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Friday, February 8, 2008
McCain’s life experiences will suit road ahead
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
John McCain was not my first choice. Or even the second or third.
He’d be far more appealing with a Southern conservative as a running mate — former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, or Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, to name three.
But conservative running mate or not, Mitt Romney’s class-act exit leaves McCain without serious challenge for the nomination. And as both Romney and McCain noted in same-day speeches to the Conservative Political Action Conference, this election is not about shades of gray. “Elections in this country are fought within margins of small differences,” said McCain. “This one will not be. We are arguing about hugely consequential things.”
Romney’s departing words defined the immediate course for conservatives. “I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues … but I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating al-Qaida and terror.”
The immediate course is to support McCain. “Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror,” said Romney. “They would retreat and declare defeat. And the consequences of that would be devastating.”
Against this most vital issue to America’s future — the absolute most vital — all of McCain’s domestic-policy shortcomings, and all of the conservatives’ doubts and disagreements, recede.
It is not essential that a wartime president have military experience. But in two respects, McCain’s life experiences steel him for burdens ahead.
A man who survives torture and five years in a prisoner of war camp most assuredly has the constitution to withstand determined opposition. That opposition comes from unrelenting critics on the left — and from an impatient citizenry grown unaccustomed to the steadfastness required to defeat an often abstract enemy. We are a nation of rationalizers, skeptics and negotiators best defined by Rodney King: “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?”
We should live in terror that the U.S. president sitting across the bargaining table from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or committing to Israel’s security, or confronting the ambitions of Hugo Chavez, is animated by Pollyannish notions that words and good intentions can substitute for power and resolve. We can’t get along if you want to kill us — and we can’t co-exist if the desire translates into deeds.
The second point about McCain’s life experiences is that with the staying power comes the necessity to understand what is being asked of those who will fight America’s war. In the decades since the draft ended, the nation has rested its national defense burden on volunteers. The result is that key gaps exist in the exposure that most Americans have to the military. We honor and support them, but I don’t think we really know them.
The media are torn between whether to treat them all as heroes or as emotionally damaged victims who need our sympathy and considerable therapy. Most are neither.
I’d welcome a president who knows them, who understands without glorifying the mundane, who connects — who knows firsthand how utterly dishonorable it would be to abandon a cause for which good men and women have died. A president who can be their voice to people who don’t really know them, can ensure that they are not strangers whose sacrifices are betrayed to arbitrary timetables and political expediency.
On the domestic front, conservatives may be in the wilderness for four years or eight. Romney’s exit speech was perfect in laying out the conservative challenge. It should be required reading, a course of study even, for young conservatives concerned about America’s direction and culture.
This is not one for conservatives to sit out.
It is not about shades of gray, a fight within the margins of small differences. For it is true: “We are arguing about hugely consequential things.”
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