But McCain's war carried within itself some very dangerous seeds. He argued that religion should be kept out of politics. You therefore turn mere political fights for power into battles to the death. Our founders were fully aware of the bloodbath that such self-righteous religious wars and crusades had caused in Europe. Like the mythic heroes of ancient Greece, McCain has his Achilles' heel, his flaws and vulnerabilities that led his quest to tragedy and defeat.
Genuine heroes are usually too focused on their mission to be thus distracted.
Compare McCain to the serenity of Ronald Reagan, against whose regal confidence such slings and arrows bounced off, as powerless as spitwads. By this week Bush's hectoring, Fabian tactics had reduced McCain to a hero so allergic and sensitive that Bush could manipulate him into uncontrolled rage by a simple gesture or by the incantation of a single sentence. A potential king must exude self-control, not erupt volcanically at every passing breeze. McCain had been lured so far off message and so out of self-control that he no longer appeared kinglike. A self-proclaimed hero of light must also not have a dark side, and must not dabble with the dark side of the forces of politics.