In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.Whatever you think of President-Elect Barack Obama's policies or convictions, he -- and the moment that spawned him -- has transformed the American electorate.
And whatever you think of Senator John McCain's policies or convictions, in the end he did his best to rise above a desperate, attacking campaign and counteract the fear strategy. This one moment is what I will take away from his run for the presidency:
Most Americans do not want to be divided. Most Americans do not want to be cleaved by strategists and herded into opposing fortresses. And in this unscripted, honest moment, John McCain stood up for the truth and for most Americans, even though many of his supporters seemed to desire otherwise.
5 comments:
Noble sentiments, Donna. There was a decent McCain in there someplace, like the guy who ran against Bush in 2000. It's a shame that man got lost in the political realities of modern elections.
All the same, I couldn't resist a little gloating in the privacy of my own blog, which a pop culture junkie/ex-southern Baptist like you should appreciate. www.docthelmashouse.blogspot.com
Here's hoping the recount doesn't find 32 extra votes for Virgil Goode
Truly, I think that what McCain said applies to McCain as well. I'm very glad that Obama won, for a lot of reasons, but the tiniest part of me is sorry that it was McCain that he had to defeat.
Here's to unity.
In many ways I was more moved by McCain's beautiful concession than I was by Obama's acceptance. As I said on Twitter, where was that McCain all year? Someone needed to walk into his campaign headquarters and scrawl "LET MCCAIN BE MCCAIN" on the white board. He is a very good man, and I would not have been crushed if he had won (Palin, that's something else entirely.)
This election was very depressing for me, largely because of the unprecedented (both in amount and intensity) vitriol coming from both sides. I am very very tired of a divided America. I hope, very very much, that people take to heart Obama's quote from honest Abe, and reach out to find common ground rather than stepping away over differences.
I applaud McCain for standing up to his supporters and I understand his response given that he was caught off guard by that woman's comment. However doesn't that interchange beg a bigger question about the perception of Arabs in this country. By answering the way he did, McCain accepted the presupposition that Arabs can't be trusted and seemed to imply that they can't be good nor can they be family men. Arabs are the last group that can be collectively disparaged without anyone raising an eyebrow.
I agree with heyrocker on McCain's concession, I welled up watching him speak.
I loved McCain's concession speech. It really was as if the real John McCain reappeared finally. He looked more relaxed than he had in months.
I don't think this campaign was the most negative in history. Really, 2004 was worse, IMO. That said, I'm tired of the parties trying so hard to divide us, too. I hope things will be different in the next few years.
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