Posted on 04/30/2008 10:30:39 AM PDT by shrinkermd
...As we ate near the Days' home in Florida recently, I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving because they told me things about him the American people need to know. And troubling because it is clear that Mr. McCain is one of the most private individuals to run for president in history.
...Mr. Day relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, "I told you I would make you a cripple."
The break was designed to shatter Mr. Day's will. He had survived in prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and be able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a bone sticking out of his arm...[McCain re-set the arm]
...Another McCain story, somewhat better known, is about the Vietnamese practice of torturing him by tying his head between his ankles with his arms behind him, and then leaving him for hours. The torture so badly busted up his shoulders that to this day Mr. McCain can't raise his arms over his head.
Mr. Day recalls with pride Mr. McCain stubbornly refusing to accept special treatment or curry favor to be released early, even when gravely ill. "He wasn't corruptible then," Mr. Day says, "and he's not corruptible today."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Today, Mr. Day, a very active 83, still vividly recalls Mr. McCain's sermons. "He remembered the Episcopal liturgy," Mr. Day says, "and sounded like a bona fide preacher." One of Mr. McCain's first sermons took as its text Luke 20:25 and Matthew 22:21, "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." Mr. McCain said he and his fellow prisoners shouldn't ask God to free them, but to help them become the best people they could be while serving as POWs. It was Caesar who put them in prison and Caesar who would get them out. Their task was to act with honor.
“I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling.”
That actually sums up McCain for me in a nutshell.
Not that I have a whole lot of choice this election.
You should read the article.
I did.. thats why my 2 cents was "needed"..
“McLaim was a weasle when he was a kid and is a weasle now..”
Say what you want about Sen McCain, but the man served his country honorably under horrible circumstances. I may not agree with his politics, but I will never denigrate his military service.
I did read the article..... so he was an exemplary prisoner. He helped his fellow inmates. He did not try to escape (as was his duty). He may be a veteran ... and I honor his service. However his past performance over the past 10 years show that he is a liberal. He is not a conservative. He is a republican, and he is changing his stance on government run health care. In summation the only difference between him and hillary is the R after his name.
If it’s McCain + a Conservative VP, I’ll vote McCain.
If it’s McCain vs. Obama, I’ll vote McCain.
If it’s McCain + RINO vs. Hillary, I might just sit it out.
so he was an exemplary prisonerHe wasn't an exemplary PRISONER, you numb-skull. He was an exemplary AMERICAN.
How demeaning of you to say that. I don't have to ask if you could have done the same. Your nasty words speak for themselves and the answer is NO.
I agree. It isn’t McCain’s history in the military and as a POW that I disagree with. That is fine, but it is no reason to elect a man president. After all, Reagan and our current president never saw combat, some successful presidents never served in the military, George HW Bush (unsuccessful) was a war hero, and Carter (very unsuccesful) is a graduate of Annapolis, though I believe he never saw combat.
What I disagree with is McCain’s current and recent positions on crucial issues like immigration, free speech, and loyalty to Conservative values.
That is why I can Never vote for this man.
My position on this is McCain is a war hero and served our country well. Has dedicated his life to public service.
So what!
My concern is the issues, not 40 years ago. What direction will he take the country?
I will not vote for a person based on the war hero line if they are an ardent Socialists, just isn’t goning to happen.
Much better to vote FOR Hillery and fight her in the Congress then him and not be able to fight him at all.
I was almost to the point of considering him until his outburst last week at the NC GOP.
My question to everyone who supports McCain is why hasn’t he jumped out at the DNC over their recent ad?
I must think it is becasue he doesn’t want to offend his liberal friends.
If McCain wants my vote he’ll have to get it the old fashioned way, EARN IT.
I do not think he will appoint conservative judges to overturn McCain/Feingold.
He is against drilling Anwar, thinking golbal warming is real.
Congress is not our friend .. hasn't been for some time .. and it looks even less friendly next year.
What makes you think there will be LESS of an X42 machine should they get in the White House? X42 will sack any and everyone not a signee to the kneepad coalition.
