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Love affair with McCain captures votes by Margery Eagan Sunday, February 13, 2000

Voters, this hearts and flowers weekend, are in love.

And it's ``a love affair so outrageously syrupy that it threatens to toss the entire nation into insulin shock.''

So said columnist Frank Rich yesterday of our national affair with would-be president John McCain. We are swept off our feet in Massachusetts, where Secretary of State Bill Galvin says bushels-ful of Democrats are scurrying to re-register before next month's primary. They're throwing themselves at McCain.

They are swooning within the legendary zip code, 90210, as in Hollywood, stomping grounds of such insufferable liberals as Barbra Streisand and do-gooders Tim Robbins and his significant other, Susan Sarandon.

``John is a good man.'' So ``Bullworth'' ultraliberal Warren Beatty, who flirted with the Big White House himself, confided to Rich. Perhaps it takes a romantic leading man, albeit it one aging rather poorly, to recognize those (ITAL)je ne sais quois(ITAL) attributes in our new national heartthrob. But Warren: McCain is pro-gun, anti-choice and an environmental scorched-earther. Where are your priniciples? Do issues matter?

I guess they don't. Or perhaps those Democrats with hearts a pitter-patter hope John is just fooling, as it were, to placate the hard right in South Carolina. Even though he was there with Newt Gingrich pushing the Contract With America. Even though he was there with Henry Hyde and the hang-'em-high set on the impeachment of another of our bad-boy infatuations, Bill Clinton.

There are many theories as to why the Arizona senator, not nearly so enamored in his home state, by the way, has nonetheless seduced much of America. Among them:

McCain is the antidote to Clinton as Jimmy Carter, the Holy, was an antidote to Richard Nixon, the Crook. McCain's Straight Talk Express offers welcome relief from Clinton's rope-a-doping. McCain has demonstrated his character. Clinton has none. Plus McCain, who has a much younger and stunning wife (with a checkered past of her own), has never been accused of sexual assault.

McCain is not a baby boomer. And this is a problem for George W. Bush, who symbolizes so much of what's annoying and embarrassing about my entire generation: the easy street, life-must-be-pleasant mentality, the situational morality, the endless quest for . . . The Meaning of It All.

And then there is the more obvious stuff: McCain flatters and flirts and ingratiates himself with the media. We love that. He is clearly more fun than Bush, Bradley or Gore.

Bradley, like McCain, is comfortable with himself. But Bradley's ``self'' is, unfortunately, neither sparkling nor charismatic, try as Michael Jordan may to make it thus.

Which brings me to my favorite theory about the McCain ascendancy. It's what Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan calls the ``flyboy'' thing, the irresistible combination of the daredevil with the dependable, of the hopeless romantic with the reliable provider.

McCain's a man in whom the qualities of Wildest Boyfriend merge so seamlessly with those of Ideal Husband that you're willing to take a fly, pardon the pun.

McCain seems like the sort of man who'd take you dancing to some smoky, vaguely illicit little hideway, drink too much, wake hungover but still tackle the household expenses, fertilize the lawn, rejigger the plumbing, deftly, with his cherished hand tools, and, if need be, protect his loved ones in swashbuckling style.

The Wall Street Journal actually theorized this week that George W. has the kind of ``softer'' personality that appeals to women. What women? Surely Jesse Jackson is the only politician who could make constant, Bush-like invocations of his Lord and Saviour even mildly sensual. But really now, there is simply no comparing Jesse's passion with George's, well, whatever.

No, it is clear, this Valentine's Eve, at least, that our hearts are melting before McCain, candidate with the right stuff. Whether our love be shallow and fleeting, or true, I guess only Super Tuesday will tell. <<<

-- Irving (irvingf@myremarq.com), February 13, 2000

Answers

I am waiting for Babs' opinion on McCain, then I will decide if he is the one. Does anyone know who La Streisand is backing?

-- canthappen (n@ysayer.com), February 13, 2000.

http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/2000/Feb/12/front_page/KEYES12.htm

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), February 13, 2000.

Still undecided. Wish the hype on McCain was for real. Still, at least MonicaL was consenting.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), February 13, 2000.

iF HIs fIRst WIfe COulDN't TRusT HIm, WHy sHOUld wE?

-- SkePTiC (INquiRIngMIndS@waNT.toKNow), February 13, 2000.

My contention with McCain is that he didn't even know what was going on in his own home. If he can't keep track of his own wife and her goings on, then how will he run a country? She commited a felony by stealing drugs from a charitable organization she was running!! Stealing from the truly poor and needy!!! And just because she was the wife of a Senator, she got off with just parole. She should have been tried and convicted of stealing narcotics. I am sick of people turning criminals into saints because of a so called heart change and rehabilitation. If you do the crime you should do the time no matter who you are.

-- Watchful (watchful@skeptical.com), February 14, 2000.