Noonan on McCain

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120545883674535529.html

One always wonders with Mr. McCain: What exactly does he feel passionately about, what great question? Or rather, what does he stand for, really? For he often shows passion, but he rarely speaks of meaning. The issues that summon his full engagement are issues on which he's been challenged by his party and others. McCain, to McCain, is defined by his maverickness. That's who he is. (It's the theme of his strikingly good memoir, "Worth the Fighting For.") He stands up to power. He faces them down. It's not only a self image, it's a self obsession.

But it has left him seeming passionate only about those issues on which he's been able to act out his maverickness, such as campaign finance and immigration. He's passionate about McCain-Feingold because . . . because people don't understand how right he is, and how wrong they are. He's passionate not about immigration itself but about how he got his head handed to him when he backed comprehensive reform, about which he was right by the way. He's passionate about Iraq because America can't cut and run, as it did in Vietnam, to the subsequent heartbreak of good people, and heroes. But this is not philosophy, it's autobiography.

Issues removed from his personal drama, from the saga of John McCain, don't seem to capture his interest to any deep extent.

The reason I'm voting against McCain is that he will take great pride in snubbing the conservatives whenever he gets the chance.  Obama might take the same actions, but he won't do it to spite the conservatives. Losing to Obama won't weaken the Republican party as much as electing McCain would.