I’m trying to think about how to put this gently. You would think that after seeing John McCain’s metamorphosis from a “straight-talking” contrarian media darling into a bloodthirsty sociopath, the press would be too ashamed to use the term ‘maverick’ to describe anyone.
And if they’re not too ashamed to use the term, they should at least acknowledge that John McCain’s present status as the most violence-disposed person of his stature on the planet has changed the connotations of what the word ‘maverick‘ means.
You cannot apply it to someone with the meek demeanor of Lincoln Chafee without sounding like an idiot. Linc Chafee presents himself as the kind of man who would run shrieking from a spider in the bathroom, not as some kind of tough-guy cowboy with six-shooters on each hip. Chafee doesn’t crash military airplanes into Galveston Bay; he needs to be protected from loud noises.
This is also, by the way, the reason that he won’t excite progressives or anyone else looking for an alternative to Hillary Clinton.
