The Real John McCain?

I'll admit, I am at times very enamored with certain aspects of John McCain, especially the crotchety old moderately idealistic loose cannon making sarcastic comments about the pageantry the CEO managers. Reminds me of a teacher I once had.

McCain gets a lot of bad press (especially in the liberal blogs I read), but every once in awhile I start feeling little twitches of sympathy for the man. I still don't think he has the leadership qualities or the judgment to be a great president, but this column by David Brooks did a good job of rekindling that soft spot I have for the Senator from Arizona (even though it is about how he "had to" prostitute his values for votes).