McCain’s Life Experiences Will Suit Road Ahead

by Jim Wooten - February 8th, 2008 - Atlanta Journal Consitution

A man who survives torture and five years in a prisoner of war camp most assuredly has the constitution to withstand determined opposition. That opposition comes from unrelenting critics on the left — and from an impatient citizenry grown unaccustomed to the steadfastness required to defeat an often abstract enemy. We are a nation of rationalizers, skeptics and negotiators best defined by Rodney King: “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?”

We should live in terror that the U.S. president sitting across the bargaining table from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or committing to Israel’s security, or confronting the ambitions of Hugo Chavez, is animated by Pollyannish notions that words and good intentions can substitute for power and resolve. We can’t get along if you want to kill us — and we can’t co-exist if the desire translates into deeds.

The second point about McCain’s life experiences is that with the staying power comes the necessity to understand what is being asked of those who will fight America’s war. In the decades since the draft ended, the nation has rested its national defense burden on volunteers. The result is that key gaps exist in the exposure that most Americans have to the military. We honor and support them, but I don’t think we really know them.

The media are torn between whether to treat them all as heroes or as emotionally damaged victims who need our sympathy and considerable therapy. Most are neither.

I’d welcome a president who knows them, who understands without glorifying the mundane, who connects — who knows firsthand how utterly dishonorable it would be to abandon a cause for which good men and women have died. A president who can be their voice to people who don’t really know them, can ensure that they are not strangers whose sacrifices are betrayed to arbitrary timetables and political expediency.

John McCain is a great American patriot. John McCain is also a man with a huge ego who thinks he is better than you and I. There is a well known belief that your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness. If McCain understands that he could be the salvation of our nation at this time of war. If he fails . . .

However with two socialists (one of them totally against America winning this war) as the opposition candidates, John McCain is our only reasonable choice.