John McCain's appearance on the David Letterman show last night brought my concerns about McCain into sharp focus. My admiration for John McCain's service in Vietnam and his personal sacrifices remain as strong as ever. I still think that if I could ever vote for a GOP candidate for President, I could vote for John McCain. He was a thoughtful, funny and a great guest for Letterman. He even made some provocative statements. But in the final analysis McCain is merely an apologist for the GOP, the Bush administration and their failed policies.

McCain's most provocative statements were on the Iraq war and the practice of torturing prisoners. Unfortunately, David Letterman's questions about the Iraq war showed more insight into the reasons underlying the Iraq war than John McCain's responses. We invaded Iraq in the aftermath of 9-11 because we wanted to strike out at an Arab country supportive of terrorist activity. Saddam and Iraq were obvious targets. Saddam was so odious that no Arab country could effectively criticize a war aimed at removing Saddam from power. Letterman's question to McCain clearly stated the basis for the war with Iraq. McCain, Clinton and Kerry all voted to give Bush the discretion to invade and Iraq. Not one of them stopped to consider whether George Bush had shown himself worthy of such unbridled discretion or whether Bush had shown the foresight and judgment needed to install a functioning government to replace Saddam.

McCain handily blamed Rumsfeld for the failure of the Iraq war during the first four years. Rumsfeld may have been a villain and his strategy for occupying Iraq surely was a failure, but Rumsfeld was not the Commander-in-Chief and Rumsfeld was subject to the oversight of the GOP dominated Senate in which John McCain served. McCain gave no explanation for the failure of the Senate to exercise its oversight authority and he offered no explanation for his support of Bush in 2004. Until John McCain can provide a credible explanation for those failures, he is not worthy of my vote however great my admiration for his personal sacrifice in service to his country remains.