Arizona Senator John McCain has come a long way since he conceded defeat to Barack Obama in November 2008. Fending off a primary challenge from tea party favorite J.D. Hayworth has driven him so far away from what he stood for not even yet two years ago that his moderate stance on immigration has become “Finish the dang fence” and he’s straight up denying he was ever a maverick. All we ever heard during the 2008 campaign was “maverick, maverick, maverick”, and he expects collective amnesia from voters?
McCain’s sudden leapfrogging to the far right is a clear sign of desperation in a political environment that makes it tough to be an incumbent, in a state where anyone with a tan has to carry around papers a la apartheid-era South Africa. Necessity aside, his callous abandonment of what were once considered his principles has been so extreme that now, more than ever, he is earning his old nickname “McNasty”. The only surprising thing about the news his campaign manager and deputy campaign manager decided to move on before the primary is that it took them so long.
