I didn't expect much when I tuned in to the Al Smith Dinner, the charity event where presidential candidates make jokes about themselves and each other. I certainly didn't expect much from McCain, as stiff and old and tentative and angry and uptight and creepy and false as he's looked lately. But he was funny. He was sharp. He looked ten years younger.
Most of all, he looked liked the McCain I'd almost forgotten about, the McCain beloved by reporters, the McCain who most Democrats grudgingly admired, the "straight talk" McCain who was likely to make a cutting joke about anything, even himself. I thought maybe that McCain was gone, lost to age or rage, but apparently he's just been hidden for strategic reasons. No wonder McCain's been so wooden and rambling lately. The man whose entire charm, whose political potency, was based on showing up as his idiosyncratic self has been pretending to be someone else. A mouthpiece for Rove proteges, a sidekick to Sarah Palin, a hireling of the Evangelical right wing. Afterwards I felt sad, because the old guy I saw telling jokes seemed to be having fun. He seemed to like who he was. I can't say that about the guy in the debates.
None of his pretending can win him this election. On November 5 he'll have lost the race, lost the affection of a lot of people who used to like him, and muddied the reputation that obviously means so much to him. He'll have hated every minute of it. And he'll start asking himself, "What the hell was I doing?" Maybe that'll be John's final lesson to us: whatever you do, make sure it's really you who's doing it.
Most of all, he looked liked the McCain I'd almost forgotten about, the McCain beloved by reporters, the McCain who most Democrats grudgingly admired, the "straight talk" McCain who was likely to make a cutting joke about anything, even himself. I thought maybe that McCain was gone, lost to age or rage, but apparently he's just been hidden for strategic reasons. No wonder McCain's been so wooden and rambling lately. The man whose entire charm, whose political potency, was based on showing up as his idiosyncratic self has been pretending to be someone else. A mouthpiece for Rove proteges, a sidekick to Sarah Palin, a hireling of the Evangelical right wing. Afterwards I felt sad, because the old guy I saw telling jokes seemed to be having fun. He seemed to like who he was. I can't say that about the guy in the debates.
None of his pretending can win him this election. On November 5 he'll have lost the race, lost the affection of a lot of people who used to like him, and muddied the reputation that obviously means so much to him. He'll have hated every minute of it. And he'll start asking himself, "What the hell was I doing?" Maybe that'll be John's final lesson to us: whatever you do, make sure it's really you who's doing it.
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