I have known and been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years. But every day now I learn something new about candidate McCain.

To those who still believe in the myth of a maverick instead of the reality of a politician: I say, let’s compare Senator McCain to candidate McCain.

Candidate McCain now supports the wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once called irresponsible.

Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain’s own climate change bill.

Candidate McCain says he would now vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote.

Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before you’re against it!

Let me tell you, before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself.

The McCain Bush Republicans have been wrong again, and again, and again. And they know they will lose on the issues.

So, the candidate who once promised a campaign of ideas, not insults, now has nothing left but personal attacks.

How insulting to suggest that those who question the mission, question the troops?

How pathetic to suggest that those who question a failed policy doubt America itself?

How desperate to tell the son of a single mother who chose community service over money and privilege that he doesn’t put America first?

No one can question Barack Obama’s patriotism.

This election is a chance for America to tell the merchants of fear and division: You don’t decide who love this country.

You don’t decide who is a patriot.

You don’t decide whose service counts and whose doesn’t.

Four years ago I said – and I say it again tonight – that flag doesn’t belong to any ideology. It doesn’t belong to any political party. It is an enduring symbol of our nation and it belongs to all the American people.

After all, patriotism is not love of power; or some cheap trick to win votes – patriotism is love of country.

Years ago when we protested a war, people would weigh in against us saying: "My country right or wrong." Our answer?

Absolutely, my country right or wrong. When right, keep it right. When wrong, make it right.

Sometimes loving your country demands you must tell the truth to power. This is one of those times, and Barack Obama is telling those truths.

• November 20, 1942: Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the first of Joe and Jean Biden's four children.
• Summer 1953: Biden family moves from Scranton to Brookview neighborhood in Claymont, Delaware.
• September 1957: Joe enrolls at Archmere Academy.
• June 1965: Joe graduates from the University of Delaware with a double major in History and Political Science and enrolls in Syracuse University Law School.
• August 27, 1966: Joe marries the former Neilia Hunter.
• June 1968: After graduating from law school, Joe begins work as a trial attorney at a law firm in Wilmington, Delaware and serves as a public defender.
• February 3, 1969: Birth of Joe and Neilia's first child, Joseph R. "Beau" Biden, III
• February 4, 1970: Birth of Joe and Neilia's second child, Hunter.
• November, 1970: Elected to New Castle County Council.
• November 8, 1971: Birth of third child, Naomi Christina.
• November, 1972: Joe elected as Delaware's U.S. Senator, beating an incumbent Republican. At age 29, Joe was the 5th-youngest U.S. Senator ever.
• December 18, 1972: Joe's wife and three children are in an automobile accident while Christmas shopping. Neilia and Naomi suffer fatal injuries, while Beau and Hunter are critically injured but make full recoveries.
• January 5, 1973: After consistent lobbying by Hubert Humphrey and Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield urging him not to resign, Joe is sworn in to the United States Senate at Beau and Hunter's bedside in Wilmington, Delaware.
• January, 1975: Joe becomes a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he later chairs.
• June 17, 1977: Joe marries Jill Tracy Jacobs, a school teacher.
• January, 1977: Joe becomes a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he later chairs from 1987 to 1994.
• November, 1978: Wins reelection to U.S. Senate.
• June 8, 1981: Birth of Joe and Jill's daughter, Ashley.
• November, 1984: Re-elected to U.S. Senate.
• June 9, 1987: Announces candidacy for the 1988 Democratic Nomination for President of the United States.
• February 11, 1988: Two aneurysms are diagnosed in Joe's brain and he undergoes successful emergency surgery.
• November, 1990: Wins re-election to U.S. Senate.
• September, 1991: Joe begins teaching constitutional law as an adjunct professor at Widener University Law School.
• November, 1996: Re-elected to U.S. Senate.
• May 11, 1999: Joe casts 10,000th vote on the Senate floor.
• November, 2002: Wins reelection to U.S. Senate.
• January 31, 2007: Joe announces his bid for the 2008 Democratic Nomination for President of the United States.
• August 1, 2007: Joe releases his memoir, "Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics."

But, as I argued continuously when I did my book tour in April and May for Great American Hypocrites, this is the kind of campaign the GOP runs every election and in which they specialize, and there are only two options for Democrats in response: (1) purport to "rise above it" and thus ensure that they get slaughtered in a one-sided, one-way War of Personality Demonization which renders issues irrelevant (hence: the all-American Everyman War Hero versus the rich, out-of-touch, effete elitist), or (2) attack the GOP candidate using the same lowly character themes in order to neutralize the attacks and prevent the election from being decided on these grounds.

“He’s offering a plan with no significant investments in alternative energy,” Obama will say, according to excerpts of his remarks. “He’s offering a gas tax holiday that will pad oil company profits and save you, at best, half a tank of gas over the course of an entire summer. And he’s offering $4 billion more in tax breaks to the biggest oil companies in America, including $1.2 billion to Exxon-Mobil… We can choose four years more of the same failed policies that have gotten us where we are. Four years more of oil companies calling the shots while hard working families are struggling. That’s what Senator McCain is offering.”

The Green Bay Packers have apparently decided they need a little help on the public relations front when it comes to handling the ongoing Brett Favre saga.

FOXSports.com has learned that the Packers will employ former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer for one month as a consultant.

Fleischer, who was President George W. Bush's official spokesperson for a majority of his first term in office, is now president of Ari Fleischer Sports Communications, a joint venture with IMG.

Now consider that over the span of a few weeks Sen. McCain has gone from predicting a decades long presence of American troops in Iraq and attacking any discussion of timetables for withdrawal to endorsing Maliki's push for a 16 month timetable and tying himself in knots trying to explain why what Maliki's endorsing is any different from Obama's...

For all the seismic shifts that have taken place over the last two weeks, we need to recognize that McCain has now abandoned virtually everything he's been campaigning on for the last year. There's really no more eloquent confirmation of that reality than the fact that McCain now appears determined to base his campaign on charges that Obama is unpatriotic and despises American soldiers.

Only hope for John McCain is that his base, the press, continue largely to excuse his gibberish.

We've gone from 100 years to timetables will destroy us to "anything is a good timetable."

"Lord, protect my family and me," Obama wrote. "Forgive me my sins and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will."