Mavericks or Cons: John McCain and Sarah Palin

If their policies completely miss the mark in meeting the necessities in addressing our dim economic realities and clear national security failures, the question still lingers--

Are John McCain and Sarah Palin Mavericks Still Looking for Reform, Or Cons Exploiting Politics for Personal Wealth and Gain?

Forgive me for my mental imbalances in advance. It's Election Day, after all. And regardless of their policies, there are intangibles that I can't shake. I said it back in the day, and I'll say it again. I like them. I don't know if they quite understand fundamental economics, and I think they have struggled in this election to reconcile between their fondness for the reform minded America of the 80's and the realities of today's Republican party leadership: irresponsibility, cronyism, Big Government, small ideas, hatemongers posing as Christians; white supremacists posing as television hosts and political commentators who have redefined freedom, patrioticism, taxing that has left middle America divided and angry and in many cases resigned to hopelessness.

Maybe I've mistaken the fight in their eyes:

John McCain, tired and fighting for an the outdated agenda. In a different day and in a different political environment, McCain's campaign would be some wierd Reagon-Truman-Obama hybrid. He looks defeated. But still he stands. This is his ground. He will fight for it! And then he reminds us that he's never let us down and he won't let us down. He means it. John McCain is not George Bush. But he fell in line like a good soldier and put his political fate in the hands of George Bush's Republican Party. They didn't quite turn on him, because the never supported him. No money. No legitimacy. McCain's the only guy who could keep it close. I think they hoped he was to old to put up a fight. It was painful, but McCain fought and for a day or two a couple weeks ago he took his campaign back.

John McCain is a maverick because he stood up and defended Barack Obama as a good family man with a great wife and wonderful kids when the movement of his campaign had been toward painting him as a terrorist. John McCain might well have won the election had he gone with it. And they'll all decry his failure behind closed doors. But at least John McCain lived up to his promise as more than a maverick in his own party. Senator John McCain gets the lifetime achievement award for his service to America.

Sarah Palin maverick index is TBD. Her record in Alaska seems reform minded. She's got maverick tendencies. It's 11 O'Clock the night before the election, and Sarah Palin looks tired and annoyed. But she's still fighting, and she tells middle America that she will fight for them to eliminate capital gains tax and they applaud and she seems more passionate, as if she really believes she's fighting for them. If she can become an agent of change and reform within the Republican party to eliminate ties to big oil and religious fundmentalist hatemongers that drive their party positions on social issues, she may well put the small back in small government. And who knows, maybe she'll put the down back in the trickles of Reagonomics, a theory that Reagon himself fumbled in the red zone of his Presidency.

For now, Sarah Palin's maverick is on probation. Time, judgement, and party allegiances will tell.