You cannot help but respect the history of John McCain

Really. You have his harrowing brush with death on the Forrestal, then his shootdown and torture, and a refusal to jump ahead of more deserving prisoners costing him over five years of his life.

-but the John McCain of the present sounds nothing like the young naval officer he used to be:

(h/t to MyDD)

John McCain: [Lays out what he sees as signs of progress on the ground in Iraq to refute statements by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that the surge is not working.]

George Stephanopoulos: But if Iraq is meeting those marks, then why not withdraw our troops step-by-step as Senator Obama and Senator Clinton call for?

McCain: Because it has to be dictated by events on the ground, not by an arbitrary date...

Stephanopoulos: But if we are making progress today?

McCain: We are making significant progress today.

Mitt Romney got booted by his own party for talking this kind of crap - also for being seen to reverse long-held positions for political reasons.

I used to be a fan of the man - and I give him plenty of credit for McCain-Feingold - but it's hard to see him as a maverick when he's parroting the same kind of head-in-the-sand garbage the White House has been pitching for seven years.