Ok - let me put it out there. I would've voted for McCain if he were running against anyone else (especially Hillary) or if he were the same person he was 8 years ago. I'm serious. McCain has always had significant support amoung the younger types. Even some of my most liberal friends in college loved him. Then, he was truly an outsider and a maverick. The Bushies hated him and destroyed him, which was really sad and unfortunately. But his reaction was moreso. Since gaining the nomination - and maybe even before that - he turned his boat around from the middle towards the shores of the conservative Evangelicals. He sounds more and more like Karl Rove every day.
The worst part is really the empty rhetoric. He speaks in these broad strokes that gave us the once promising concept, "compassionate conservative." But I know they're unfamiliar and uncomfortable with them - and I just want to shake them out of him. Where has all the straight talk gone? Left bhind on the bus? I don't think this is who he really is.
One of the worst things McCain has done during the second part of the campaign is give us his humor. Young people related to him because he seemed real and because he made fun of himself and others. He wasn't afraid; he was genuine. Now it's all gone. Whoever told him to give up his sharp sense of humor should be left to the mercy of John Stewart from now until November 2nd.
My mom came with me to the TODAY show yesterday, and some random guy came up to her complaining he couldn't get on the show. During his rant, he mentioned that he was a Vietnam vet. He said that neither he nor none of his friends came back sound of mind, body, and spirit. The more my mom thought about it - the more she agreed with him. She didn't know anyone either. Made her look at McCain in a different way.
As for me, I'd really like to vote for McCain. He's got my conservative values and before recently, he seemed like a middle-of-the-road, practical guy. I'm hoping all the talk of change didn't change him.
