TAKE A MOMENT TO HONOR JOHN MCCAIN
It’s too bad John McCain didn’t run again for president in 2016. We would have loved to see him wrap Donald Trump in knots. Of course, he did that a few times anyway.
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, whose family announced on Friday he will no longer be treated for an aggressive brand of brain cancer, likely is entering his final days, according to news reports.
He has served this country well, and though we have not always shared his political leanings, we have always respected his integrity, his humanness, his honor.
In a political climate that has made race-baiting standard fare, McCain has stood apart. In an October 2008 town hall in Minnesota when McCain was running for president against Barack Obama, a McCain supporter with a microphone said he was “scared” of what would happen if Obama were elected president. McCain responded: “I want to be president of the United States, and obviously I do not want Sen. Obama to be, but I have to tell you — I have to tell you — he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States.”
The crowd — McCain supporters — booed him. In a few minutes a women took the mic and said: “I can’t trust Obama. … He’s an Arab.” McCain gently corrected her: “No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab].”
Of course, we all know what Donald Trump would have done. Trump would have led a chant.
Party aside, McCain would have been a president for whom this country could have beaming pride.
The son and grandson of four-star Navy admirals, McCain spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam after his fighter plane was shot down during his 23rd air mission in a bombing run over Hanoi. (Trump said McCain wasn’t a war hero — he got captured.)
Rather than retreat into civilian life, McCain went on to become a stalwart in American politics, twice seeking the presidency and winning the 2008 Republican nomination for president. In the Senate, he was never a party yes-man but more an American people protector, backing Republicans on most conservative and fiscal issues, but bucking the party to push for campaign finance reform and, last summer, to fight the repeal of the Affordable Care Act because neither the GOP nor the Trump administration had the workable replacement it had promised.
McCain disdained Trump’s “America First” policies and his criticism of longtime American allies and institutions such as NATO — even as he praised Russia. The senator advocated on behalf of refugees and was a strong Republican voice in several efforts to overhaul our immigration system.
In early August, the petulant Trump signed into law a huge defense policy bill named after McCain, but the president — while making a point to thank many others who had pushed the measure — made no mention of McCain, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
Last summer, McCain, now 81, told Americans his prognosis was serious. He has been absent from Washington since December, and on Friday his family had gathered in Arizona.
He is a hero. And a man of honor. We have been fortunate to have him serve our country — both on the battlefield of Vietnam and on the battlefield of American politics.