NYT's Frank Rich abandons McCain

The New York Times' moderate conservative columnist, Frank Rich, has published a critical op-ed about McCain. He used to be one of McCain's biggest supporters. Even he can't support the recent path chosen by the McCain camp. Some selected quotes are below, the whole article is linked to below.

Palin and McCain’s Shotgun Marriage

By Frank Rich

Published: September 6, 2008

• In his 26 years in Washington, most of it with a Republican in the White House and roughly half of it with Republicans in charge of Congress, [McCain] was better at lecturing his party about reform than leading a reform movement. G.O.P. corruption and governmental dysfunction only grew.
• We still don’t know a lot about Palin except that she’s better at delivering a speech than McCain and that she defends her own pregnant daughter’s right to privacy even as she would have the government intrude to police the reproductive choices of all other women.
• Far from rejecting federal pork, [Palin] hired lobbyists to secure her town a disproportionate share of earmarks ($1,000 per resident in 2002, 20 times the per capital average in other states).
• Whatever we do and don’t know about Palin’s character at this point, there is no ambiguity in what her ascent tells us about McCain’s character and potential presidency.
• McCain is now the man of James Dobson and Tony Perkins. The “no surrender” warrior surrendered to the agents of intolerance not just by dumping his pal for Palin but by moving so far to the right on abortion that even Cindy McCain seemed unaware of his radical shift when being interviewed by Katie Couric last week.
• His speed-dating of Palin reaffirmed a more dangerous personality tic that has dogged his entire career. His decision-making process is impetuous and, in its Bush-like preference for gut instinct over facts, potentially reckless.
• Palin is a high-energy distraction from the top of the ticket, even if the provenance of her stardom is in itself a reflection of exactly what’s frightening about the top of the ticket.