McCain: Who is He?

Morbo guest posting at The Carpetbagger Report brings up the issue of John McCain: who is he? Why does he do what he does? What does he really want?

McCain, of all politicians, I find the most difficult to peg. At times, he's Crusader Rabbit, others the "bad boy", and still others, the "faithful" president's man. I do not in any way, shape, or form feel comfortable with the man because there seems no way to guess how he'll behave. Sure, in some respects, this is an admirable quality in Washington where too many seem to feel they have to stick to their scripts.

But with McCain, it's not just a matter of being a man of principles who refuses to deviate from them even when it will make things uncomfortable for him. A man of principles would never have gone out campaigning for Bush like he did during Election 2004 given what Bush has done to him, starting with the 2000 GOP primaries and almost every day since. Saturday Night Live did a hilarious Robert Schmiegel cartoon about McCain that I thought fit quite well.

If he's going to run again in 2008, he won't have an easy time. The extremists want him drawn and quartered - and then shot, stabbed, electrocuted, poisoned, burned alive, tarred and feathered, nuked, and run over a few billion times with a Humvee for good measure - for his role in the filibuster compromise. But many centrists and lefties are uncomfortable with him for legitimate other reasons.

Still, he's viewed by many as "a good and honest man", despite behavior that seems like a few different psychiatric categories rolled oddly into one man.

Anybody feel like they have an "angle" on what makes McCain tick?