With John McCain declared last man standing, FOX News tonight points out the obvious: the man is a target as broad as a bus for Democrats: he’s promised the nation a 100 year war on terror (like the President) and he admits he hasn’t paid much attention to economics in his time.

IS THIS WHO CONSERVATIVES NEED TO REPRESENT THEM IN THE THICK OF ECONOMIC MELTDOWN?

Someone who’s managed to stand for the biggest mistake on the right (war- without-end as a jobs program for the defense department and as cover for the banking mafia) AND the biggest mistake on the left (government as your nanny, your therapist, and your personal ATM machine).

Look, the guy is a hero. He’s a survivor of torture of the worst kind. He deserves the utmost respect for what he went through in the line of duty.

And I’m not arguing – as some do – that with a history like that, McCain couldn’t possibly be “normal” enough to take on the task of presiding over the United States.

“Normal” isn’t what you usually find at the top of the political scrum. The PR handlers, ready at hand with flannel shirts, cowboy hats, and ham sandwiches might accoutre their clients for Peoria, but we all know the underneath the down-home smiles beat hearts steeped in the murk of Washington.

John McCain’s a bit too real for that.

Actually, he’s a guy who just might have over-qualified himself for being a president. Instead, he ought to do something where his experience would really matter. Campaign for better treatment for Vets. Advise the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on what the grunts really go through. Advocate for the Geneva Conventions.

He’d make a good vice-president.

But president?

Suffering torture just isn’t the right qualification – however much we respect it.