Over the years, I have seen outsiders come into meetings and ignite the crowd with an indignant speech and then get themselves elected to lead the charge against the people then in power. I've seen mad moms do that in PTA organizations, where they roast the teachers and administration, get elected as the savior, then completely wreck the organization, demoralize the teachers and administrators, and then quit when they find out there are actual problems that they can't handle.

Sound familiar?

I too was at Grant Park in 1968. In fact, it was where I met my wife.

One of the things I remember about Vietnam is that we dropped the equivalent of one ton of TNT for every 16 square feet of the entire country.

What has constantly amazed me is how hard it is for people in our counry to see how warlike we are, as a nation. If you go back through our history, it is hard to find any appreciable period when we have not been warlike somewhere.

Holding ourselves out as peaceable and stalwarts of free and fair elections is mythical.

There are two ways to predict the future behavior of every personality trait, including being a "Maverick".

We love mavericks in America. John Wayne, for example. A maverick is the perfect personality trait for explorers and adventurers, for discoverers. Their self-reliance is admirable. We love their renegade spirit.

What's the other side of being a maverick? Well, almost by definition, no one follows a maverick. McCain's own party has never elected him to a leadership position, for example.

Almost by definition, mavericks are unpredictable. In other words, they are erratic. To be a maverick you have to be stubborn because it is hard to he resistant all the time unless you are willing to be a bull in a china shop. Maybe, just maybe, with the passage of time and exposure, those "other side of the coin" characteristics are becoming exposed to the American subconcious and reflected in the polls.

Any major candidte can count on 40% of the electorate. McCain has his 40%, but not much more, and it is not moving. That should worry him greatly.

The typical response of a candidate that knows he will not get much more than a percentage in the 40's, is to attak his opponent and try to get his supporters to stay home. McCain is no exception. He will have a hard time beause of the ardor Obama supporters have for their candidate.

McCain's tactics are likely to have an unanticipated effect. Voters who might support McCain could move to Bob Barr or Ralph Nader, as McCain's attacks continue, along with his failure to propose positive programs. That trend seems to show in the polls as well, where it appears that Barr and Nader supporters are coming out of McCain's suppport base.