The Class of John McCain
I don’t watch TV much, but yesterday I had the chance to see the two candidates I backed for Vice President and President respectively on national television.
While I often call Greta Van Susteren, Greta so Insufferable, I’ve got to give her credit for how she handled her interview the Alaska Governor, conducting the better part of it in that great woman’s kitchen, really humanizing the Republican. Had more people seen Palin in this light, the Democrats and their allies in the MSM would have found it more difficult to bring her down.
I had no doubt watching Palin that she has a future on the national stage. She stands a better chance than any political figure in America today of becoming our first woman president. Once she masters the details of national policy, she’s going to cause anyone whoever doubted her to reconsider the hasty judgment they made about her qualifications.
She may not now know the details, but she has shown the capacity for judgment, a quality more important to leadership than an encyclopedic knowledge of the federal government.
Later, last night, I saw John McCain on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. McCain was funny, self-deprecatory, classy. It took a lot of guts to go before a national audience — and with such grace — so soon after his defeat last week. Few men could have handled it as well as he did. Unlike so many politicians this cycle, indeed, politicians in general, McCain has the ability to laugh at himself.
I wish we had seen more of this John McCain on the campaign trail, wish more people had seen him (and his rival) at the Al Smith dinner in New York. Had they so seen him, they might have more readily have recognized his leadership abilities.
Speaking of that rival, I noted that Leno made no jokes at the expense of the president-elect, focusing more on the defeated Republican vice presidential candidate than the successful Democratic one.
Barack Obama has won election as president. One of the things which makes our country great is that we can mock our leaders. It’s time our comics recognize that in making jokes at the expense of a leader, they honor our freedom as they remind those in high offices of their humanity. Something they need if they are to govern effectively.
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Dan, at our house last night we were watching the same interview and caught the clips from Leno this AM while carpooling.
Did you notice that Sarah Palin was cooking up some hot dogs with velvetta down the middle in one of those segments?
http://www.aldenteblog.com/2008/07/five-hot-dogs-t.html
God must love a politician in the kitchen.
Comment by Michigan-Matt — November 12, 2008 @ 9:56 am - November 12, 2008
http://www.aldenteblog.com/2008/07/five-hot-dogs-t.html
Comment by Michigan-Matt — November 12, 2008 @ 9:57 am - November 12, 2008
I did not watch the McCain/Leno thing. I take it that McCain did not use the opportunity to speak out in defense of Palin.
Before I rip into McCain, I will ask you to comment on why McCain has been AWOL on defending Palin after some of his staff opened fire on her after the defeat.
As to Greta, I think she has been amazing. “We report, you decide.” Shepard Smith said his program does not engage in “crime and slime.” He was on stage with all the Fox people during an anniversary special. Greta’s face contorted at the comment.
She has found a path away from being 24/7 Aruba cheerleader mystery program. Fox has two huge ego bookends: O’Reilly and Geraldo. (I can’t even think of Geraldo’s last name.) Greta has decided to be on the shelf above them. She is actually becoming more like Bret Hume than the news lite crowd that dominates the channel.
Comment by heliotrope — November 12, 2008 @ 10:21 am - November 12, 2008
Palin’s future, and the future of Republicans generally, really depend on how badly the Pelosi-Reid-Obama troika screws up the economy and rouses the center-right through the enactment of a far-left political agenda.
When Chris Matthews said it was his job to make Obama succeed, he was saying out loud what nearly all of the MSM had quietly vowed already. Up to a certain level of incompetence, they can probably cover for him.
I propose a new unit of measurement for political incompetence. Call it, “the Carter.” If the Obama administration is safe up to a level of about .9 Carters because the media can still cover for them. From .9 to about 1.2 Carters, Obama is in trouble, but could still ride it out. Above 1.2 Carters, his future becomes more cloudy. And no politician can survive above 2 Carters.
Comment by V the K — November 12, 2008 @ 10:29 am - November 12, 2008
As long as an honest portrayal serves our purposes, I’ll simply remain suspicious. But as we celebrate the crumbs thrown at us (and just after the election), let’s remember that the media is always serving its own purposes. The media will write their own narrative despite or in spite of ourselves — I’d rather we weren’t eager to volunteer for the role of Oliver Twist.
Comment by Ignatius — November 12, 2008 @ 10:47 am - November 12, 2008
I am looking forward to seeing Glenn Beck on FoxNews. If
The Fairness DoctrineGovernment Radio Speech Regulation becomes law, a lot of conservative talk hosts will migrate to cable.Since the filter ate my previous comment, I reposted it here .
Comment by V the K — November 12, 2008 @ 10:52 am - November 12, 2008
I’m with Heliotrope, McCain may have been funny on Leno, don’t know, didn’t watch. I know he said that Sarah was not responsible for the failure of his campaign.
As soon as someone in North Carolina used Rev. Wright in a campaign Ad, McCain was all over him. It’s been 10 days of smears, and finally on Leno he says something nice about Sarah. Sorry, too late.
This is one of the reasons I can’t get too upset about the election results. I am not looking forward to our new socialist overlord. But I can’t bring myself to be too upset that McCain lost.
