I’m not sure I want to know who the real John McCain is. Probably the only way we’d ever find that out would be if the man was elected. Then we’d know for sure. I’d rather wonder. I wish Senator McCain no ill; that said, I hope he disappears from public life in one hell of a hurry.

McCain, Circa 2003 – Yahoo! News

Senator John McCain arrived late at his Senate office on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, just after the first plane hit the World Trade Center. “This is war,” he murmured to his aides. The sound of scrambling fighter planes rattled the windows, sending a tremor of panic through the room.

Within hours, Mr. McCain, the Vietnam War hero and famed straight talker of the 2000 Republican primary, had taken on a new role: the leading advocate of taking the American retaliation against Al Qaeda far beyond Afghanistan. In a marathon of television and radio appearances, Mr. McCain recited a short list of other countries said to support terrorism, invariably including Iraq, Iran and Syria….