One of the most appalling aspects of experiencing the current Presidential campaign has been watching John McCain’s step-by-step shedding of every last vestige of integrity. McCain once stood out among Republicans as a supporter of legislation to limit climate change and reasonable immigration laws and as a critic of both Bush and the party’s ultra-right Christian fundamentalist wing. Since then he’s embraced Bush and reversed himself on immigration and the fundamentalists— he has become what he once denounced.

     His selection of Sarah Palin completes the process. What gall McCain had to present himself at the Republican convention as a President who would reach across the aisle for compromise, who would govern in a bipartisan way, when his selection of Palin ensures that such actions will never be possible. How could McCain govern as a moderate when he couldn’t even pick either of his preferred VP candidates (Lieberman and Ridge) because of a right-wing veto? What makes him think that the right-wing he has now invigorated won’t stymie every other stab he makes at moderation? And please forget about any sort of meaningful climate change legislation— while the world is is in the first stages of an environmental cataclysm, McCain’s VP selection believes that climate change is not human-caused, and stands a significant chance of inflicting that view on the rest of the country. In a single act, McCain has managed to re-ignite the culture wars and energize the country’s know-nothings; then he pretended to be above partisanship. He surely knows how ill-equipped Palin is to be president, yet he presents her as Presidency-ready “on Day One.” On the other hand, she’ll need weeks of preparation to face questioners. And McCain has the nerve to claim that he puts the country before political decisions— in choosing Palin, he showed that he cares about winning the Presidency more than any principle, more than the country’s (and the world’s) well-being.

    Even worse is the campaign that McCain has been running since the convention, a collection of flat-out lies and absurd innuendo. McCain’s handlers have decided he can’t win a campaign about issues, so all their efforts are meant to impugn Obama’s integrity, while skirting any discussion of what plagues the country and might be done about it. The Bush Presidency exposed the increasing irrelevance of “facts,” the way information can be subverted by endless repetition of lies. Bush perfected the technique during his abysmal Presidency; McCain’s distinction is deploying it relentlessly on the campaign trail. Denounce the press, so that its discoveries (such as of Palin’s support for the Bridge to Nowhere, her coziness with a secessionist party, her appropriation of per-diem payments for nights spent at home, her confessions of ignorance about Iraq and the VP job, and on and on) are discounted in advance. The Swiftboat campaign that outrageously upended Kerry in 2004 has proliferated; now McCain’s entire campaign is Swiftboating— it’s a Swiftboating hurricane. On any topic, lie! It doesn’t matter, because most voters are too trusting or ignorant or preoccupied or oblivious to notice.

    McCain has a history of apologizing for his lapses, from joining the Keating Five to his reckless displays of temper. It’s possible that a few years from now we’ll be treated to another apology, acknowledging the ethical emptiness of his campaign. Of course, such a prospect is possible only if McCain loses, in which case it will still strain forgiveness. Infinitely more frightening is a McCain victory, in which the rest of us are taken down with him.