Jon catches likely GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain transforming a piece of crude realpolitik into a symbol of American generosity.

Last I checked, "straight talk" didn't involve boatloads of feel-good crap.

[fuming, then adding this a few minutes later:] 

And on the subject of McCain: back in 2000, I covered the GOP and Democratic conventions in person for Working Assets' old radio project.  And I got a real eyeful of how craven McCain can actually be.

Even after McCain had tried to play to his Maverick™ brand identity for months by making repeated overtures to the then-growing reform movement which manifested itself in the Nader campaign and Arianna Huffington's "Shadow Conventions;" even after being steamrolled by a Bush campaign cash machine which had an early 15-to-1 advantage over McCain in cash-in-hand; and even after the Bush campaign had personally swift-boated McCain in South Carolina by circulating false rumors about McCain's mental health, his wife's drug problems, McCain's supposed fatherhood of a illegitimate black child, and more...

Before the convention's end -- I believe on the morning after his forced-march endorsement of Dubya -- McCain was on TV, saying with a straight face that (I will never forget these words) "George Bush is the real reform candidate." 

(I can't find a link to the quote, but it's burned into my brain.  I was in a snack-bar area where about a dozen convention-goers were having breakfast, and the resulting looks of pity and disgust shared between complete strangers of varied political bents were unforgettable.  Maybe someone in the great overmind out knows where to find the transcript.)

So nothing McCain had said for the entire year prior apparently meant anything.  Nothing that had just happened in the campaign -- one of the grossest displays of money equating power in American history -- mattered, either.  And nothing Bush's operatives had just done in an attempt to quietly destroy a man they all publicly claimed to respect mattered one bit.  Okay, then.

The Falsehood Express was leaving.  And McCain didn't want to be left at the station.  Despite knowing better than anyone alive how pure the bullshit really was.

Yeah, Vietnam, hero, all that.  Sure, fine, enjoy.  But I have never been able to believe anything McCain says, ever since.  There's really no reason to.  Like the noises which come from most politicians, left and right, it's just a series of sounds emitted in an attempt to secure short-term advantage and power.

One final note: any writer or TV commentator who refers to McCain as a "maverick" without irony is grossly demonstrating both intellectual and creative laziness.  You can comfortably stop listening the moment you see or hear that word.  You will not be missing anything.

PS -- and there's this, while I'm on it:

Remember when Bush was doing absolutely nothing as Katrina was destroying large swaths of three states?   McCain is the guy Bush was doing it with.  Somehow he didn't find the straight-talking maverick ability to turn to Dubya -- the man whose operatives spent weeks pushing rumors accusing him personally of everything from marital infidelities to treason -- and say, hey, great cake and all, but Americans are dying right now -- how about you and me stop grinning and posing like frat boys and go do some goddam public service?

Let's not forget that, while people are all busy adoring Mister Straight Talking Maverick in the coming two years.

UPDATE: Alert reader Adam, proud member of the overmind, has found a CNN transcript from just before the convention in which McCain says "Republicans are the party of reform" in the process of endorsing Bush.  This is close enough to show that my memory isn't completely addled, but not the money quote, which I'm pretty sure came a few days later, during a televised chat with a reporter.  Still, my thanks to Adam, who did a much better job of searching than I did.  Overmind, the ball is still in your court.

In any case, it's worth reading that whole linked transcript, just to see what noble causes McCain allegedly stood for six years ago, and then reflect on the sham presidency he has continued to support.  Compare and contrast.