I'm with you in not wanting to vote for McCain myself, but I know exactly why people *are* voting for him. It's all about his carefully-crafted image as a "maverick." Because he has the audacity to occasionally speak against, and, on much rarer occasions, vote against his party's decided platform, and because he painted his bus with the words "Straight Talk Express", he's seen labeled "straight talker" by the media. Because the media will never admit being wrong unless absolutely forced to do so, ignorant rubes buy into the hype, and decide to support him without knowing much about his platform.

I'm not saying this is the profile of *every* McCain voter, but it's certainly a big part of his constituency. Bill Maher's show did a great "man on the street interview" segment a few weeks ago where many McCain voters were interviewed and nary a single one had any grasp of what McCain's policies were (either his stated platform or the one he actually votes for, which are often not the same.)

The media loves McCain, because they love things that are "bipartisan." In fact, McCain rarely deviates from his party on any substantive issue, and when he does, he always tries to split the baby enough that he can be seen as possibly favoring the party line as well. He's more of a serial flip-flopper than John Kerry ever was, and when he's caught in a lie by the media (which is rare because they love him so much) he simply lies his way out of it, and they buy it hook, line, and sinker.

McCain makes GWB look like an honest man. Many will find this difficult to believe, but if you want the links to prove it, I have dozens of them flagged in my RSS reader. Here's a pretty good video collection of McCain's greatest moments in wankery and bamboozlement just to get you started.