[...] Virginity is not retroactive.

Uh, ok.

When John McCain ran for the Republican presidential nomination, I was one of the journalists accused of going just plain goopy over him.

Goopy. It’s a technical term used by A-list columnists.

Maybe I did.

Maybe?

MAYBE?

But here was a man who actually talked to the voters as if they were not dopes. Here was a man who said what he thought -- who didn't begin every sentence with the cop-out phrase "I don't think the American people want."

There must be another John McCain.

McCain was such a breath of fresh air, so downright candid and accessible, that it almost didn't matter to me that I disagreed with him on almost every issue of substance.

Richard loved him as long as he was useful for knocking off the other viable Republican candidates.

What mattered more, what mattered most, was that on the single most important issue -- restoring trust in the political system -- he was head and shoulders above everyone else.

Except for that Keating Five thing, of course. [...]