John McCain Is The New Howard Dean

Just in case it isn't already obvious, I'm gonna state for the record that there is NO WAY John McCain gets the Republican Nomination. Firstly, it's unlikely a coincidence that in the weekly polls following "bomb-Iran-gate" McCain stumbled 4% [Rasmussen Reports]. Second, footage just showed up on YouTube that seems to show McCain opting for a repeat performance of bad taste on The Daily Show last night. In his TV appearance McCain talks about putting an IED under Jon Stewart's desk and kicking the show's security dog. Now, the clip is a whopping 22 seconds short and begins with McCain seemingly mid sentence responding to a question not shown in the clip. Now I didn't see The Daily Show last night, but this clip is clearly cut short to prompt us to take it out of context. This is why I'm comparing McCain's demise to that of Howard Dean. McCain has forged a destructive paradigm of being loose-lipped in an age when it's all too easy to be represented out of context. What McCain actually said and actually meant cease to matter. All that matters is that I can watch McCain singing the Beach Boys and talking about kicking a dog named Chloe on YouTube until the end of time.

So, one must ask, "But wait, isn't Giuliani all over YouTube in a dress and pointy bra?" Well ya, he is. But I really think expectation is everything. It is so rooted in that back of American minds that politicians are dishonest and fickle that we favor even the most superficial consistency and predictability. Giuliani is and always has been a quirky one. Multiple marriages, mistress in the mansion, pro-choice, estranged kid-- wearing a dress at a benefit is par for the course. But John McCain doing shtick? Funny man John McCain? John I-lived-in-a-cage-but-now-crack-bad-jokes McCain? It just doesn't jive. It makes people uneasy. If George W. Bush can be summed up in one word, it'd be "predictable." No doubt. Too much of John McCain not being John McCain spells big trouble.