How he may feel about things personally is irrelevant. He may have had to make deals and promises in return for support. All politicians do this to some extent, of course, but I think McCain really had to sell his soul to the right wing of his party in order to line up the backing he needed.

The presence of the Neocon scum in his strategy team is particularly troubling. These people came out of the Reagan era and destroyed the Bush II presidency with their ideological intransigence. And they never liked McCain in the first place, they slandered him when they worked for Bush and ran a dirty tricks campaign against McCain.

Right now, I think McCain and the Neocons each believe they are using the other, but there will be conflict in the White House if the Republicans win this election. And in tthat scenario, and aged and tired McCain, with an attractive and vigorous Vice President with little experience in national infighting close behind, and no clue to what is going on behind brings to mind all sorts of paranoid possibilities.

Let me stick out my neck a bit and speculate. Look at McCain's face when he talks. The man is scared, he's terrified of something. It's not for lack of physical courage, the man has demonstrated he has plenty of that. But he's scared of something else, something really evil. He has the face of a man that's fighting for his life.