Bill Maher had a solid liberal panel Friday night: Arianna Huffington, Phil Donahue and Gary Shandling. Obviously Shandling is the least political of the three, but I've seen him on there before and he hates Bush and hates this war and is solidly on our side of the issues.When the discussion turned to McCain's refusal to support Jim Webb's new GI Bill, Maher, Huffington and Donahue were (appropriately) disgusted with McCain.
Whatever you think of those three individuals (and everyone of them gets on my nerves for different reasons in spite of my overall political sympathies with them), they are three hyper-informed political observers. So I was more than a little surprised when, at the tail end of the discussion, Shandling, who had been quiet, said:

I would not question John McCain on an issue of a bill like this. I honestly trust him, in a strange way, to do the right thing for G.I.’s, the way he – that what he actually believes in. I think these are complicated issues that we can sit and talk about. And I was confused here as people were talking about it.

[...]

He seems like an intelligent man who has certainly lived that difficult life. I wouldn’t be so—

He seems like.... I trust him in a strange way....

This is what we're up against. Shandling is a smart guy. He was told the facts by three smart people, one of whom is an old friend (Maher) but he chose to believe John McCain instead of his lying eyes. You could dismiss Shandling as a mere entertainer, but this is the appeal of McCain to the Russerts of the world and to a good chunk of the electorate. 

As bad as Mccain is, as patently absurd as his policies are, as much as he repeatedly announces his attention to continue Bush's policies at home and to make them worse abroad, there are a lot of voters, "swing voters", not necessarily stupid, who are going to hear the facts, look at the issues, and vote with the guy who "seems like" their crusty but lovable history teacher or football coach from high school.

Just my daily input of pessimism for the day.