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McCain had a Trump moment in 2008 when he picked Sarah Palin for VP.

By doing so, he raised a question in the minds of conservatives: “Is McCain only doing this to court conservatives, or is it possible McCain is signaling that he genuinely wishes to embrace conservatism?”

At the time, that was not as stupid a question as it is now, in retrospect. In retrospect, we know he doubled down on his amnesty rhetoric and failed to embrace Palin’s conservative positions, or allow them to shape his campaign - and then, in the face of a cruel Leftist media driven character assasination of her, he threw her under the bus - numerous times. In retrospect, he answered the question in no uncertain terms - “No, I am not genuinely embracing Palin’s brand of conservativism.”

But at the time, when he first picked Palin, it was not such a stupid question. Remember, in the not so distant past, Trump raised s similar question: “Is Trump just courting conservatives or is he signaling that he genuinely wants to be one?” After all, it was hard at the time to judge from Trump’s political campaign contribution history whether he was even a Republican, much less a conservative.

Unlike McCain, Trump wound up giving us the right answer - Trump has proven to be a genuine conservative - he saw the light. I’m not sure when he first saw it - maybe he saw it long ago and just stayed below the radar - or maybe he “evolved” in 2016. Either way, he chose right and McCain chose wrong.

McCain had the opportunity to choose right in 2008. If he had, I really believe he could have beaten Obama soundly. But his liberal side won out and instead of being proud of his VP pick, he treated her (and us) like she was an embarrassment. Conservatism was an embarrassment. He betrayed her and in so doing squandered a political opportunity every bit as ripe as the one Trump harvested in 2016.

In 2008, the Left’s cruel and disgusting hate-fest of a woman VP candidate revealed just how empty their “diversity” rhetoric was, how hypocritical was their claim to be the defenders of womenkind, and how unhinged and unattractive they were at their core. If McCain had seized on that opportunity the way Trump seized on his - he coulda been a contender.

But McCain failed to defend Sarah Palin. He failed to admire and emulate her principled courage. He failed to call out the Left for their vile behavior, and thus relegated himself to the dustbin of history.

And that’s what I think of John McCain.