McCain Appeal - A far superior choice to the Democratic alternatives.

National Review Online ^ | February 04, 2008 | Mackubin Thomas Owens

[neverdem]

February 04, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

McCain Appeal
A far superior choice to the Democratic alternatives.

By Mackubin Thomas Owens

Eight years ago, I was writing a regular monthly column for the Providence Journal. On the eve of the 2000 New Hampshire primary, I wrote a column entitled “John McCain, the Anti-Clinton.” Although I supported George Bush during the primaries, I thought it was important to lay out the reasons for McCain’s appeal. I concluded that the main thing McCain had going for him was character, and after eight years of Clinton, this was not unimportant.

Here’s how I concluded the column:

But in today's political environment, the real reason Americans stress his military service seems to be that it serves as a surrogate for character, a virtue notably absent during the Clinton years, and one for which Americans seem to long. That goes a long way toward explaining Sen. McCain’s appeal: more than any other candidate, he is the anti-Clinton.

The Clintons purport to represent the best of the Baby-Boomer generation. According to the dominant mythology of the 60s, the Baby-Boomers that mattered were the “best and the brightest,” those destined to make the world new by ending poverty, racism, and war. For the most part, the touchstone of Baby-Boomer existence itself was opposition to the Vietnam War.

But while such people endlessly employed the rhetoric of sacrifice, they actually sacrificed little or nothing. This has led skeptics to conclude that much of the "idealistic" opposition to the Vietnam War was a cynical ploy to cloak concern for their personal safety.

John McCain is the representative of the forgotten Baby-Boomers, who, unlike the Clintons, didn’t just talk about sacrifice, but actually placed themselves willingly on the altar of their country. While the Clintons were preparing the groundwork for their careers in the law and politics, John McCain was a naval aviator flying combat missions over North Vietnam. At a minimum, this meant that at least once a day, he sat in the cockpit of an airplane that was hurled violently from the flight deck of a pitching and rolling aircraft carrier. That was the easy part. Next, he had to dodge Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) as he carried out his mission. If he accomplished his mission, he then had to land on the same pitching and rolling carrier from which he had hurtled earlier. Again, if successful, his plane would be stopped violently when its “tailhook” engaged an arresting cable on the flight deck.

That was John McCain’s day-to-day existence. But he was also in his aircraft on the flight deck of the USS Forrestal when a freak accident triggered a catastrophic conflagration that cost the lives of hundreds of sailors and almost led to the loss of the ship. And of course, he was shot down on a mission over North Vietnam and spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war, during which time he was subjected to treatment that civilized people cannot even imagine.

Americans admire Sen. McCain because of the character he demonstrated in the crucible of war. They also admire him for a related quality, his sense of honor. Honor is an old-fashion virtue that is often the object of ridicule in a liberal society. But without honorable men, liberal society cannot survive. The American Founders understood this. The signers of the Declaration of Independence mutually pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their "sacred Honor."

The progression in this passage is important. Life is basic but needs other qualities to make it worth living. Fortune, an indication that Providence has smiled on one's endeavors, is one such quality. But for the Founders, Honor was the virtue that represented the pinnacle of human life. A dishonorable life was worse than poverty or death.

The quintessential nineteenth century liberal, John Stuart Mill, expressed this view well."War is an ugly thing," he wrote, "but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." Perhaps this passage explains why John McCain's military service looms so large in the diminished age of Clinton.

I believe that what I wrote then is still relevant today. Many conservatives — Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and the editorial board of National Review to name a few — have made clear their principled opposition to McCain. I am not enamored of his policies either. I would prefer Ronald Reagan, but last I heard, he isn’t running.

By all means, do your best to get Romney — with all his shortcomings — the nomination. But if McCain is the nominee, he will still be a better president than the Democratic hopefuls. If he were the Republican nominee, I would support him on the basis of his likely policy prescriptions alone; as problematic as they may be, they can’t be any worse than that which will be pushed by Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

But McCain is far superior to the Democratic contenders on the basis of character and virtue. For instance, once the North Vietnamese found out that McCain was the son of the U.S. military commander in the Pacific theater, which included Vietnam, they offered him the chance to go home before his POW comrades. Had he accepted, it would have been a great propaganda coup for the Vietnamese communists. But he refused. That’s character and it ought to mean something even to those who are not convinced of his conservative bona fides.

