So McCain is another Bush-type candidate?

I read in renoir's comments, in the Huffington Post website, a comment posted in Alec Baldwin's, 'Who can beat Mccain?' post.

"McCain is most certainly a Tool! Consider his pandering to the religious right. Consider embracing Bush after all the slime tossed his way during the last election. Consider not voting to ban torture.... MY GOD! How is this man NOT a tool? Consider his vote that prioritizes immunity for the telecom industry over the Constitution. Consider his lack of knowledge of Shiite vs. Sunni vs. extremists vs. Al Queda and still standing by his insistence that he's the most qualified candidate based on his knowledge of international issues. Consider his abject ignorance of environmental concerns. Then consider his connection to lobbyists while pretending to be all concerned about corporate influence. Consider his complete lack of critical thinking when it comes to this war... and how he is willing and able to ignore not only it's immorality and illegality but also it's impact on our military and let our men and women march into a quagmire that HE said was not winnable not so long ago. Consider his flip-flop over the immigration issue.... he says something that sounds amazingly lucid, compassionate and sensible about illegal immigration but then immediately reverses that when he gets heat from right-wing wingnuts."

So McCain is another Bush-type candidate? Or Reagan-type for that matter? That is a reiterating pattern that makes me wander? Is it the way that the republican party has found in order to avoid the pitfalls of appointing to the presidency an individual, who if it is left on its own devices it might create more trouble than they bargained for?

Have in the presidency somebody pliable, responding to commands, a macho exterior but a limited interior and its performance carefully orchestrated by director's type committees, requiring just an actor to play the part? And what makes the difference is the hypocritical (that is acting) qualities of the incumbent? See Reagan for example and the currently incubated Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger?