[cross-posted on mdgopconvention2008.com]

The mainstream media would tell you that John McCain’s life story has been read far too many times and that the American people are more concerned with the economy than with McCain’s biography.

But let’s focus on why this biography is important.

A man’s choices reflect his principles.

The most defining choice in John McCain’s life came the day he refused to be freed from that torture cell in Hanoi until every one of his men was set free as well.  He knew what that decision meant…more torture…a good possibility of death.

But he chose it nonetheless: he chose to stay for the duration and do his job, whatever the outcome was for him personally.

And as a result of that choice he was beaten and humiliated…and is still being beaten and humiliated today by the very America he served in Vietnam.

Ridiculed for his stiffness and his inability to move with fluid and grace, McCain is deemed to be unpresidential.  After all, his speeches are not eloquent.  His diction is too clipped.  And the list goes on.

Things haven’t changed that much since his return from Vietnam to the scorn of the media then.  He had enemies then.  He has enemies now.

But listen to these words:

I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.

I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.

Love for America has become a political liability in a world gone green with envy at our prosperity, our freedom, our destiny of self-determination.

And it is that very self-determination that Barak Obama seeks to undermine by trying to convince Americans that we are victims of failed Washington policies, victims of corporate greed, victims of failed governmental interventions in hurricanes and natural disasters, victims of poverty and racial discrimination.

It is true that there are many people suffering in America today.

But we are not victims.

We are real people with real families, minority husbands, unwed pregnant daughters, veterans of foreign wars with real wounds suffered for an idea that we believed was great…and worth sharing with others in South Korea…in Vietnam…in Iraq.

That idea is America, where the offspring of an unwed Kenyan father and his girlfriend can go to Harvard Law School and graduate to vilify the very society that produced him…and be nominated to be President of the United States of America.

This is who we are.

Whatever happened to the idea “ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country”?

And though the answer may not be pretty to hear or beautiful to see, by a man’s deeds—
not his words—is he known.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 2:23 pm and is filed under National Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.