But with both the George Bushes you had to believe that they thought they had the country's best interests in mind.
I'm no mind reader, but I'm not prepared to accept your premise that the Bushes are/were any less venal than McCain. It's a little difficult to give the benefit of the doubt and assume that anyone who wants to encourage the flow of illegal immigrants to this country has its "best interests in mind."
Well, they didn’t have my best interests in mind, that’s for sure, on immigration, spending, No Child Left Behind, on and on.
The Bushes might have been wrong, and wrongheaded, but I don’t think they were deliberately deceitful and destructive, as McCain has shown himself to be again and again.