— Mackubin Thomas Owens is an associate dean of academics and a professor of national-security affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. He is writing a history of U.S. civil-military relations.

[neverdem]

The GOP needs a brokered convention in 2008

Arise, Ye Favorite Sons

[kc8ukw]

He also is rated the best (remaining) candidate for support for Israel: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerPage.jhtml

[boomop1]

Yawn, I won’t vote for someone I’ll regret, already did that.

[Always Right]

The thought of a Democrat President, Senate and House is too much. Perhaps they can squander it like the GOP did, but somehow I doubt it. I will do what I can to stop the Democrats from getting full control of the government.

[DoughtyOne]

When it comes to the Reagan Revolution, I was there leading the way... well, I was a foot soldier.

I think we should make those tax cuts "WE" gave you permanent.

We need to find a compassionate way to give illegals who are here a pathway to citizenship.

I have pushed through legislation that makes exercise of the First Amendment more reasoned with regard to elections.

I joined with the gang of fourteen to do something better than what the president had in mind, with regard to judicial appointments.

Enough was enough.  It was time to put the issue of MIAs to rest, recognize North Vietnam and facilitate trade.

I didn't think helping the Sandanistas was a good thing.  I fought it tooth and nail but by gosh, a nation was freed over my objections.

I was a member of the Keeting Five.  It was no big deal.  A lot of money was passed around and people lost their life savings.  It happens.

Have the actions of this man, earned your vote?

[Bear_Slayer]

Oh this ought to be good.

Beating the drum for Son of Cain

[pgkdan]

Nope. If the GOP gives McCain the nod I’m looking elsewhere.

[johna61]

Another article from a lapdog of Nasty Mcapain.

[rhombus]

OK I work with the military every day. I respect and honor those who serve. But I grow tired of being reminded of MCain’s POW history...(did you know John Kerry was in Vietnam?). I’m more interested in what McCain did during the last 7 years... when he was free to do what he wanted.

[fetal heart beats by 21st day]

no.

[DocH]

"Far superior"?

MY ASS.

[jacksonstate]

I so feel the same way!

[DoughtyOne]

[socialismisinsidious]

No kidding. I'm so sick of hearing about the man he *was* in Vietnam. The way I see it: when this country goes completely to socialist hell in a hand basket I would rather the guy have D after the name, so the whole world can know which party ruined this great nation.

Vote McCain, Vote Liberal
Vote Democrat, Vote Socialist

It's all semantics.

[So Circumstanced]

Romney or nothing.

That’s just how seriously a McCain candidacy would blurr any discernable difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.

[Just mythoughts]

This guy says nothing about McCain from 2000 to now. Nobody is saying he did not serve in Vietnam.

I have so many issues with McCain... his legislation smearing our military with his anti-torture ...waterboarding... especially since he has two sons in the military....

[rabscuttle385]

That goes a long way toward explaining Sen. McCain’s appeal: more than any other candidate, he is the anti-Clinton.

McCain is not the anti-Clinton. He is Hillary Lite, a fact that explains much of his lack of appeal.

[DoughtyOne]

I agree.

[EGPWS]

Have the actions of this man, earned your vote?

No, however his prominence in a "conservative" party has me to believe that conservatism is being redefined by the so called conservatives.

[MNJohnnie]

Read McCain-Leiberman. $.50 a gallon Fed Gas Tax HIKE? This from a REPUBLICAN?

Party’s are not indestructible. Since the two party’s seem bent on fusion, there is coming a time when a new political party will rise.

Hegel Dialectic in action. 1st you have a thesis, in reaction to which forms an antithesis which over time combines to become the synthesis which then becomes the thesis developing a new antithesis.

In these terms the thesis was the Democrat party, which developed over time the anti thesis Republican party. With McCain we seen the Republican Establishment accelerating it fusion with the Democrat Party leadership. They are being a synthesis.

SO it appears the Republican-Democrats will form a globalist, interventionist European Socialist style party. That will be the new thesis.

In reaction to that something new will arise. An new Anti-thesis. It may be that Ron Paul is an out rider of that new trend. An Isolationist, limited Govt Nationalist party of Libertarian-Conservatives.

A lot rides on this election for setting the course of politics for the coming generation. If it ends up being Hillary-vrs McCain it will be a matter of the party’s differing on the speed to which the US should develop a European style authoritarian bureaucratic socialist style Govt.