The Unluckiest Man in American Politics

This addict of politics is beginning to feel sorry for Arizona Senator John McCain, presumptive nominee of America's Republican Party. How can one not sympathize with a man who keeps getting the raw edge of circumstances and fate tag-teamed against him? The man has been through so much, from his five years of torture at the hands of his Vietnamese captors, to being crudely booted by the campaign of George W. Bush in the Republican 2000 primary season. Let's highlight McCain's catalog of woe.

Because of President Bush's abysmal popularity rating (I still think Mr. Bush is the same good man I voted for), coupled with a pained economy, the senator is forced to run against the current standard bearer of his own party. One would think George Bush were some kind of left-wing tax-and-spend liberal from the extreme wing of the Democratic Party. How can John McCain be trying so hard to win the hearts and minds of the ultra-conservative base of the Republican Party, those who believe exactly like George Bush, while distancing himself from President Bush, one of the most conservative leaders the party and country have ever seen? The biggest problem with this anti-Bush campaign is that Senator McCain has a voting record that shows most of the time he has voted with the President on the major issues. It's hard to duck that voting record, and the Democrats are making it harder for Mr. McCain with their "Bush-McCain" tag and "John McCain has voted 90 percent of the time with George Bush".

John McCain has positioned himself to run as a Washington outsider. He's now making the case that he will be an agent of change. And with his recent pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his veep, Senator McCain has argued that like, Gov. Palin, he is the maverick who can change Washington just like the Governor has done in Alaska. This is a very awkward position for the senator, since Mr. McCain has been in Congress for 26 years, and he has little record to show for taking the lead to bring the major change he now wants to champion. Why wait until your 72nd birthday before you wake up to your destiny as the change agent America has been waiting for all these years, the change agent who can end our dependence on foreign petro, transition us to alternative energy, fix Social Security, healthcare, and immigration? Again, Senator McCain has a difficult case to make as Mr. Maverick Change Agent.

To make matters worse, Candidate McCain has made experience a centerpiece of his campaign against Barack Obama, whom, we must admit, has very little public service experience, compared to Mr. McCain. However, for McCain, the problem with this "ready to lead from day one" argument is that it emphasizes Washington experience, the very thing that Mr. McCain now sounds like he hates and wants very much to change. If Washington is the problem you want to solve, how can you in the same campaign brag about your experience in Washington as a primary reason for your qualification to be president? Are we missing something here?

Unfortunately, the senator was forced into another "rock and a hard place" situation when it came to choosing a running mate. He wanted to make sure he won over those female voters from the other side, those Hillary Clinton women who are angry with Obama for slighting their beloved feminist fighter with her 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling of a male-dominated society. The thing is that the vast majority of those Hillary girls are stauchly pro-choice, wanting Roe v. Wade to remain the law of the land. At the same time that McCain badly wanted those pro-choice Clintonites to win, he had to also please the one-issue pro-life members of his party. He sought to solve this dilemma by selecting Gov. Palin, a woman, yes, but who is as conservative as you get in American politics. Well, the senator did deliver the red meat the right wingers craved, but he might have sent those Hillary pro-choicers scattering to the winds. The guy just doesn't seem to get any easy choices.

As if that were not enough problem for Mr. McCain to sort through, here comes Gustav, that massive storm, which has already killed 80 people in Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, according to an AFP report. News report of the storm has all but taken McCain and his historic VP pick off the television screen, off the front page. To add fuel to fire, McCain, who is already running against George Bush, against Washington, and against Obama, must now contest Mother Nature also? How unlucky can you get! If John McCain pulls off a win against the media coverage of Gustav, rather than the Republican Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, he may yet add another medal to his war hero image.

But at this point, in the McCain vs. Gustav match up, it seems Mother Nature has the upper hand, though we don't want to count the good ole soldier out just yet. Plans for the first day of the Republican Convention have been scraped to just absolutely necessary business agenda, stuff you could do in a committee meeting, the really boring stuff that deserves no news coverage. President Bush and Vice President Cheeney have cancelled plans to attend the GOP show. Now that may be a God-send, since it provides the perfect caveat for McCain to avoid the Bush fever of unpopularity by association. Mr. Bush's presence would have strengthened the Democrat's "Bush-McCain" attack, especially had President Bush spoken at the GOP Convention. For once, Senator McCain can breathe a sigh of relief there. Even an unlucky man deserves a break every now and then.

On this Gustav crashing of John McCain's party in St. Paul, if we were in an African village we would quickly see it as witchcraft for sure, a curse, an omen, a spell from hell. But of course, in these civilized parts of the globe, we are not that superstitious, so we settle for calling Gustav storming down the opening day of the Republican Convention a mere coincidence, pure chance, or perhaps an "Act of God", but just that and nothing more.

It never ceases to amaze me just how unfair life can be, despite our modern tolerance for positive thinking, "the law of attraction", and motivational tips like that. Life remains flat out unfair at times, and in Senator McCain's case, that has been exactly the case, with few exceptional breaks notwithstanding. Someone tell us, Why must John McCain have to get the blunt of the blade for what seems like most of the time? Vietnam tortured him for five years. He returned from his POW experience only to be shunned by a nation ungrateful for his immense sacrifice. In 2000, the George Bush campaign sabotaged Senator McCain's chances for the White House. Lately, Obama and the Democrats had their big political show in Denver without distraction, coming out of there better than expected. And now when it's McCain's time to shine on a stage all to himself, here comes Mr. Gustav, or is it Mrs. Gustav? It's just not fair, and this political junkie feels mighty sorry for this brave American. I may vote John McCain after all, though I have not appreciated some of his so-called maverick treatment of conservatives. Call it a sympathy vote, but the man deserves a break, and voting McCain would be much better than sitting this election out anyway. Yeah, make America's unluckiest man President McCain, so he can get double for his trouble.