Lazarus Methuselah

Time to climb way down and congratulate John McCain on being the nominee of the Republican Party. Winning that would make me retch, but he wanted it.

I've already eaten a small serving of crow about completely writing him off, but it wasn't enough. I thought even with raven feathers stuck in my teeth that he'd lose eventually. So I get to slurp up another serving.

In truth, I underestimated Republican primary voters, which suggests that they are not as hard to the starboard as their party and its wingnut media cheerleaders. They saw through the empty suit of Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee's appeal was too narrow and too poorly funded. I failed to notice how quickly they bailed on Rudy Giuliani, which might have been my first clue that they were smarter than I thought - had I not missed it.

Of course, even I am not cynical enough to anticipate that McCain would move resoundingly toward torture. I mistakenly assumed that his personal experience at the hands of the North Vietnamese would trump every political calculation. Wrong. It must've happened too long ago.

In the end, Republican primary voters held their noses and nominated the only candidate with a chance to win in November. Especially if he games the public campaign finance system, which of course he will.