McCain's instincts on issues are almost always dead wrong. I used to respect him as someone who could learn from his glaring mistakes (I'm thinking here of turning his Keating Five experience into a drive for campaign finance reform) and as a fiscal adult (McCain-Feingold). I actually agonized over having to vote against him because on the issues, we're almost polar opposites.

That, of course, was 8 years ago. Today, I will gleefully be voting for Obama but even if I weren't, I would be gleefully voting against McCain.

You're right that his big "Fuck You" was indicative: it's indicative of what I think of as his brash fighter pilot personality. I have family members who are fighter pilots and I love them -- but the personality that succeeds there is not one of measured thought and reasonable debate. Relying on gut instinct and rote training to save your life in aerial combat is vital but it sucks in the political world. Honestly, I think McCain's still doing that -- he has the rote Republican answers about the federal government not imposing holiday choices on the states and doesn't have the gut instinct that it's necessary to stop and think about what it means to people so he goes with it. I think he's most impressive when forced to deal with the failures of the Republican philosophy of the past 40 years (again, campaign finance and federal deficits) but these things have to hit *him* personally before he stops to think or question his received wisdom. Good lord, this man thinks Phil Gramm has something intelligent to say on financial systems.

The more I see of McCain, the more I realize he's still the person he has been his whole life: the one who barely graduated from Annapolis, the one who knows more than anyone around him, and the one who has relied on his native charm to smooth away the problems caused by his arrogant inability to realize he isn't the ultimate authority on Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Agreed. And I think it's time Obama literally went after him in a debate. And I mean, *push his buttons*. So far, the only reaction he was able to get out of McCain was a "Senator Obama doesn't understand" zinger. Obama and others need to get McCain to show his true colors--his explosive, unhinging anger. McCain has done a good job so far in keeping it under wraps and I suspect that medication may be involved.

In listening to someone who knew him at Annapolis, who's a fellow pilot and fellow POW, and hear him talk about McCain's *normal* behavior, then the medical problems all POWs face ... I don't see how people are ignoring him.

It was all fun and games when he was the "maverick" that no one thought would get anywhere near a nomination, but now he's here and he's making even less sense than he did before.

IMNSHO, and it's not a popular one, those who don't vote for Obama are either ignorant, racist, or both. I'm hoping the majority of this country, and the electorate, shows they're above it. If that's "elitist", then I'm elitist.