Oh, how the times change.
With John McCain proclaiming his conservative bona fides, it's worth revisiting the media-fueled hype about him becoming a Democrat, which included two big magazine articles in The New Republic and Washington Monthly in 2002 and entreaties to become John Kerry's running mate, which were hyped as a real possibility on the front page of the New York Times in 2004.
What happened? Here are four potentially reinforcing explanations:
(1) Despite having a reputation as a maverick, McCain's voting record is strongly conservative. He would never be comfortable as a Democrat.
(2) Given McCain's record, Democrats would never truly accept him, and his apostasy would make him the most hated man in America among Republicans. He'd be a man without a country.
(3) McCain concluded that his best shot at becoming president was as a Republican rather than a Democrat or independent.
(4) The war in Iraq reinforced the foreign policy differences between McCain and the Democrats, precluding any possible switch.
I put the most weight on #4 -- it's not a coincidence that the 2002 articles came out before the Iraq invasion was seen as a real possibility -- but all four probably play a role.
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