What's McCain Up To?

John McCain loves admitting his mistakes.

On Wednesday, he headed to South Carolina and said he was just plain wrong when he told everyone, back during the GOP primary season, that it was up to the locals to decide whether to take the Confederate flag down from the Palmetto State's capitol building.

"I feared that if I answered honestly, I could not win the South Carolina primary. So I chose to compromise my principles. I broke my promise to always tell the truth," said the Arizona senator.

Hard to put it more clearly than that.

"I believe the flag should be removed from the Capitol, and I am encouraged that fair-minded people on both sides of the issue are working hard to define an honorable compromise," McCain added.

Last week, the South Carolina state Senate voted to take down the flag, but place a version of it on the Capitol grounds, near a memorial for Confederate soldiers. The House is now considering that bill.

McCain's own Confederate ancestors, he said, "fought on the wrong side of history," and their service doesn't need to be "commemorated in a way that offends and deeply hurts the people whose ancestors were once denied their freedom by my ancestors."

The senator said he regretted very much his decision to "sacrifice principle for personal ambition."

So where does this confession leave George W. Bush, who defeated McCain in South Carolina and now the presumptive GOP presidential nominee? Well, Bush reiterated on Tuesday, "It's a matter of principle with me that the people of South Carolina make that decision." And McCain insisted his reversal shouldn't have an effect on anyone else's campaign.

But Bush also said he would consider asking McCain to be his running mate. A Gore aide wondered Wednesday if McCain was somehow positioning himself for the number two spot with Bush. The logic: McCain provides some political cover for Bush, who might benefit from a running mate who says "take the flag down," much as a pro-choice veep like Governor Tom Ridge might help Bush appeal to moderate voters even as he retains his anti-abortion rights views.

But CBS News Correspondent Phil Jones points out Ridge has always been a Bush supporter - and differences between Bush and Ridge pale compared to those between Bush and McCain, who fought a bitter primary battle. Instead, Jones thinks it possible that McCain is trying to price himself out of the veepstakes.

"Is he trying to make it impossible for George Bush to ask him to be his running mate?" asks Jones.

Perhaps Bush or the Republican establishment will lean on McCain to join the ticket for the sake of a unified GOP. But McCain likes attention - and Jones notes "he can enjoy lots more of the spotlight as chairman of a high-profile committee (the Senate Commerce Committee) than he can if he is going off to funerals" as vice president.

Besides, McCain has always stoutly insisted e's not interested in the number two job. On Wednesday, he said, "I do not seek, and I do not want to be - I categorically do not wish to be considered for the Vice Presidency of the United States."

But should the senator be taken at his word? With McCain openly admitting that, on the Confederate flag, he torpedoed his views for political advantage, it's fair to wonder how many other times he's done so. The whole point of his campaign was that he wasn't like the other guys, but now that seems less true. McCain himself seems prepared for an onslaught of doubt, cynicism or sarcasm.

"I do not intend for this apology to help me evade criticism for my failure. I will be criticized by all sides for this late act of contrition. I accept it, all of it. I deserve it. It's easy to be honest after the fact," he said.

And given that Wednesday's change of course on the flag can be taken with a hearty dose of skepticism, why publicize it so much? McCain could easily have issued a written statement or spoke his mind in Washington. But no, he took the trouble to travel all the way to South Carolina.

Still, McCain chose a day certain to be dominated by news from elsewhere - namely Oklahoma City, Waco, and Miami. If the senator wanted to make a splash, he chose an odd moment to do it. He managed, in the old phrase, to "back into the limelight."

McCain is readier than most politicians to admit mistakes and, as Jones points out, "Keep in mind, he's campaigned as a flawed man." But Jones has a further suggestion: as long as McCain wants to put to rest the monsters of the South Carolina campaign, "Why not ask to go speak at Bob Jones University?"