John McCain proved himself a coward of the first order when he opted not to confront Obama on his allegedly "palling around with terrorists." Instead, he left that task up to his drug addict wife and dim witted running mate. I know that the job of the VP candidate is to go on the attack, but if the principal on the ticket is unwilling to say what the VP candidate is saying, then he either knows it is false/wrong, or he is a coward.

If John McCain were truly honorable, he would rebuke Sarah Palin for trying to incite violence against Senator Obama. There have been calls to "kill him," cut off his head, accusations of treason, and accusations that Obama is a terrorist all from the McCain/Palin crowd. Neither one of them has paused in their speech to condemn that sort of talk. Cindy McCain, the woman who was once investigated by the DEA for diverting narcotics to herself by using her charity for poor children, has a bloody cheek saying anything about anyone. As someone who recently had major surgery, I know what is like to be in a Percocet induced haze and say nonsensical things. Cindy McCain accused Obama of voting against funding "her son." Her own husband voted against a similar measure shortly thereafter. Her vicious speech about Obama being a man who hates the troops tied in well with Palin's vicious speech about him hanging out with terrorists. That has stirred up violent feelings in their crowds. It won't be long before we hear racial slurs from the crowd, as they are more and more looking and sounding like Aryan Nation rallies.

If John McCain loves this country so much, then he would not let his wife and running mate undermine the political process by stirring up violence against an opponent. Having rivals assassinated is something one would see in Pakistan, Russia, or any other country where extremism carries the day. Since McCain loves his career more than he loves his country, he will not do it.

McCain sunk his campaign with his demeanor. He looked like a feeble old man what with his wandering, hunched over posture, and smile that came off as a grimace. His lack of vitality versus Obama's made Obama's change message for him.

McCain also failed because of the same reason Palin failed: when there is no crowd of shrieking supporters to laugh at his bad jokes or join him at sneering at Obama, he is thrown off. His emotional pleas and platitudes do not work when he does not have an audience to play along. It made him and his jokes look bizarre and had people scratching their heads. When he told Tom Brokaw that he would not hire him as Secretary of the Treasury, he was going for a joke, but it left all of the post debate analyzers wondering what the hell he was talking about. It was a non-sequitur His little hair plugs joke also fell flat. He made himself look like a crazy, rambling old man.

As for the "that one" remark, I do not know if it was racist or not. I do know that it was incredibly disrespectful. Senator Obama has a first name, a last name, an honorific, or even a pronoun (he) that McCain could have used. Instead, he opted to make Obama an "it." That reminded me of Sarah Palin calling Senator Obama "Barack" all through her debate. She is not friends with Sen. Obama, he did not give her permission to call him that, and it was overly familiar.

John McCain's obvious disdain for Obama comes from a sense of entitlement that has been cultivated all his life. He got into the Naval Academy because of his father and grandfather. I have no doubt that some of his professors were muscled into giving him passing grades so that he would graduate. He crashed five planes while horsing around in them, treating them as if they were his own playthings. Whereas his sense of entitlement may have been good natured, it is tinged with anger and bitterness now. He obviously thinks that his POW experience makes him entitled to the presidency. He was bitter that the twit from Texas was supported by the Republican establishment and he was not elevated to that office. He became a good little soldier and played along with Bush in the hopes that he would win this year, and is instead held down by Bush's baggage. He must resent Obama's meteoric rise and that he is likely to win the presidency on his first try, thereby robbing McCain forever of what he feels he is owed. He is obviously very bitter and angry over the way his attempts at becoming president have gone, and he seems willing to do anything to hold onto the dream that has eluded him and will go away forever this November.