A few months back I wrote a diary about my best friend of many decades who is a hardcore midwest conservative. He never liked McCain before he became the Republican candidate, and when Obama and Hillary were duking it out, he made a startling conversion. He got on the Obama-train and started examining his fundamental beliefs. He was asking questions he had never bothered to ask before. He was sincere. I was flabbergasted.
And then the primaries were over. The excitement waned. The questions stopped. One day he announced he was embracing McCain. His reason: Obama had gone back on his promise to accept public campaign financing and had shown himself to be no different than the rest of the politicians. I couldn't believe it. The more I argued with him about the scope of McCain's hypocrisy, the more entrenched he got. He transformed over the last few months into a hardcore McCainiac.
He embraced Palin. He bashed Biden and disparaged Obama--and he criticized me for believing Obama was any different. He started taking his talking points once again from Bill O'Reilly, Hannity and Limbaugh. It was almost as if he had to purge himself of the horror of having flirted with Obama.
And then he started singing odes to McCain the Maverick. He was NOT Bush. He was different. He was going to change politics and reach across the aisle to accomplish what no one else could. Every argument you see played out here on Kos was magnified in our discussions. Every evidence of hypocrisy and lies was a liberal media conspiracy.
I don't need to belabor the story. You already know it. Conservatives are desperate for something to hold on to. And since it's not in their nature to question, but to believe, they BELIEVE in John McCain.
But today it changed. My friend called me when McCain bailed out of the debates. Asked me if I'd seen the news. He spun the talking points coming out of the McCain camp. This is Leadership! He's doing what's right! He's a maverick. But a few hours later he called me again. He told me he doesn't want to talk about politics anymore. He'll vote for McCain. I'll vote for Obama. There's nothing more to talk about. End of conversation.
I was once again flabbergasted, but then I got it. McCain has finally fallen through the floor for the True Believers. They're going to argue and put up the best fight they can, but they know McCain is done. They know he's running instead of standing up to fight. And I believe that this is going to break open the election. When it comes time to get behind the candidate, to come out and vote, the True Believers have lost the will to fight.