burning down the house(s)

Honestly, I don't much care that John & Cindy McCain own four, or seven, or nine, or ten houses and condos, worth $5 million-plus. John earned that money the honest way - marrying a rich woman. Who in turn got it the honest way - from rich parents.

It's the Republican Way.

But it is another nail in the coffin of the concept that somehow John McCain is a "regular guy" and isn't an elite, and Barack Obama - the son of an immigrant, raised by a single mother and grandparents - is an elite.

Regular guys don't get into the US Naval Academy despite a woeful lack of academic qualifications unless their dad and grand-dad were admirals. Granddad, by the way, even has a US navy ship named after him.

Regular guys don't own - or sleep with the owner of - so much real estate worth so much money.

Regular guys don't spend $280,000 a year on paying for household help.

Regular guys aren't regular guests on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. THAT alone makes McCain a celebrity.

Not that this disqualifies McCain from being a decent choice for President.

No, what disqualifies McCain from being a decent choice for President is (1) his age (72 in a few days) and (2) his erratic responses to crises ("We are all Georgians?" WTF?) and (3) his immediate impulse to consider military actions and (4) his admitted disinterest in the economy and (5) the fact that he associates voluntarily with Republicans and (6) his unconscionable flip-flop on TORTURE of all things.

That was the end of any respect for me for McCain. Changing minds on other policies, well everybody does it. But to sanction and condone what the de facto Bush Administration has done - in other words, torture - after opposing it is a particularly cynical action.

Especially coming from a guy who owes his celebrity to having been tortured in prison in Hanoi.