McCain’s concession symbolizes the passing of many torches,not the least of which is the completion of the most historic screwing over inmodern American politics. Consider the evidence:
- In the 2000 South Carolina primary, George W. Bush’s campaign conducted push polling suggesting that McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child. Bush won the state, halting McCain’s momentum from a win in New Hampshire and effectively ending his bid.
- One they reached the White House, the Bush Administration orchestrated a systematic effort to overload the executive branch with authority, doing its best to marginalize Congress—McCain’s milieu—and requiring absolute fealty from Republican lawmakers.
- In March 2003, Bush launched a war that most Republicans—and many Democrats—were politically compelled to support. That war became deeply unpopular.
- Bush’s plummeting popularity was instrumental to the Democrats’ takeover of both houses of Congress in 2006, further marginalizing McCain in the Senate.
- Bush left the nation deeply dissatisfied with Republicans and hungry for an alternative. It was that country in which McCain had to run for president.
