Preemptive Withdrawal?

Last night John McCain made a perfunctory visit to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, an obligatory campaign stop for a non incumbent these days, apparently. However, he did himself no favors by doing this. His behaviour was a lot more like a recalcitrant high school student taking a required course from a computer than a guest on a talk show with a real human being hosting. He tried to control the narrative and flow of the show by refusing to even pretend to listen to any questions or have any but the most minimal, pro forma interaction with Stewart; he simply focused on his talking points and spent most of the night talking over and under the host of the show.

John McCain appeared to continue to implode his campaign on The Daily Show last night, and I have to wonder if it was intentional. Going from the presumptive GOP nominee to a trailing unnanounced candidate (he has not yet officially announced his run for the office yet) in short order, he continues to walk and talk and act like the proverbial duck.

But is he a duck? Or, is he a red herring put in to the race in some sort of electioneer's sleight of hand to draw fire from the left, sacrificing himself for the good of the party, with no real chance of being chosen as the candidate next year at the convention? Has he already dealt himself down to VP? Is he about to announce he is retiring from politics to spend more time with his family?

Never mind that he is hitching himself to a very unpopular war. The guy I watched last night on TV wasn't prepared to do 12 minutes on TV in a reasonably friendly environment. I can't imagine that guy walking into a room with leaders from Israel and Palestine to negotiate peace. We'd all be dead within a week of such a summit. McCain took his shot at answering questions that need answers, and ignored it. It was painful to watch.

I had never considered the idea that McCain might just be a very rude and stupid person, but now I have to wonder about that. I doubt that is the explanation, however, and I have to wonder wtf was going on with him?

Democrats everywhere have to be hoping he gets the nomination at this point. Pundits may be saying that he was sticking to his talking points to win over his base and get the nomination next year, but he will need to get more than the hardcore war mongers to win an election. I expect he will need that to get the nomination, for that matter. To do that, he is going to need to actually make a case of some sort for continuing what most, both inside and outside his party, see as a very unnecessary, highly endable and likely unwinnable war. Otherwise, he will need to flip flop on his support for our involvement in this civil war.

Either way, I hope he takes a couple weeks off. He looked like he needed some rest for his own mental health.