Dear John,

I remember feeling a little sorry for you back in 2000 when you ran against Governor Bush for the Republican nomination. Being a Democrat, there was certainly no chance I would have supported you in the general election, but thought Karl Rove’s tactics were unprofessional and immoral. I felt then, and still do today, that Karl’s planting of false stories in South Carolina accusing you of fathering an illegitimate black child, being “crazy,” or opposing the advancement of breast cancer research was utterly beyond the pale. Karl could have chosen to truthfully point out, for example, your intimate involvement in the Savings and Loan scandal, or the fact that you cheated on and then divorced your wife after she had disfiguring car accident, only to marry a prescription drug-abusing heiress-apparent to a $100 million estate. Instead, he chose to make up stories.

There you were, a self-proclaimed maverick trying to run a decent campaign, only to be dumbfounded and caught flatfooted by the inhumane and immoral actions of the future Bush Administration. You soon withdrew from that race and went back to the Senate, but clearly have held a grudge to this day, and rightfully so. How could someone seeking such an esteemed office behave in such a dishonorable manner? Who could be so morally bankrupt as to fabricate such hurtful and untruthful stories? Being a military man, I’m sure you swore never to stoop to Karl’s level and risk tarnishing your honorable image.

So what happened to that John McCain? At what point did you decide, as the Obama campaign so aptly stated, to lose your integrity before losing an election? You have, tragically, become a serial liar and unprincipled mudslinger in true Rovian fashion. You could have chosen to criticize Barack fairly, by calling him out for wanting to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans who, in your view, power the American economy. You may have wished to label him “another tax and spend liberal in the ‘Democrat’ party” or criticized his lack of “executive experience.” Instead, you brought dishonor to yourself and your party by telling bald-faced lies about the Senator, and also by distorting your running mate’s record time and again.

Do you truly think Barack wants to teach kindergartners how to have sex? While you did graduate fifth from the bottom of your class, you seem to be a pretty smart man, and I can’t imagine you would lie about this issue. Wasn’t the bill that Barack supported one that merely would have taught vulnerable school children how to avoid being abused by adults, and who to tell in case abuse occurred? Did you even read the bill, or did you just listen to some hacks at the RNC? Would the John McCain of 2000 have “approved this message” so gleefully?

Next, in your honest opinion, was Barack really labeling Sarah Palin a “pig” when he criticized you for disingenuously claiming the mantle of change? Didn’t you use the same phrase while referring to Senator Clinton at least three times? Didn’t one of your top campaign advisors write a book entitled “Lipstick on a Pig” recently? Throughout the primaries and now the general election campaign, you have demonstrated confusion and tiredness (not knowing the difference between a Shia or Sunni, accidentally altering your positions on multiple Iraq/Afghanistan war issues, thinking you had to make at least $5,000,000 a year to be “rich,” telling people you would pay anyone willing to pick vegetables $50/hour - as if that was a paltry amount, not knowing how many homes you owned, etc.), so maybe we should just chalk this whole swine ordeal up to confusion.

But have you read Obama’s tax plan, or are you just confused again about its details? Do you really believe, despite the wording of the plan, that it calls for raising taxes on everyone in the middle class? If not, then why would you keep repeating that assertion at every campaign stop? Also, I saw a new commercial today where you said Barack “opposes offshore drilling.” I personally oppose offshore drilling because it is shortsighted, won’t result in any oil output for ten years, and even then there’s no guarantee that the oil companies will sell that oil in America, but doesn’t Barack support limited offshore drilling? Would a person with integrity have accused him of opposing drilling outright?

Finally, would the John McCain of 2000 have selected Sarah Palin as his running mate? I just can’t believe you if you say you would have. Would that John really have chosen a running mate who was mayor of a truck stop town for a few years and the governor of Alaska for a year and a half? Didn’t you say during the primaries that you were more qualified than the other Republicans because, unlike someone (read: Rudy/Mitt) who was a mayor or governor “for a short time,” you were a seasoned Senator? Even if the old John McCain would have made the same selection, would he also have said that Sarah’s foreign policy experience was extensive because she knew all about about “energy” and because of Alaska’s proximity to Russia? Would the war hero John McCain have been able to say, straight-faced, that Sarah had extensive foreign policy experience because she was the “Commander-in Chief of the Alaska National Guard” for eighteen months? Perhaps that title was technically correct, but didn’t the general overseeing the Guard in Alaska recently say that Sarah had absolutely no involvement in any decisions whatsoever?

I’m also confused as to why you and Sarah keep declaring that she “told Congress, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ on that Bridge to Nowhere,” when you know that isn’t really true. Do you honestly believe that, despite the plethora of video and print journalism to the contrary, Sarah was really the person who shut down that project? Didn’t she wholeheartedly support the bridge before it became a national scandal, and only then oppose it (and still keep the money from Congress)? Am I just being a revisionist historian, or was that what really happened? If so, why would you keep declaring that she opposed the bridge, and would you have made such a baseless statement in 2000? If, beyond supporting the $400 million pork barrel bridge, Sarah Palin also requested hundreds of millions of dollars in other earmarks for Alaska, why would you both tell the American people that she is so adamantly opposed to these congressional goodies? With his reputation on the line, would the John McCain of 2000 have been so liberal with the truth?

In picking Sarah, maybe you thought, and perhaps rightfully so, that this election should focus on the actual candidates for the presidency. I couldn’t agree more with you if that is the case, but please, stop insulting the intelligence of the American people with the outright lies about Barack and Sarah. Politics has always been a game of spin, but looking into the eyes of the voters and intentionally fabricating half of what you say is indecent, dishonorable, and embarrassing to you, your career of service, and to our nation. I miss the integrity of the John McCain of 2000, and hope you find your true self again before this fake McCain tarnishes your legacy forever.

Your friend,

Steve