How else do you jump the line to eat in front of your own grandchildren? He got the GOP nod, pretty much by rote, after each and every opponent crashed and burned.  He's NEVER been the preferred choice by his own people.  They've been made to swallow him as a candidate, and now they have indigestion. I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall, at ANY casual GOP gathering, to hear them lamenting their lot. ersonality disorder who is a perfect leader for the current base which is a collective of the same. I feel no "pang of sympathy" for him as he is by definition incapable of feeling sympathy for others. W and Cheney were the same and probably Nixon.  They have no shame and no remorse. They are extemely difficult if not impossible to treat.  Our job is to keep them out of power. They have gotten so crazy, there is just no one left to run, and who ever can fill the void makes it in. If Gingrich wasn't so dirty, he probably could have gotten the nomination, or maybe Perry, but he is extremely ugly and crazy, and can't play on the national stage. There is just no one left in the GOP to run. After the financial meltdown, McCain should have been pretty sure he was going to lose.  You could see his smile getting more and more rictus as the days went on.  Especially once the Palin interviews started appearing, and we