You know, I actually think this campaign is a sad coda to McCain's career.

He seriously compromised his reputation as a serious conservative -- as opposed to a hateful, conniving, lying, manipulative populist working to protect the interests of the very wealthy. (In other words, the kind of "conservative" we've all seen way too much of in the last 8 years.)

He made a truly frighteningly bad choice for his Vice President -- a slick, charismatic demagogue with few ideas but a tremendous amount of resentment and hatred.

He allowed his party and his campaign to undermine his integrity and his earlier positions on things like torture and abortion.

The McCain of the 2000 election was a conservative Senator that many liberals and moderates respected.

In my opinion, he squandered that respect when he stood on stage for GOP convention of 2004 and hugged George Bush, the man whose campaign managers had deliberately spread rumors that McCain's adopted Bangladeshi daughter was actually the illegitimate result of an affair with a black mistress.

That may have been the nastiest episode ever in modern politics, but McCain swallowed that bitter pill for his presidential aspirations.

And now we see the result -- a man who has been entirely compromised by a very rotten political party.

So, dismissing him as "McStain" just doesn't do it for me.

I see his current campaign as a tragedy -- the story of a man who has completely lost his personal integrity.

Needless to say, I will be voting for Obama on Tuesday.