A Marxist and an uber Marxist are still Marxist.
I fear we may be needed on Lexington Green.
No, I really do.
My friend all three of them embrace Marx to some degree, Karl not Harpo.
And I hear what you are saying, but we are not there yet.
With a Democrat as POTUS, we would need to push republicans to stall everything.
If it were McCain, the R’s in congress couldn’t stand up against the party, McCain would reach acrooss the ailse and sell us down the river.
Then, on the other hand, there are those conservatives still mad about McCain-Feingold. I guess they believe there isn't enough money in politics.
The American Conservative Union gives him a lifetime rating of 83/100 and last year 80/100. Still the xenophobes claim he is not a conservative.
That is intellectually dishonest. The fact that CFR (McCain/Feingold) restricts free political speech (that pesky 1st Amendment thing) is what bothers conservatives. That has been reiterated so many thousands of times it can't have been missed.
Then there are those who recognize the undeniable fact that there is more money in politics now because of McCain/Feingold and it's used with less accountability.
“Seems like if you don’t hate the illegals, you aren’t a conservative.”
How about if you just want the damned law enforced, you race baiter?
“He is WORSE than a democrat.. “
worse than Barack “USofKKKA” Obama
i hardly think so
what are you a troll?
Well, POTUS signed it and the SCOTUS said it was Constitutional. You will have to change the mind of Congress, POTUS and SCOTUS to achieve your belief. Not much chance, I’d say.
That is intellectually dishonest too and intentionally divisive. Intentionally mis-framing the motives of those you disagree with is how Al Sharpton, Je$$e Jackson and other lefties operate. It's a sure sign your position can't stand up to scrutiny.
Let’s keep up a good fight against McCain at least until he is selected to make an acceptance speech at the convention. He has a lot of problems, including national security and integrity.
Politics is the art of compromise and leadership is the art of principle. Lincoln used superb political skills to implement some of the most cogent and insightful principles to guide this nation. McCain has used political skills to implement compromises consistent with increasing personal acclaim among liberal media and politicians.
The former is dead and the latter is alive, but dead to principles unrelated to his immediate personal advancement. Since leadership is absent from the Democrat and Republican Parties, each individual must make a way to manage commitment to principle and political party affiliation. Each individual must answer questions as to what extent, under what circumstances and when, if ever, do you forsake conservative principles to align with an enemy of your beliefs against a greater enemy of your beliefs?
John McCain lacks leadership for the War on Terror. His leadership codified the Army interrogation manual making terrorists legal combatants. His leadership granted terrorists American citizenship rights under Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. He thereby ensures information vital to defeat terrorists remains sacred and unobtainable. Terrorists are unresponsive to direct questioning and psychological gambits. Therefore, interrogators need all stress and coercion techniques our military encounters in survival schools. McCain embraces liberal orthodoxy considering those methods torture, but his searing experiences call forth contrary insights he must suppress.
McCain especially understands terrorists are not insurgents or freedom fighters; when captured, certainly not prisoners of war. They are not armed forces, militias, or volunteer corps of any country or authority. These killers are not members of organized resistance movements carrying arms openly. They have no distinctive identifier. Terrorists cannot even qualify as spies or saboteurs destroying infrastructure required to support military operations. McCain understands Geneva Conventions intended to isolate such forces, provide them no protections, and allow destruction with any overwhelming furies needed to crush their abominations.
McCain especially appreciates that laws guaranteeing civil liberties presuppose operation within an invincible society. The Federal government’s primary responsibility is to pursue Alexander Hamilton’s admonition that powers exist without limitation; providing capabilities thwarting dangers as well as repelling attacks. McCain understands powerful warfare capabilities require potent intelligence acquisition and exploitation before and during campaigns.
The framers of our constitution and the Geneva Conventions held powerful positions throughout the darkest times of our country and the world. They were our Founding Fathers, and parents and grandparents of the Greatest Generation. Their words expressed durable morality earned in our fight for freedom, and against the ultimate bloody deluge of the 20th century. These first generations expressed principles derived from confronting shattering tragedies, and earning peace through victory. John McCain’s actions are particularly reprehensible because he turns a blind eye to the council of these people.
