Sen. John McCain is fielding rapid-fire queries from reporters aboard his campaign bus. The candidate displays the aplomb of a veteran baseball shortstop lunging for grounders, line drives and pop-ups during the pepper drills of spring training. One minute, McCain is offering his political calculus of victory and defeat in Tuesday's 13 Republican presidential primaries. Today's the day. One of the great love affairs of our time founders on the cold sharp rock of reality.
All fun things have to come to an end.
You could ask Damon and Pythias, Dante and Beatrice, Eloise and Abelard. Not a moment too soon, either. The senator from Arizona is throwing daily tantrums now, with his frustrations and anger getting the better of him. Another week of this and someone will have to prescribe Ritalin. In the Gelded Age, a lot of these boys and girls had never come across a politician or any other man with his toughness, patriotism and unapologetic manliness intact.