Eight years ago I was in a long-distance relationship with a grad student who lived in Atlanta. He came up north over his spring break, and we spent several days in Boston and one night on Cape Cod.
We stayed on Cape Cod on a painfully freezing Tuesday night in the middle of March. We were the only guests at our bed and breakfast. After checking into our room, we went out in search of dinner only to find the main street was dark and deserted. God knows what we were thinking, Cape Cod in the middle of the week in March. Eventually we found the Lobster Pot, a great seafood restaurant that was filled with people. It was an oasis of warmth and friendliness. We went in and had a great dinner.
When we woke up the next morning, there was a big breakfast waiting for us in the kitchen, along with a newspaper with word that Al Gore and George W. Bush had trounced their respective opponents, Bill Bradley and John McCain, in the previous day’s Super Tuesday primaries.
The next day, we were back in New Jersey and I drove C to the airport to send him off. We said our sad goodbyes at the gate.
Meanwhile, John McCain was dropping out of the race on CNN on the airport TV. He spoke outdoors, with a beautiful Arizona landscape as his backdrop.
For some reason I’ve always remembered that. It just compounded the sadness I was feeling at saying goodbye to C (with whom I broke up amicably three months later). I liked John McCain. He was a Republican, but I liked him, especially because he was running against the Dark Prince, George W. Bush, whom I loathed.
I’d been rooting for McCain to beat Bush. I’d been thrilled when, three days after Bush beat McCain in the South Carolina primary with the help of dirty tricks, McCain came back and beat Bush in the Arizona and Michigan primaries. I was working a part-time job at Barnes & Noble at the time. I watched the news of the Arizona and Michigan victories on the TV in the food court while on my dinner break, my mouth agape. Weird, the details we remember.
And then McCain lost all but the New England states on Super Tuesday, and then he dropped out, leaving Bush as the Republican nominee.
I’d always felt bad for McCain after he lost. Now, eight years later, he seems the likely Republican nominee. Even though I won’t vote for him in the fall, I feel happy for him. Not only is it an amazing comeback from last summer, but I feel like he’s getting what was denied to him eight years ago. He’ll be the second-oldest major party nominee ever (after Bob Dole), which inspires me; I hope I’m still visiting new horizons in my 70s.
Don’t get me wrong; I disagree with the man politically on most issues. But I respect and admire him more than I do any of the other GOP candidates.
So for the first time since JFK was elected almost 50 years ago, the next president will probably be a sitting U.S. senator: Obama, Clinton, or McCain. And I don’t loathe any of them.
It feels good.
John McCain is my Senator. I used to like him. Then he started the sucking up to bush/gays don’t deserve civil rights crap. And his support for the Iraq war. He’ll say anything, do anything to get elected, all the while proclaiming he’s a straight talker. I don’t admire him.
It is tough for me to beat up on John McCain. I certainly disagree on his position over the Iraq War, and find his attitude on some social issues to be far too conservative for our nation. But I have long admired his fights over certain Congressional appropriations, his understanding about needing to combat campaign cash, and his attempt to find a real world solution to immigration concerns.
John McCain has a set of values and beliefs that is as much a part of the man, as his arms and legs. He does not need to recreate his image, or rearrange his policy views to fit a campaign strategy. While others seeking the GOP nomination, like Mitt Romney, have flip-flopped for votes, McCain has been a steady voice seeking support from the voters.
So while the right-wing frets about John McCain, I think there is a huge segment of America that will be tuned in, and excited over McCain as a principled nominee of the Republican Party.
I will be one of them.
While i’ve long, long predicted McCain to be the GOP selection for 2008, his difficulties earlier this season really showed off the man’s highly admirable mettle. While he, bar a reporter or two and some wonkish staff puppies, rode essentially alone on his bus throughout the US, he still stayed true to his dream. He was unflappable and positive, probably seeing this year’s race as a life-long culmination of fateful experiences and long-held goals intertwined. While admitting the formidable fiscal obstacles of his campaign he still remained undeterred — despite what commonly held wisdom was telling him via family, friends and press.
Whether it’s Obama or Clinton, a fight for the presidency against the likes of McCain would be good for the country given his level of caliber and unique integrity. The debates will be made of solid stuff, skipping the quintessential Americana-phrase-fluff or rhetoric. This man studies his issues, at much the same level as an Obama or a Clinton. We’re lucky to see him rise up to this race and against such competitors.
Sure, i disagree with the man on many issues, but admirable character traits alone make the man worthy of the fight for the office, and even the office alone. We rarely get to choose from the likes of a McCain in history. That we will (most likely) have the opportunity to choose between two highly competent individuals is a rare national opportunity.
While i might not be ecstatic over a McCain Presidency, we can do much, much worse (e.g., SillyPuddy Romney or Fascist Huck).