McCain Asks for a Little Respect
Here's what he said about the war in Iraq, read over the phone from the prepared text by a soaked and somewhat gloomy Jason Horowitz:
I believe the benefits of success will justify the costs and risks we have incurred. But if an American feels the decision was unwise, then they should state their opposition and argue for another course. It's your right and your obligation. I respect you for it. But I ask that you consider the possibility that I, too, am trying to meet my responsibilities, to follow my conscience, to do my duty as best as I can as God has given me light to see that duty.Americans deserve more than tolerance from one another, we deserve each other's respect whether we think each other right or wrong in our views. As long as our character and our sincerity merit respect, and as long as we share, for all our differences, for all the noisy debates that enliven our politics, a mutual devotion to the sublime idea that this nation was conceived - that freedom is the inaliable right of mankind and in accord with the laws of nature and nature's creator.
The trick for McCain in 2008 will be to rekindle the fascination he held in 2000 for moderates and some liberals despite that fact that he sounds more hawkish than the Bush administration on Iraq and has embraced unapologetically conservative positions on social issues like gay rights and the teaching of evolution in schools.
Using today's magnanimous-sounding appeal today to the inner Marquis of Queensbury in every American as a template, it's not hard to see McCain's plan to maintain his appeal to the broad middle. No voters, after all, identify themselves as being pro-rancor.He'll just have to count on most audiences being more forgiving than the presumably elite sample of friends and relatives who showed up this morning to watch their children officially become Ivy League graduates.
As he spoke, about 50 students among the graduates opened orange-and-white umbrellas emblazoned with the words "John McCain Does Not Speak for Me."
Rickie Solinger, a 59 year-old mother from New Paltz, watched the ceremony from the front row of the guest sections flanking the students, holding a red-lettered sign that said "Parents Support Student Dissent."
She said that she was mortified that the college had invited McCain to speak because of his support for the war and opposition to gay and lesbian civil unions. "I'm embarrassed that the university chose such a polarizing figure," she said. "He crosses the line."
In the end, it seems, McCain's calculated call for respect and civility won out, with applause outweighing boos.
Go figure.
Whatever else may be true, he won't be the next GOP candidate because he'll be thought of as too old by '08.
Nonsense. McCain will wipe the floor with any GOP challengers in '08. And he'll beat Hillary by a substantial margin.
P.S. Today's campuses support free speech only when you agree with their positions. So much for higher education.
The idea that the candidate most disliked by the GOP nomenclature will have no worthy challengers is itself nonsense. If you thought the wisper campaigns in 2000 were nasty, wait until 2008.
"Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly - because Janet Reno is her father"
John McCain
Media coverage of McCain epitomizes reporters who have been sucked in by a candidate's personal charm and abandoned their responsibility for skeptical, substantive journalism.
McCain goes down to to Falwell's University, accepts an award from a man he once condemned as an "agent of intolerance" and somehow he ends up getting credit for not pandering because he bravely...defended his decision to go to war in front of a bunch of conservatives who also supported the decision to go to war? Huh?
John McCain. He can pander to conservatives and piss off liberals using the exact same speech. Wow, I've never seen any politician do that before.
Some of you guys need to get out of New York for a while.
You'd be surprised what it's like out there in the real world.
McCain will romp.
Where should we go, South Carolina?
McCain? In 08? Seriously?
That's really funny. He's too blue for the GOP and too red for the DEMs.
Who wants to elect a guy that looks like he graduated a few years ahead of grandpa?
You would not be free to hurl shallow insults at anyone if men like John McCain hadn't sacrificed to defend our nation.
And I think you already know where you can go.
He looks like Casper the friendly ghost, although I hear he's a hothead. But apparently a forgiving soul since he certainly acts like he's forgiven Rove for South Carolina.
He'll be older than Reagan was when he took office and look what a disaster that nut was.
Anonymous 5:24, come on, do you really think McCain's desire to bomb Vietnam guaranteed our freedom? He is a Navy legacy, his father and grandfather were fucking admirals. He flew bravely, yeah, got shot down, yeah, dropped tons of bombs in an illegal war, got captured, endured it. But he never really commanded anyone, never administered anything in the service. He did get a very good education in the whole thing, volunteered for a war the rest of America had to be drafted to fight.
The Constitution guarantees our liberties. Fighting wars over lies like the Gulf of Tonkin or WMD or whatever, does not guarantee our liberties, it jeopardizes them.
The Constitution is a piece of paper. Men like McCain make it mean something by putting their lives on the line to defend it.
As a VN vet of the Army type, I've never thought much of guys who sit in comfy ergonomic chairs pushing buttons to drop napalm on people's heads then repair to the officers' club. As a POW, what did you expect? Expatriation? As to age, fortunately the TWU is not in charge of such things.