The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

Honorable behavior in uniform doesn't necessarily translate into honorable (much less competent) behavior in public office.  Look at Ulysses S. Grant, who presided over one of the most corrupt administrations in American history.  It also doesn't translate into honorable behavior in one's personal life.  Look at the way John McCain treated his first wife, the truly honorable American woman who waited for him and raised their children alone during his ordeal of captivity in North Viet Nam.

If he's going to ask us to judge him on the basis of his honorable acts many decades ago, shouldn't we also take into account his dishonorable acts from the same era?  Do we have any way of knowing which John McCain will show up to work at the Oval Office, especially given his record of inconsistency where political expediency is concerned?

McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy which he now supports.  He opposed the off-shore drilling he now supports.  He supported immigration reform which he now disowns.  More importantly he once opposed the influence of the nutty wing of the religious right and now asks us to place a right-wing religious nut a heartbeat away from control of America's nuclear arsenal.

Obama doesn't have a lot more political courage than McCain, and has made a disgraceful retreat from his support of the U. S. Constitution, but he also isn't selling himself as paragon of transcendent honor, and he doesn't have a running mate who sees the war in Iraq as “God's task”.  (End of debate for Sarah Palin, folks — you can't argue with God.)