THE McCAIN FACTOR

He beats or comes close to beating Hillary Clinton in most every poll and he's the only pro-life candidate who stands a chance against her, so it seems obvious the Republicans should be backing him 100%. But John McCain is not seeing the anointment one would expect for someone in his position, and that's got John looking a little less than thrilled about his chances. Especially since lack of support in the Republican Party and the backing of Rudy Giuliana by the Press is pushing his numbers down. In fact, if you've seen Senator McCain on the campaign trail lately, you'd see he looks downright uninspired. Why would the Republican party not back someone who is their best chance to get an anti abortion president? Well, Senator McCain has found himself in the Not-So-Well-Liked branch of the Republican Party and I'm starting to smell the beginnings of a revolt by the man well know for crossing part lines and who fancies himself a bit of a "Maverick".

John S. McCain is, by any man's standard, a tough son-of-a-bitch. Born in Colo Solo, Panama Canal Zone, (that, by a stoke of luck, was owned by the U.S at the time, otherwise he could not be president), McCain was a proverbial fortunate son. His father was a career military man who had reached the rank of Admiral, so in his family's military tradition, John joined the Navy as a Naval Aviator as soon as he got out of school. From there his fortune took a sour turn. During a training exercise, John crashed his plane in Corpus Christi Bay. However, some of his luck still held, and he escaped with no major injuries. Soon after that his luck took another bad turn when he was stationed on the aircraft carrier US Forrestal. A rocket from a F-4 Phantom Jet accidentally launched while on the deck of the carrier and struck McCain's A-4 Skyhawk while he was in it. McCain managed to jump from the jet before his own bombs exploded but wasn't so lucky this time and caught scrapnel in his legs and chest.

Shortly after that, on October 26, 1967 John's A-4 Skyhawk was shot down over Vietnam. McCain broke both his arms and one leg upon ejection and landed in a lake from which he was dragged, beaten and tortured. Now, for those of you who think making someone stand in a corner is torture, let me describe what McCain got next. With both his arms and a leg already broken, he was interrogated with no medical treatment. He was beaten, bayoneted in his left foot, then his groin (OUCH), and then had his shoulder smashed with a rifle butt, and several teeth knocked out, and although I can't prove it, I'll bet he didn't even get a culturally-correct meal or a praying mat.

Even more to his credit, when the North Vietnamese discovered who his dad was, they offered to release him, but McCain refused to leave if the other prisoners in the Hanoi Hilton with him weren't released too.

After being held for 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war, McCain was finally released to a hero's welcome in 1973. He got to meet President Richard Nixon, and in 1982 was elected to the U.S. House Of Representatives for the state of Arizona. From there he ran and won the seat vacated by Barry Goldwater in the U.S. Senate where he remains today. In 2000, he ran against G.W. for the Republican nomination and lost, mainly due to fears that his stay as a POW had made him unstable. John didn't help himself by showing bursts of rage in the Senate and using the word "Gook" a little too freely.

So why won't the Republicans get behind this true American hero?

They don't think he can win and the right wing of the Republican party thinks he's a little too far left and has crossed the aisle one too many times. You see, McCain had a falling out some time ago with the far right that nearly cost him his career. McCain was one of the "Keating Five" of the S&L Scandal in the late 1980's. In fact, his culling of political favors for Charles Keating, one the great Far-Right villains of my lifetime, is the biggest reason I won't ever support John McCain. Because of Charles Keating and the "Keating Five" thousands of elderly people loss their life savings, and John was a little too deep into it for my liking.

So here's the end result of my political analysis of this whole situation.

I don't think the Republican party will ever get behind John McCain and I think it's going to leave him bitter and resentful. John is now 70 years old and this is his last chance at this. He feels the Far Right killed off his chance last time in favor of G.W. and he's never gotten over the sting he got for dealing with the Religious Right during the S&N Scandal. If John doesn't get the nomination this time, he may do something that will send shivers down the spine of any of my Republican readers..........he may run Independent. That's right, ala Ross Perot, the bitter John McCain may just hand the election over to the Democrats (Hillary Clinton) as a last ditch attempt to get the presidency. Can he win like that? No, not unless Barrack Obama splinters the Democrats and goes Independent too, (which is real unlikely since he's everyone's favorite V.P. pick). But like Ross Perot, that's not really what John McCain wants, in the end, what he wants is revenge, revenge for lack of support, revenge for a campaign turned over to the Father's Son, and revenge for a hero turned into just another political tool. I could be wrong on this, but I'm starting to sense the beginnings of Independent John. H.C.