McCain continually seeks popular advancement by placating those coveting luxurious morality requiring shelter from hard choices and danger awareness. His crime is repudiating military and intelligence professionals facing hard choices when confronting shrewd, ruthless enemies obscured behind frightening uncertainties.
John McCain succumbed to the terrible addiction of political power. The same addiction expressed itself differently in fellow Navy officer Randy Cunningham, who was the Navy’s first Vietnam ace. Over the decades the honor and moral authority of both were gradually traded away for influence in the political arena. To me McCain is like a cadaver prepared for viewing. The removal of blood and organs equates to the trading away of honor and moral authority. The reputation that remains is like the cosmetics applied for viewing the corpse at the funeral. It is easy for anyone to get onto the same sort of gently downward sloping path. The final result is tragic, but we do not need a modern day Macbeth or Hamlet as President.
That doesn’t change my mind or the mind’s of conservatives. We know what CFR is even if the POTUS (who condemned it in spite of signing it) or the SCOTUS don’t. That is just a weak “but the other kids all do it” argument.
Thank you. That should be standard posting in any “McCain” thread.
Amen—one of the best opinions I have seen yet!
If you don't believe in enforcing immigration laws, you are indeed a multicultural leftist, which apparently you are.
You’re welcome. I used to post the whole thing on every McCain thread until he became the presumptive nominee. Now I just post a link every now and then and even less often the whole post.
I cannot begin to imagine the horrors Senator McCain and the others endured while under torture in the Hanoi Hilton. That Mr. Day and Senator McCain survived and came home to have productive lives is a testament to the strength of their souls. They humble me.
“Seems like if you don’t hate the illegals, you aren’t a conservative.”
It’s not about hate, sir. It’s about lawbreakers, both illegals and those who hire them, destroying this country.
“The American Conservative Union gives him a lifetime rating of 83/100 and last year 80/100. Still the xenophobes claim he is not a conservative.”
Yes, I know about those numbers. On the main points that conservatives hold dear, however, McCain is a socialist.
Thanks for the excellent post, shrinkermd.
And never mind the haters on the site.
They mew, “...but, I respect his military service.”
Like hell, they do. LIKE HELL, THEY DO.
(It wasn’t just mere “service” by McCain, Bud O’Day and the others through all those years in the torture chambers of the Hanoi Hilton.)
Keyboard warrior purists and priests-of-the-ideology (self-anointed): a flock of strutting-chattering hens...they flutter on and on and on...
The Hanoi Hilton years will always be, indeed, a testament to the strength of their souls.
We should ALL be humbled at the accounts. These men were HEROIC.
Thank you for your thoughtful words - and surely for the service of your son.
I don't think people who aren't drinking the McKoolaid actually hate illegals. I don't hate them, I simply want them to play by the rules.
Then, on the other hand, there are those conservatives still mad about McCain-Feingold. I guess they believe there isn't enough money in politics.
Dude, McCain-Feingold is one of the worst incursions on the 1st Amendment ever to come down the pike. It isn't about money in politics, it's about free speech. Notice that I didn't say, "It's about free speech, stupid," which, although it would make a great bumper sticker, it's rude to suggest that you are stupid. With rights come responsibilities, so, I'm refraining from name calling.
The American Conservative Union gives him a lifetime rating of 83/100 and last year 80/100. Still the xenophobes claim he is not a conservative.
Citing at his ACU lifetime average is misleading. This is like saying that XYZ stock has a lifetime average of $100/a share. So what? What is it trading at today? Look at his current trends--much lower, certainly not in the 80's.
Thank you for posting the link.
While you are listening to Rush trash an American Hero, remember Rush escaped military service because he had a pilonidal cyst among other things. Liberals who portray Rush as a pain-in-the-A$$ are more accurate than they think. Rush is a great conservative, entertainer but, occasionally, he plays to the peanut brain, conservative gallery who believe conservative=consumed with rage.
