An independent voter from Southwest Virginia emailed me this comment, and I thought it was worth sharing (with his permission; slightly edited to maintain voter's anonymity) because my bet is that millions of independents share his sentiments:
A lot of independents like me went into this respecting McCain for his military record and taking it to Bush a few times but the past few weeks he has lowered himself to the worst of the worst, using Bush tactics that were employed against him and actually red-baiting Obama. I thought that was out in the 70's...and I thought politics had transcended that, McCain lost a lot of independents with those tactics.
So...you mean you didn't find it appealing when John McCain:
*had nothing positive of his own to offer in a time of economic crisis, except to have his top advisor call Americans "whiners?"
*constantly brought up things that nobody outside his "base" cared about (and that had little or no basis in fact), and admitted that he knew little about the economy?
*went way over the top in his rhetoric, allowing his crowds to yell out death threats and other nastiness about Barack Obama without saying "guys, cut it out?"
*picked a wildly unqualified running mate from the far-right-extremist wing even of the Republican Party?
*pulled ridiculous, undignified stunts like "suspending" his campaign?
*had surrogates out there calling a key region of a key state "communist country?"
*stood by as his VP and other campaign surrogates talked about "real" America as if there were huge swaths of America that are not "real" or patriotic, etc., etc?
Given all that, I think the Southwest Virginia independent voter has it right: the John McCain of 2008 - as opposed to the wildly different John McCain of 2000 - truly has been "the worst of the worst." By the way, what ever happened to the old John McCain, the one that would have condemned the type of campaign he's run in 2008, would have condemned the type of running mate he's picked and the type of supporters who yell out "terrorist?" My guess is that this will be a topic for political psychologists and historians to discuss for years to come.
In the meantime, thankfully, we can completely and utterly reject the type of campaign that John McCain has run this year by voting Barack Obama on Tuesday. Then, we can all stay involved and help President Obama clean up the incredible mess bequeathed to him by Bush, Cheney, DeLay, McCain et al. It won't be easy, but it will be necessary and urgent to try.
I respected him much more before the election. His image was that of a maverick. He chose to take the high road against Bush in 2000. He was a former POW and if you overlook his propensity to crash planes in training, his career was distinguished. But he has abandoned all that in this campaign.
I think he could have done much better. When watching my favorite baseball team play, I still want our opponents to challenge us (as long as we win). I think McCain didn't show up to play ball. It's rather sad in a way.