WWMVKD?

[elfs]

I've been thinking about the recent essays, especially David Broder's and Joe Klein's, about the way McCain, famously a high-stakes dice gambler, has risked everything on this run for the White House, and if he loses, he loses everything: his reputation as a maverick and as an honorable man.

I was reminded this morning of Mile Vorkosigan's observation that for those for whom the only maxim of life is "Death before Dishonor," eventually every man falls into one of two categories: the dead, and the foresworn.

John McCain isn't dead.

The other, and equally important observation, is Aral Vorkosigan's distinction between honor and reputation. The question we must ask ourselves is simple: is John McCain's reputation now dropping to match his honor, or is it being unfairly maligned? Aral acts as if the men and women with whom he works are rational and desire honor (and they frequently are: Gregor, Alys, Miles, Cordelia, even Ivan). But what if a man believes himself honorable even when he is not? Very few of Lois' characters are ever of two minds about anything; John McCain seems to be very much of two minds about himself.