John McCain is going to Las Vegas, would you give him $100 to gamble on your behalf?  There is gambling, and then there is compulsive gambling – very different modes of entertainment.  John McCain is a compulsive gambler, the champion of the religious right.

Compulsive gambling is destroying America.  Down the road in St. Joe they have a riverboat Casino.  It is one of those marvels of legislative loophole basket weaving.  Missouri folks can only operate casinos on the river – the intent was to have floating riverboats, nostalgically looking back to the good old days when there were no criminals.  Most of the Missouri ‘riverboats’ are owned and operated by Las Vegas Casinos.  Here is the funny loophole – ‘floating on the river.’

The Missouri Riverboats sit along the river – but not on the river.  The builders cut a ditch back from the river and put a barge in the ditch.  Then they build a casino around it.  All of the gaming occurs on the barge – fulfilling the legislative mandate for Riverboat Casino.  This is much like the legislative nonsense that gives tax breaks to Big Oil companies – ostensibly to promote research in the development of new energy.

John McCain loves this stuff.  He loves a clever piece of legislation.  And it is clever – but it is not very smart.  McCain loves to gamble – and he loves to brag that he is a gambler, a high-stakes gambler.  But McCain crosses the line – gambling is no longer about entertainment, it is a way of life.  If McCain loses on a gamble he is quick to chase his loses.

John McCain has gambled with the lives of American Troops.  Like the barge in the ditch, he claims this is about patriotism.  This is a war on terror – but is really only a masquerade of chasing the real enemy.  When the barge got stuck in the mud (the Iraq War) McCain was quick to ante up and chase his loses.  Sometimes loses are recovered, most often not.  The compulsive gambler is quick to praise and champion his winnings – never talking about how much he has lost.

John McCain does not know when to fold, when to hold, or when to walk away, and he never runs.