By Chennery Fife

Last December, when Senator John McCain came to Penn’s campus for a town hall in Zellerbach, he was about the sixth most likely candidate to take the Republican nomination. Maybe for that reason, or for what he actually said, I warmed to him. He was a straight-talker with moderate policies. Perhaps because he knew he was speaking on a rather liberal college campus, he emphasized his positions to combat global warming and pork barrel spending. I’ll be honest, I liked him.

But then he became the presumptive Republican nominee, and something seemed to change. He now emphasizes his desire for victory in Iraq, no matter how long it took, and his conservative social views. His position on Iraq is well known, and we acknowledge the reality of potentially ten more years of war if we elect McCain. Also, at the Saddleback Civil Forum on August 16, McCain took a very conservative stance on social policies, saying that life begins “at conception” and he supports a heterosexual marriage amendment to the Constitution. (And perhaps the abortion stance reflected the setting in Saddleback Church.) Even his energy plan includes the Republican “Drill Now” mantra that, as I explained in an earlier post, would not really help Americans out now. With these current conservative policies, McCain has lost much favor with me.

It is strange how this progression played out. Most candidates must start at the far end of their party’s respective spectrum before and during the primaries. This method better ensures their nomination, since primary voters tend to be more partisan than general election voters. Thus the candidates, once nominated by their party, must begin moving to the center to pick up as many independents, unaffiliated and less partisan citizens in November.

McCain has done the opposite.

He used to be a maverick. He used to have little party loyalty, which he could afford last December when he was not first or second or third in line for the nomination. But now that the Republican Party has endorsed him, he must play their game. He now listens to social conservatives, large corporations and military personnel eager to stay at war. His stances now more perfectly align with his party than seemingly ever before. How can you be a maverick when you are now a puppet for a party who wants to halt positive progress on energy, social issues and the war? I am not sure; I guess we have to ask the new not-so-straight-talking-but-still-“Maverick” McCain himself.