The "My Turn" Syndrome in the Republican Party

Is it just me, or is the Republican Party just slow to recognize loser candidates? John McCain - in both his person and his campaign - has been a virtual clone of a previous Repub that was destined to lose. Here's his resume:

"Hi, I'm a war veteran and a hero, and that is going to be the centerpiece of my campaign. My surrogates will beat you over the head with this fact at every turn. I've been in Washington forever and have been a senator longer than most of you have been alive, and I am proud to say that I'm one of the oldest candidates to ever run for the presidency. I represent the party that espouses "family values", but I'm a divorcee that dumped my first wife shortly after meeting my current wife. She is much younger than me and has most of the money in the family.

During my time in office, I have constantly reached across the aisle to Democrats, which ticked off many in my party, but established my credentials as a moderate who could get things done. I ran for my party's nomination prior to this, but lost to a guy named Bush, who used dirty politics to deny me the nomination. Bush went on to win what should have rightly been mine, and I moaned about it publicly. I ran again years later with a rallying cry of "it's my turn, dammit!". This turned out to be OK for the nomination, but not such a good theme for the general election, and I ended getting trounced by a guy who had charisma. Up until then, I thought charisma was over-rated. Now I'm not so sure.

The guy who beat me would be declared 'the first black president of the United States'".

I wait with bated breath to see if McCain does a Viagra commercial and starts referring to himself in the third person. Then the similarities would be scary.

So, name that candidate. Oh, all right, we all know it's Bob Dole. Ironic, isn't it, that, with a few modifications, the above would also describe George H.W. Bush? While no Senate Lifer, he was certainly a member of the Club, got trounced before he got the nomination, and was the embodiment of Establishment Republicanism whose primary objectives are to be liked by the Press and to secure a place at the Democrat's table.

More scary still, most of the Bob Dole profile does describe John Kerry, the erstwhile Dem candidate the last go-round. Wow, could that have been four years ago? Seems like just yesterday that we all stared slack-jawed as Kerry was being flogged by those great patriots the Swift Boaters. Of course, unlike McCain and Dole, Kerry was no kind of war hero, but rather a blow-dried poseur whose credentials were sensibly shredded by his peers.

On the silver linings front, the Republican Party is fresh out of Lifers with a Certified Democrat Outreach Program. It could well be that the next go-round, we'll have no more Bob Michel clones to gum up the process, and nominate somebody who actually likes his party and shares its beliefs.