John McCain Palinizes Into a Pit Bull With Lipstick

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Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:00 pm

One of the fascinating things about John McCain’s reelection campaign is not only has he sold out and moved further to the right, but he has adopted the political persona of his 2008 running mate, Sarah Palin. McCain, like Palin, has abandoned his reputation for bipartisanship, his former positions and values, and is now plain pandering to an angry GOP base. In short, McCain has been Palinized.

The latest episode to illustrate the metamorphosis from McCain to McPalin is his obstruction of the Defense Authorization bill. After saying earlier in the day that he would not obstruct the bill, McCain did exactly that in the Senate Armed Services Committee. Here is the video from Think Progress:

When committee chairman Carl Levin asked for unanimous consent, McPalin stood up and said, in a very un maverick like manner, ” I’m not going to allow us to move forward and I will be discussing without leaders and the 41 members of this side of the aisle as to whether we’re going to move forward with a bill that contains a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy repealed before, before a meaningful survey on the impact of battle effectiveness and morale on the men and women who are serving this nation in uniform. It’s again…moving forward with a social agenda on legislation that was intended to ensure this nation’s security.”

McPalin has replaced McCain’s honor and America First, with the image of a reformer, Washington outsider who wants to secure our borders. Those same ideas are often found on Sarah Palin’s Facebook page. The transformation of McCain was inspired by the fact that he now has a Tea Partier primary challenger in J.D. Hayworth. In March, Palin went to Arizona in attempt to give McCain Tea Party cred, “I want to clear the air right now, in respect to the Tea Party movement, a beautiful movement. You know what? Everyone here today supporting John McCain, we are all a part of that Tea Party movement.”

The comparison between McCain 2010 and Sarah Palin 2006 is striking. Palin sold herself in Alaska as a maverick who was willing to work with Democrats, and she when she took office as governor, she did work with Democrats on issues like socializing oil profits. McCain was the Senate version of Palin. He sold himself as a maverick and worked with Democrats on issues such as campaign finance reform, immigration reform, and climate change.

It can be argued that maybe McCain and Palin never were in the middle, but after Obama’s election and the GOP’s subsequent move to the far right, both McCain and Palin abandoned any pretense of moderation, sold out, and moved further to the right. In a desperate attempt to hold on to the twilight days of his career, John McCain has thrown on a wig, some lipstick, and disguised himself as a pit bull. It is a cynical move by a desperate politician who will do anything to keep his seat.

In 2010 John McCain has done the unthinkable. He has picked as his role model the most unpopular, outside of the GOP, politician in America. War hero John McCain is so terrified of retirement that he has become a winking, you betchaing senior citizen Sarah Palin. John McCain has willingly Palinized himself, so as you watch the video of McCain ranting against DADT and threatening to deny bullets and body armor to the troops, remember the man on the screen isn’t John McCain. He is John McPalin.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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