David Margolick:

Many of the GOP's most faithful, the kind who vote in primaries despite 115-degree heat, tired long ago of McCain the Maverick, the man who had crossed the aisle to work with Democrats on issues like immigration reform, global warming, and restricting campaign contributions.

"Maverick" is a mantle McCain no longer claims; in fact, he now denies he ever was one.

After retreating on a number of issues, the erstwhile iconoclast has morphed into what the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, calls "a fabulous team player."

Yet here was Palin, urging her fans four times in 15 minutes to send McCain the Maverick back to Washington.

Decius:

Sarah Palin is the slick corporate VP who is all image and no substance, and they love that about her because they have convinced themselves that if they do away with substance it will free them from the problems that substantial people attempt to address.

Kathleen Parker:

Giving up being liked is the ultimate public sacrifice.

Margolick:

For all McCain's talk about money's malign effect on politics, he has millions of dollars on hand, collected from the state's economic and business elite ...

Decius:

Your right to freedom of speech is an inalienable right. Even if you are rich. That's what an inalienable right is. I don't have a solution for the problem of bad taste.

A parting thought:

What hidden potentials exist within YOU?

Perhaps you're a wholly reasonable person, with the potential to become an irrational fool?

Perhaps you're a team player, with a potentially argumentative loner lurking about inside you?

Or perhaps you're a dreamer, within whom lives a potentially disillusioned grouse, simply waiting to take flight on the wings of bitterness?

McCain the Maverick Fights for His Soul