Ernest Hemingway's classic novel inspires and saddens us in equal measure with the tale of an aging fisherman wanting desparately to give his life meaning. Despite decades of living a good life and working hard, he has little to show for his efforts. He thinks if he can just snare the mythical big fish, he can become a hero in his village and his legacy will be a proud and inspirational one.

Like Santiago, John McCain has lived a good life. By most measures, he has been a net postive force in his nation. Scion of a career Navy family, an officer himself at a time when many looked for alternative ways to pass the VietNam era. A prisoner of war who suffered in ways we who were not there will never really understand. A public service in the Senate that is remarkable for its sparks of courage and fighting for the right thing, often to the detriment of his standing in his own party. But for all that, he had relatively little to show for it: he never caught the big fish.

So out he went in his little boat, er, bus to do battle one last time against the sea of politics. And like Santiago, this one last time he has prevailed. He has landed the big fish. He has secured the nomination of his party in all but the final vote.

But like Santiago, it will be a bittersweet victory. The lapses in his courage to face down the political orthodoxy, from the Keating Five to the compromise of his political soul to win the nomination, his big fish is being nibbled away.

Like Santiago, he faces the struggle to bring his big fish back to the dock to impress his fellow villagers.

Like Santiago, the fish he has landed is too big to fit in his boat, er, bus.

And like Santiago, his big fish will be nibbled and washed away by the big sea of American politics and the many scavengers that lurk within it. Santiago has picked the wrong year to prevail and will be swept away by the sea of change that this nation has swelling up within it.

The high point of his voyage home was the period between Ohio and the middle of June, when Hillary Clinton had bloodied her fellow Democrat in hopes of undoing her defeat. Santiago had only to stay in his boat and watch as the sharks fed on someone else's big fish. But the sharks failed to eat Obama's big fish out from under him. Now Santiago must compete one-on-one against Obama. The tide, er, polls, already have begun to turn. The margins Hillary said Obama could never muster are popping up all over the place. Only Michigan remains a battle ground state leaning, however slightly, in Santiago's direction.

The big fish will arrive at the dock picked of its flesh, an empty skeleton of a victory. And Santiago will die a political death in the course of the voyage back across the sea of change, making himself wholly irrelevant in the future.

A sad ending for a man with legitimate claim to hero status. But like Santiago, he went out to sea one time too many.

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