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McCain Still Bitter About Defeat

I don't really like to dismiss the arguments of a defeated candidate as "sore loser" syndrome, as the phrase implies that losing an election weakens the merits of one's beliefs. Yet it is so blindingly obvious that John McCain remains bitter and unreconciled to his electoral defeat in 2008. Here he is explaining his opposition to letting gays serve openly in the military:

The fact is, this was a political promise made by an inexperienced President or candidate for Presidency of the United States.

That's the kind of ad hominem attack line you'd use during a campaign. But the campaign is over. Barack Obama is president of the United States. He has more presidential experience than John McCain.

And, of course, "political" is hardly a persuasive epithet here, either. Changes in public policy that require legislative approval or encounter opposition are political. That's what politics is. McCain is calling the change "political" as a way of ascribing crass motives to his opponent, an especially comic touch. Nobody regards him as a statesman anymore.