What is it Shakespeare said? Maybe, “...they jest at the scar who never felt the wound...” Go find a more authentic, unpretentious war hero who serves in Congress if you can.
Just as campaign finance reform was passed by Congress, signed by POTUS and upheld by the SCOTUS, you will find, after the election, some rational solution to the illegal problem forthcoming from Congress. Regardless who is President they will sign it. Regardless who is on the SCOTUS, they will uphold it.
All that will be left to do is for you and those that agree with you to trash heroes who have enough compassion to see an unpopular issue to its necessary conclusion.
In the meantime thank God for Senator McCain and veterans like him and God speed to their efforts.
You're still not being honest. Rush has never proposed deporting all illegal aliens. It is also not true that he has no solution. His solution is the same one I and other FReepers have insisted on for years.
Deport on contact. (IOWs whenever they are found in routine LE work.)
Enforce the laws on the books. (IOWs impose fines and incarceration on employers and do it vigorously.)
Close the border.
Do those things and the jobs dry up. Dry up the jobs and the illegals deport themselves.
McCain's current ACU rating is 65.
Are you aware that deportation is a civil, not a criminal action? Further, are you aware it presently it can take years to proceed through the deportation system? And are you aware, that during that time the potential deportee is left in the country such that when the trial finally comes he or she is often not available?
You not only don’t have a solution, you don’t even have an idea how difficult your words are to implement. Your words mean nothing because your idea of action is impossible or impractical—take your pick.
Much obliged, TigersEye.
Yeah, well, I would, if that pesky work thang didn't interfere so often. Oh, no! I'm channeling Obama again...paraphrasing his comments on his church attendance "I do attend Church, as often as I can, when they aren't workin' me." (He really said this earlier this year, presumably referring to Rev.Wright) "I do listen to Rush, as often as I can, when they're not workin' me."
Anyway, shrinker, Rush is an entertainer, not a policy wonk. It's not his place to devise a solution to the immigration mess. Nor is it mine. I simply want the laws on the books enforced.
I don't think Rush is "trashing an American Hero." Quite the contrary. He is simply pointing out the McMaverick's (recent) voting record--which is an anathema to conservatives. In fact, as TigersEye reliably informs us, McMaverick's current ACU rating is in the 60's.
Look, shrinker, no one is maligning McCain's service. But, military service doesn't automatically qualify you for POTUS. Just ask President Kerry.
I'm giggling about your assertion about a "rational solution" forthcoming from Congress vis a vis the illegal immigrant problem. Let us hope.
I'm deeply and truly offended that you say that I am "trashing" McCain. If just pointing out the man's record is "trashing" him, then, oh, well.
I hope your wisdom includes the fact that 40% of all illegals came here legally by visa or other means. Build your wall along the Mexican border, the Canadian border, along the great lakes and along all sea coasts and you still have not solved the problem.
The problem with McCain bashers is they are predominantly xenophobes who hate the illegals with a grand passion. They claim they want them sent back full well knowing that since the matter is civil, not criminal, it is hard to do.
The proof of this is when they are offered a real solution. That is, picture ID with SSN and emigration status. Then the “real conservatives” all say, “no, it is show me your papers...” A picture ID requirement for hiring or voting would eliminate most of our illegal problems. We would be shocked at first at finding the number of illegals, then shocked at the number that voted illegally and finally shocked at the number that don’t pay there income taxes.
Some estimate that 17% of all SSN used in current employment are either mistaken or fraudulent.
Ping-—
That is why mass deportation was not one of my recommendations. Nor Rush Limbaugh's.
You not only don’t have a solution, you don’t even have an idea how difficult your words are to implement. Your words mean nothing because your idea of action is impossible or impractical—take your pick.
I pick neither because you, intentionally, assigned a solution to me that I didn't give.
This makes it patently obvious where you are coming from. Lie about your opponent and hope you can intimidate them or get others to buy into it. You're a race baiter and a class war hustler. You're not worth anyone's time.
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