Stewart: Non-maverick McCain is short selling his soul

John McCain has long been considered someone who would stand behind his principles and against his party if need be. But that impression changed for most people during the 2008 presidential race, after McCain backed off from issues such as torture and campaign finance reform, in order to appeal to conservatives who had written him off as a RINO or Republican In Name Only.

However, Comedy Central's Jon Stewart believes McCain hasn't been selling his soul for political gain, but that he's driving down its price so he can make a fortune in default swaps on the back end.

In an October 2008 debate with then-candidate Barack Obama, McCain said, "It's well known that I have not been elected Miss Congeniality in the United States Senate nor with the [Bush] administration. I have opposed [President Bush] on spending, on climate change, on torture of prisoners, on Guantanamo Bay, on a long -- on the way that the Iraq war was conducted. I have a long record and the American people know me very well and that is independent and a maverick of the Senate and I'm happy to say that I've got a partner that's a good maverick along with me."

McCain has recently tried to run away from the Maverick label, telling Newsweek, "I never considered myself a maverick."

Jon Stewart appeared shocked Tuesday as he tried to make sense of McCain's flip flop. "Normally this is where we would toss to a montage of John McCain calling himself a maverick but I don't even f**king need to. That's how embedded the word maverick is on his persona," said Stewart.

"It would be like Rudy Giuliani saying 'I never mentioned 9/11. I don't know what you are talking about,'" Stewart explained.

"Something like that is such an abject and easily disproved negatation of the entire premise of this man's political career that it can't even be considered selling your soul for political gain because at that point the currency of your soul is utterly worthless," Stewart continued.

"Even political expedience does not -- there's no logical reason. Oh, my god. He's completely devalues his soul. I know what is going on here. McCain is shorting his own soul," exclaimed Stewart.

Stewart seemed to have figured out McCain's scheme. "It's brilliant. What he is doing is he's driving down the price of his own soul by completely stripping it of its pride, its backbone, its integrity, all its tangible assets. All the while, knowing the value of his soul will soon plummet. Then, in a backdoor move, buys soul default swaps on the back end, makes a fortune and just picks his soul back up for a song when it hits bottom. And you know the worst part? Come election time, he will still get his taxpayer bailout and get re-elected," said Stewart.

"You know why? Because John McCain is too big to fail."

This video is from Comedy Central's The Daily Show, broadcast April 6, 2010.