Comment by Leah — November 12, 2008 @ 11:03 am - November 12, 2008
I am not looking forward to our new socialist overlord. But I can’t bring myself to be too upset that McCain lost.
Ditto. Obama will be easier to fight against than McCain.
Here’s something that came up in a mods vs cons debate last night. Liberal Democrats have no trouble defending the extremes of their own party. Point out Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright to a mainstream Democrat and they will say, “I don’t agree with them personally, but I totally can defend why they say what they say.”
But it seems moderate Republicans will throw conservatives under the bus just to curry favor with liberals at cocktail parties. Democrats defend William Ayers… a terrorist… but moderate Republicans can’t be bothered to say “Even though I strongly disagree with Sarah Palin on some issues, I don’t think she’s stupid.”
Mainstream Democrats are more willing to defend terrorists like William Ayers than Moderate Republicans are to defend others in their own party whom they disagree with on policy. Does that seem right to anyone?
Comment by V the K — November 12, 2008 @ 11:21 am - November 12, 2008
Mainstream Democrats are more willing to defend terrorists like William Ayers than Moderate Republicans are to defend others in their own party whom they disagree with on policy. Does that seem right to anyone?
A very simplistic response:
I don’t have any anecdotal evidence to agree with or counter this assertion, but I know several conservatives who stayed home because they refused to vote for McCain, stating he ‘lacks principles’. Disagreement is a two-way street.
Republicans fall over themselves to disagree with one another because by and large we are interested in truth, in the extent of government, in preservation of what is proven, etc. We are constantly arguing the small stuff and emphasizing our individualism by begging to differ. We understand that government should be of law, not of men and so we unify behind ideas rather than political figures — thus, we ‘throw each other under busses’ because we are loyal primarily to philosophy; our prescription for a harmonius society is equality of rights before the law and the rest is ideally left to self-determination.
Democrats are only interested in power or at least preventing Republicans from getting it; they may not fully agree with certain leftist figures, but understand that the only way to further their agenda is to be in a position to enact it. It’s far easier for them to rationalize the bad behavior of Ayers because 1) it happened so long ago and 2) deep down, they understand that their agenda is sympathetic with radicalism — they figure they don’t want to go quite that far, just a few steps in his direction. It’s similar to those who say something like “Communism doesn’t work, but it’s a great idea, is understandable why so many were attracted to it, and I’m sympathetic with what it tried to do”, not recognizing that it’s evil precisely for what it does and because it doesn’t work.
In a sense, leftists tend to be idealists and attempt to constantly change society by force of law to conform to their ideals such as addressing perceived injustice whereas rightists tend to be realists and are left the task of defending what is imperfect because they recognize that imperfection is human nature and the nature of government. Leftists tend to speak in terms of ‘change’, ‘hope’, ‘frontiers’, ‘horizons’, etc. while rightists tend to speak in terms of ‘God’, ‘country’, ‘tradition’, ‘damn those leftists’. They look forward, we look backward. As this election proved, it’s easier being the tide rather than the bulwark.
Feel free to throw me under the bus.
Comment by Ignatius — November 12, 2008 @ 12:20 pm - November 12, 2008
Leno can’t make jokes about “the One” – it would be blasphemy as well as racist. It’s easy and safe to make fun of someone who really represents Middle America.
McCain lost my respect years ago and his lack of defense of his VP pick just confirmed it. Being a hero doesn’t mean being good or decent. It means being heroic. See those old Greek stories…
I admit to eating hot dogs stuffed with that fake cheese too. Simple pleasures
Comment by kevin — November 12, 2008 @ 12:32 pm - November 12, 2008
You do realize the first part of that sentence completely justifies why so many of us correctly judged her not ready based on her qualifications. She would have been a good choice as Energy Sec. or something along those lines, but she clearly wasn’t ready for the VP slot. That said, we’ll see how she fairs in the next couple of years.
I caught some of the Bush interview on CNN yesterday. I have not seen him that at ease in a very long time. Looks like he’s glad the ride is almost over. I don’t blame him – who would want that job.
Comment by sonicfrog — November 12, 2008 @ 1:14 pm - November 12, 2008
Sonic, actually, W made those exact same comments earlier in the 2d term, before the start of the campaign, to a reporter who asked the “mistakes” question after he had been hammered in the media for his inflexible position of never apologizing.
I don’t recall who was the interviewer, but the “Mission Accomplished” banner was part of the mea culpa along with the nonsense behind his sabre rattling “Cowboy” diplomacies (Dead or Alive). Same thing two years later with CNN’s journalist-du-jour.
Comment by Michigan-Matt — November 12, 2008 @ 4:51 pm - November 12, 2008
No, sorry, Sen. McCain did not do enough to speak out against his slime merchants. Why? Because these cretins were probably speaking for him. If he really felt that it was bad treatment his number two was getting, he could have spoken forcefully LAST FRIDAY when all of this was boiling over. No, once again our friend, Sen. John McCain saves the “F— you” for those who should be his allies, but once again he does not. *sigh!*
Comment by Mark J. Goluskin — November 12, 2008 @ 7:50 pm - November 12, 2008