Massive
by Dover Bitch

The McCain team is ready for their close up.

DENVER (CNN) – John McCain has decided on his running mate and will officially reveal his pick on Friday in Ohio, multiple sources tell CNN.

A knowledgeable Republican source says there the matter was settled at a major meeting of McCain’s advisers Wednesday.

The Arizona senator’s choice has not yet been told of the decision, but the plan is to call tomorrow. A handful of names of dominated VP speculation in recent days, including former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, independent Senator Joe Lieberman, and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

The presumptive Republican nominee will appear with his prospective running mate at a massive rally on August 29, the day after Barack Obama formally accepts the Democratic presidential nomination.

The McCain campaign is hoping to have 15,000 people at the Ohio rally — roughly five times the size of his largest crowd to date.

That massive rally is sure going to look daunting after Barack Obama electrifies a capacity crowd at Invesco Field tonight. Of course, you know this will probably be leaked today to change the subject away from Obama’s big speech. That’s the card you play when you simply cannot compete on the same playing field (literally). Oh, but I forgot… McCain’s inability to draw big crowds is simply a reflection of his vast experience.

When you think about it, Obama actually has more experience than McCain. Sure, a guy named “John McCain” has been in the Senate since 1987, but he’s not the Republican nominee.

There was a guy by that name who supported Roe v. Wade, but the new John McCain replaced him two years ago.

There was a guy by that name who called Jerry Falwell an “agent of intolerance”, but the new John McCain replaced him two years ago.

There was a guy by that name who proposed comprehensive immigration reform, but the new John McCain replaced him in February.

There was a guy by that name who was against waterboarding, but the new John McCain replaced him in February.

There was a guy by that name who was willing to talk to Hamas, but the new John McCain replaced him in May.

There was a guy by that name who was against offshore drilling, but the new John McCain replaced him in June.

There was a guy by that name who supported affirmative action, but the new John McCain replaced him in July.

The new John McCain running for president has only really existed for a couple years, max. Parts of his brain have been replaced as recently as this summer. Really, the list of his reversals is staggering. We’re going to hear a lot next week about his huge advantage on experience, but they’re really not going to be talking about the same person they nominated. What happened to that guy? Where did the world’s oldest freshman come from and how did he get keys to all of John McCain’s houses?

They’re also going to throw around their favorite tired zingers, like “Blame America First.” This from the crowd that nominated a guy who reacted to 9/11 by leading the Blame Iraq First brigade. This from a guy who abandoned his principles to cozy up to the extremists who really did Blame America First, while real Americans, the majority of Americans, were coming together, united, the way we have defeated every threat in our history.

It’s certainly useful for Obama that people are starting to notice that John McCain is playing the POW card with increasing frequency. I find that it never justifies the mistake he’s trying to excuse with it or the position he’s claiming he supports because of it. But the repetition honestly doesn’t diminish, in my mind, the sacrifice he made years ago.

However, there is a vast — you might say “massive” — difference between the images of honor in his biography and the undignified campaigner he has chosen to become, the bottom-feeders with whom he has associated himself and the swiftness with which he has dispatched so many of the principled positions he has taken previously. The more he describes what a big man he was in the past, the smaller he looks today.

If he weren’t perilously close to running the country, it would be just another tragedy of Washington D.C. that I’d just as soon forget.