It seemed he had scruples earlier in his career, but politics became more important even after the 2004 South Carolina hit job on him by Rove. It was on his adopted daughter, during the primaries.
So I watched McCain speak at the 2004 Republican Convention go after Michael Moore who was there. The Republicans love to hate, so McCain got them on his side. He ended up by embracing Bush, even after what they did to his family. McCain had lost respect from me then. The angry guy was willing to do anything to keep Republicans elected.
He ran in 2008 and I thought he had the best chance to win out of the clowns. I thought if he picked Joe Lieberman as his running mate that we could be in trouble. Wasnt it during that race he did a commercial saying something like, Build this damn wall. He didnt believe it. He had lost his scruples. He would do anything to win, and thank God he picked Sarah.
So maybe the thumbs down vote was good. It was good. People die without health insurance and it may be the greatest vote of his life.
I have thought that the reason that Obama took up up healthcare was a moral reason. I think of him as a good person who saw probably the biggest crisis here, and went through this exhaustive solution to it. McCain gave the thumbs down vote.