Caught some of McCain's packaged speech clippings. Wants to go positive on America. Gonna win the war and return government to the people. Fairly non-controversial and it's got to drive the media daft. "Win the war? B.S. Can't be done. He's dodgey old. He can't tell the difference between Osama Bin Laden and Sadam Hussein or El Quida from Hamas..." Truth is he does get confused regarding Sunnis and Shiites and Bathists but what's a Colin Powell for (hint, hint)? Of course compared to centuries past once we took the ground and captured or killed their army, uh, we "won." Then you ravaged, pillaged, captured and split. When your enemy started to rebuild, you visited again and knee capped them. Bad form though. Post WWII we have to rehabilitate the country to "win" now. 60 Minutes posits we have to bring every Iraqi involved in helping us to the US and give them 40 acres and a mule (freedom isn't free unless its subsidized). Of course, it does make you think twice about getting involved because the exponent for victims is exponential, which should be good because you don't want war, really but now and again if you don't fight for your right live in peace, you won't live in peace for very long.
Group think (polls, eh?) now is "shouldn't have gone into Iraq looking for WMD's, they didn't exist." Question is, how do we know they don't exist? How did we find out? Don't go in, they nuke New York, then common thinking is, "shoulda gone into Iraq and looked around, stupid not to." So going in gave us the knowledge we needed to protect ourselves. Sorry but sometimes you have break an egg to see if its a chick or a yolk. Later you only regret looking if you forget the need for information is paramount in war. And yes, war was declared on the United States and yes Saddam Hussein did sponsor terrorists. Different terrorists, you say? We should have waited until the bomb exploded, and THEN we'd have had a good reason? Please. Is the middle east a mess? Yes. Did we make it worse? Hardly. The Russians invaded Afghanistan and acted up. They deserved to be thrown out and uh, we helped provide the munitions (at least Charlie Wilson did) to do the job. Other than Abu Ghraib's mess we've done nothing to embarrass ourselves and we've done an awful lot to bring peace and freedom to Iraq. It's expensive. Those who have died, those who are related to those who have died know all too well how expensive. But I suspect if you left it up to the men and woman who have committed to making a difference in Iraq, and yes I'm talking about our military, I'd guess they'd want to stick it out. In fact, I'd be willing to leave it up to folks we have in Iraq. When they vote to come home, I'll listen. Some of my friends would scoff at that because they think everybody is out for themself. You have recognize that heroic man and woman still exist. People who are willing to do the dirty work because it needs to be done. Cutting and running now is convenient. A majority of troops would rather die than cut and run. Not popular? Doesn't surprise me.
But what's that got to do with McCain?
I had promised myself if Joe Lieberman, Colin Powell, Jack Kemp or (watch out, you may get your wish, eh?) John McCain ran for President, I'd support them. Now I've got to put up or shut up. Obama is bright and driven. Hillary is well connected and like it or not, Bubba did a good financial job and is a conservative cross-over Democrat and I like middle of the road pols. So you gotta believe you'll get more than a taste of Bill's ideas if Hillary takes over. But when its all said and done, McCain's paid his dues and deserves a shot.
Many heroes have a tendency to self destruct. Audie Murphy comes to mind. If anybody's got an excuse to be screwed up, its McCain. I read he's angry and can hold a grudge. Made some phone calls asking little folks to be fired from jobs when he didn't like the way they questioned him. He's got feet of clay. But he also gets mad when he thinks the people of the United States are being screwed over. Read Matt Taibi's piece in Rolling Stone on Hillary's pork projects. She and Bill will let people out of prison as a political favor. So would McCain? I don't think so. A man who is willing to stay on target to drop his bomb when a heat seeking missile is about to knock his wing off shows a tendency not to compromise.
So there you have it. Not surprising. I'm a boomer. Was in the Air Force. Liberal as a youth, conservative as soon as I had something to conserve (I always enjoyed Jack Kemp's quote when he asked "what about those people who don't have anything to conserve?" Probably wasn't original but it was spoken by a Republican, and it was the bully truth and right up Limbaugh's wahsoot, i.e. spare me the polemics, no matter what side they come from). So I love the underdog and I hate to do the expected so Obama rings true for me. But even though it's expected and a little boring, I am on McCain's train until his feet of clay turn into lead.
John McCain for President of the United States of America. Huzzah...
