The Judge Report

Let’s face it: there are quite a few annoying things about John McCain, and some of them are good and sound reasons why he should not be the Republican nominee for President of the United States.

For example, he talks too much.

There are times when it seems like he is on every single radio and television news and comment show every single day.  He expresses an animated opinion about everything.  Too much. Too much.

Of course, I’ve never spent five and a half years in a North Vietnamese prison camp.  Nor do I know what it’s like going years with no one to speak to, trying to work out tapping signals in Morse Code just so you can maintain the barest semblance of sanity and social connection.  I suppose if I had, I might be able to appreciate a guy who exercises his right to free speech even more than I do.  I suppose that for him just being able to open his mouth must be a never-ending thrill.

But he’s stiff.

Yeah, well, I guess having your shoulders smashed to smithereens by your captors and your legs broken and knees shattered and being routinely beaten three times a week, that can make you a little stiff.

Too old. 

He’s always looked too old. Must be that white hair that grew in when his torturers left him for dead.

Divorced and remarried.

His Penelope waited for him all those years, all those years when they should have been growing together and instead, through no fault of their own, they grew in separate ways.  He reached his mid-life crisis with a long period of lost youth behind him.  I think maybe we can avoid judging him too much on that one.

McCain-Feingold: bad law.  It is. It really is.  Bad judgment on his part, thinking he can reform a corrupt system of pay to play that’s been going on for centuries.  Instead of making things right, all they did was open up new ways to pass the sleaze.  Mr Hsu and his pals, for example.  In the process, the first amendment is trampled upon.  Of course, in McCain’s world trying to make politics honest is a good thing, and I’m sure that’s what he thought he was doing.  I won’t hold it against him very much.

He’s wrong on immigration. 

He has a very real position on immigration, one he’s willing to vote for, one he believes in.  He’s wrong, but I have to say I admire, truly admire his willingness to fight for what he believes in, even in the face of overwhelming popular disapproval, especially among Republican primary voters.  He was willing to let his poll numbers tank on an issue that he wasn’t going to win anyway.  That’s character, I’m pretty sure.

Likewise, while other politicians are sucking up to the locals in Iowa, McCain is telling them that farm subsidies are not good for America.

*******

I’m not voting for McCain.  There are many good reasons not to.

I’m just starting to forget what they are.