Tuesday, July 10, 2007

McCain - A Profile In Courage



I'm not supporting John McCain for the presidency in 2008, and there are many issues I disagree with him on...but I have to pay tribute to his courage.

The big news on him lately is that his campaign is on the skids, running out of money and falling in the polls. He's taken major hits for his support of the Iraq War and for his stance on the amnesty legislation.

Today, the headlines are that his Campaign manager Terry Nelson and chief strategist John Weaver resigned/were fired, and he's made a major shakeup in his staff in an effort to keep things going.

With all that going on, he resisted the easy temptation of becoming one of the herd turning on the war effort in order to inflate his poll numbers.

McCain just returned from Iraq, and he made it clear exactly where he stands, ending any speculation he might join the growing list of Republican defectors.

"The government of Maliki is not functioning as it must," he said from the Senate floor. But "the progress our military has made should encourage us."

"The terrorists are in this war to win it," McCain said. "The question is: Are we?"

Well, are we? We'll know soon enough.

As I said, I'm not supporting Senator McCain's bid for the White House in `08. But I can only express my admiration for his strength of character and adherence to principle, no matter what the advantage would be to him personally to knuckle under, and I have to confess, it's almost enough to make me change my mind.

He personifies some of the virtues that keep this country great, and I continue to wonder what would have happened after 9/11 if he had made it into the White House back in 2000, when he was younger and more vigorous, rather than the vastly inferior man who defeated him and ended up as president.

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