Via kotkee, David Foster Wallace talks about his new book on the transformation of McCain from a maverick to a standard, flip flopping pol:
McCain himself has obviously changed [since the 2000 campaign]; his flipperoos and weaselings on Roe v. Wade, campaign finance, the toxicity of lobbyists, Iraq timetables, etc. are just some of what make him a less interesting, more depressing political figure now -- for me, at least. It's all understandable, of course -- he's the GOP nominee now, not an insurgent maverick. Understandable, but depressing. As part of the essay talks about, there's an enormous difference between running an insurgent Hail-Mary-type longshot campaign and being a viable candidate (it was right around New Hampshire in 2000 that McCain began to change from the former to the latter), and there are some deep, really rather troubling questions about whether serious honor and candor and principle remain possible for someone who wants to really maybe win.
Here's the problem for McCain's campaign: even after months of infighting in the Democratic Party... and even after the Dems nominated someone most low information voters know nothing about... even after he has had months to work on his own to build support among his party's base... even after all that, he's trailing Obama in the polls.
When low-info voters find out that the McCain of 2008 is not the McCain of 2000, he's toast. And not the light brown kind that goes well with butter and jam, but the charred black kind that nearly sets your house on fire.
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