just this once, i promise

So it’s getting closer to voting day, and for the first time in 20 years there won’t be a Bush or Clinton in the White House. No wonder people are excited about this election.

Nine years ago during the presidential primaries, I voted for McCain. He was the only candidate that seemed remotely trustworthy, and to me that is a very important quality. I call it the “Babysitter Test”: if you don’t trust someone to watch your kids for a few hours, how can you possibly rationalize voting for them? I say this only half jokingly, because elected officials are the ones that we put in charge of us, and if you don’t think they’re a decent human being you shouldn’t vote for them.

McCain wasn’t like anyone else running. He sat down with people in small towns everywhere and answered questions until the crowd got tired. He showed more courage and fortitude than most people can even consider possible, yet never trotted it out to show off. He left his past in the past and from that experience wouldn’t let anyone bully him or force him into doing something he didn’t feel was right. Politically, he never felt the pressure; the Democrats liked him because he wasn’t so Republican, and the Republicans liked him because he mostly stood on their side. He didn’t care about money or growing his own cult of personality; he was John McCain and that’s all he needed.

When McCain won the nomination for the ticket this year, I was excited. I thought, finally my guy was going to get his shot. We’ve had 16 years of presidents who let other people push them around (yes, you Clinton, you were pathetic). I was looking forward to a leader that was a leader. Who was the last president people looked up to and tried to emulate?

I thought McCain would crush Obama. McCain would be the man speaking the truth just as he always had, and Obama would be the pseudologue exposed. McCain was on a roll: he had spoke the unpopular truth months ago and his predictions had come true. He was leading in the polls and was gaining momentum going into the convention, which always boosts a candidates numbers.

But then, slowly but surely, McCain has lost his identity. Once the icon of individualism and sticking to your convictions, McCain has slowly sacrificed, piece by piece, his allure. In order to shore up his numbers, he had to appeal to the conservative base and picked Palin, which made most people go “really? REALLY?”

His ads have gone from funny and tongue-in-cheek and upbeat to dark and angry and mean.

Instead of playing up his strengths, McCain’s campaign has begun to make itself into a ghost of its former image. It used to be a symbol of strength and honor, and was help up for admiration. “Look, see, McCain doesn’t need to do it the old way and he still wins!”

I don’t feel confident in McCain anymore because he’s not the same person. I don’t know if his advisors kept telling him to change his ways or if it was all his idea. Either way, the man I admired has changed. His campaign today doesn’t the same upbeat, can-do attitude. I would have thought that McCain would have stuck to his principles even if it meant losing.

If victory proved elusive, McCain should have been the first candidate to lose with honor.

He has become the man who sullied his reputation for political gain.

And that sounds like politics as usual.