Irresponsible Psychological Theory

Please forgive Pretty Lady, darlings, she's getting a bit punchy with anxiety over complete economic meltdowns, both personal and national. To distract herself, she is engaging in a bit of armchair psychoanalysis, not to mention projection, over the affair that's on all of our minds:

We all expect a certain amount of deceit from people running for office, in the form of fudging, distortion, exaggeration, and omission. But the McCain campaign's approach, as this episode illustrates, is of an entirely different scale and character. It is to normal political attacks what Hurricane Ike is to a drive-through car wash.
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Why does McCain insist on running such a mendacious campaign?

Oo! Oo! Pretty Lady thinks she knows.

Once upon a time, Pretty Lady had a rather horrible best friend. This friend was spoiled, grabby, self-righteous and bitchy. What she wanted, she took--whether it was Pretty Lady's favorite jeans, her French fries, or her boyfriend. She was like this with everybody. She would ransack other people's closets and refuse to give them their clothing back. She invited herself along on their dates. She usurped her friends' intimate relationships. And she got away with it.

This last fact was what baffled Pretty Lady. This woman perpetrated the most egregious atrocities, right out there in the open, and was not socially ostracized for it. People kept introducing her to their significant others, and 'loaning' out their wardrobes. They acted as though her friendship was some sort of exotic prize, rather than the toxic vortex it actually was.

Finally, after viewing the situation in perplexity and despair, Pretty Lady decided to try it, too. She started borrowing people's motorcycle boots, and flirting with their boyfriends. (She confesses this to you in all due shame and humility, decades after the fact.)

It SO did not work. Retribution for attempted spoiled-brat behavior was swift, certain, and universal. Pretty Lady simply could not get away with acting like a shameless trollop, because she wasn't one. She was faking it, very very badly.

What Pretty Lady suspects, then, is that John McCain is in a similar situation. The poor gentleman has no executive experience, despite many decades of honest followership; he is confused, out of his depth, and insecure. Thus he is aping the perceived Behavior Necessary To Win, with no understanding of its subtleties, tenets and boundaries.

For when Karl Rove says you've crossed the line, you're not getting away with it.

Please understand, furthermore, that Pretty Lady is not excusing Mr. McCain's behavior, any more than she excuses her own. She merely theorizes that his ethical compass has been so thoroughly undermined by a fathomless, destructive world that he no longer has one. He is flapping around in the breeze like a crippled seagull. All we can do is put him out of his misery.