Well, John McCain is still a son of a b****. But with the election and his status as Republican presidential nominee six weeks in the past, he’s no longer our son of a b****.

Cold, right?

Well, as Allahpundit notes at Hot Air, six weeks makes a lot of difference in John McCain’s opinion of Sarah Palin, too:

Think how easy it would have been to throw her a bone without committing to anything, e.g., “It’s too early to be making endorsements when we don’t know who’s running or what the issues will be, but naturally she’s my preference going into it.” It would have made for an awkward soundbite three years from now if he ended up endorsing someone else, but endorsing someone else will be sufficiently awkward on its own terms that that soundbite would hardly make it worse.

Consider this another brick in the reconstruction of his centrist brand. (More on that in the next post.) Exit question: What exactly does he mean when he answers Steph’s point about endorsing her for VP just six weeks ago by saying, “Well sure, but now we’re in a whole election cycle”? What’s changed in six weeks, besides her usefulness to him?

Now, I won’t sit here and endorse Sarah Palin for 2012 or 2016 or even 2020 (they’re all a long ways off, and who knows what will happen in the meantime). But then, I didn’t put her on my presidential ticket as my running mate, and I didn’t spend three months flying around the country telling everybody how great and qualified she was to be my running mate.

John McCain has many redeeming qualities. Loyalty to his party, or to his erstwhile political allies, has never been one of them, particularly when they are no longer useful to him.

I’m glad to return the favor.