the atrocities of the past eight years and so it has been handed to a political outsider, an aged politician who thinks he is finally getting hi due shot at the presidency. Unfortunately McCain’s political campaign is over and legacy will be tarnished. The Republican Party is going to change, it has to in order to compete against the new Obama backed Democratic Party.