Here’s a link to an article about John McCain’s recent disclosure that he doesn’t think he’s a “maverick”, and never has.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have often felt that actively labeling oneself as a maverick is somewhat akin to labeling oneself as “cool”, or an “outsider”. Which is to say that these are not the adjectives self-employed by people who can actually be described by them accurately.
In that sense, it’s good to see McCain flip flop on the maverick front. Though it is remarkably silly to say something like this:
"I’ve never considered myself a maverick."
When you have stood for your party’s presidential elections for past two open nominations while actively courting this label. It would seem to suggest that Mr. McCain had little to no active control over either campaign if he allowed his staff and running mate to continually refer to him as something he “never considered” himself to be.
Or maybe, that’s the maverick thing to do.
Crafty move, old man.
Of course, the more cynically-minded pod readership will probably imagine that these kinds of moves are indicative of a long time incumbent facing a difficult primary challenge and a dissatisfied base looking to voice a seething displeasure with the current political establishment. Why, that’s the kind of environment that might make a modern politician try to bend over backwards to please anyone even remotely likely to throw a vote his way. But certainly, John “Country First” McCain is above such tawdry political calculations, right?
