I used to admire John McCain. I am grateful for his military and civil service and for taking on his own Republican party when they were just plain wrong. But the John McCain I see in this campaign is a shell of the man I once looked up to.

His general election campaign is being run not on the premise of bringing out the best in America, but rather by playing on the worst. He has stopped being the conscience of the party and instead has become beholden to its lesser angels. It appears that John McCain learned exactly the wrong lessons from his defeat at the hands of George W. Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary. He learned that winning at all costs is more important than how the game is played.

In that primary, the Bush campaign targeted John McCain with an underground thrust of push polls and personal smears to undercut the momentum the McCain campaign had built from beating the Bush campaign in New Hampshire by 19 percentage points. Rumors were distributed that his adopted Bangladeshi daughter was actually the illegitimate offspring of an affair with a black woman. The New York Times reported:

Literature began to pepper the windshields of cars at political events suggesting that Mr. McCain had committed treason while a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, that he was mentally unstable after years in a P.O.W. camp, that he was the homosexual candidate and that Mrs. McCain, who had admitted to abusing prescription drugs years earlier, was an addict.
“You had a sense of besiegement daily,” said Mark Salter, a longtime aide to Mr. McCain.

The McCain team had trouble nailing down the origin of the dirt.

“One time in Hilton Head, we chased these punks down the block who were handing them out,” said State Representative James H. Merrill, the Republican state majority leader, “and when we got to them and asked them where they got them, they said some guy in a red pickup truck said, ‘Hey do you wanna make $100?’”

The Bush campaign denied any involvement in the smears but the last eight years have since well demonstrated the credibility and integrity of President Bush and his staff. John McCain ended up losing South Carolina by 11 points. The McCain campaign never fully recovered personally or politically from the loss in South Carolina and is now generally regarded as the key turning point that led to the nomination of then Governor Bush. Since then, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have made a mockery of the law, the Constitution, and sullied the good standing and reputation of America around the globe.

My personal opinion is that 21st century American history would be dramatically different had John McCain won in South Carolina eight years ago.  And he knows it also.

Since the Republican convention, Senator McCain has applied the mislearned lessons of South Carolina and run one of the most negative and personally insulting (as a voter) campaigns I’ve ever had the misfortune to witness. John McCain likes to characterize himself as a maverick and at one time that description was apt, but now it rings hollow.

Choosing a vice-presidential nominee is effectively a candidate’s first presidential act. John McCain failed himself and the nation in this task multiple ways, the least of which was in selecting Governor Sarah Palin.  Palin is clearly not even close to having the level of general knowledge, professional acumen, and thoughtfulness I expect to see in a candidate- especially one that is next in line behind a 72 year old man with a history of cancer. Her ability to think on the fly and express herself coherently is abysmal. John McCain failed in his first presidential decision not by choosing Sarah Palin, and not by doing such a poor job in vetting his VP pick, but by bowing to pressure from the Christian conservative base and not choosing who he wanted as his VP nominee.

Senator McCain wanted to choose Senator Joe Lieberman or former Governor Tom Ridge as his nominee. According to the NY Times:

But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates.

Perhaps more important, several Republicans said, Mr. McCain was getting advice that if he did not do something to shake up the race, his campaign would be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory.

With time running out — and as Mr. McCain discarded two safer choices, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, as too predictable — he turned to Ms. Palin. He had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later. Advisers to Mr. Pawlenty and another of the finalists on Mr. McCain’s list described an intensive vetting process for those candidates that lasted one to two months.

Maverick John McCain failed to stand up to his own party when it mattered most. Rather than choose a vice president, he chose a running mate. For someone who claims to not be in the pocket of special interest groups, he’s given in to pressure on his very first presidential decision. He’s placed politics over country and is willing to pass the fate of the country at this historic and critical juncture into the hands of someone who is clearly in way over her head.

Senator McCain, that isn’t “country first.” That’s winning at all costs. Being beat in 2000 by a Bush campaign the believed the ends do indeed justify the means doesn’t excuse your adopting the same strategy. Experience only matters when the correct lessons are learned from it. While I remain grateful for your past service, I will not vote for a person who willingly sacrifices their integrity and their best judgement for a chance to reside in the Oval Office. We, the nation, need and deserve better.