A Maverick Undaunted

After attracting intense criticism from the Left for delivering a speech in the black heart of theocratic America - Jerry Falwell University - Senator John McCain (R-AZ) went to the The New School graduation ceremony in New York City - a bastion of urbane East-coast quasi-socialism - and delivered the exact same speech. Before we examine the reaction, let's look at a small sampling of his remarks (although I strongly urge you read the whole thing):

Americans should argue about this war. It has cost the lives of nearly 2500 of the best of us. It has taken innocent life. It has imposed an enormous financial burden on our economy. At a minimum, it has complicated our ability to respond to other looming threats. Should we lose this war, our defeat will further destabilize an already volatile and dangerous region, strengthen the threat of terrorism, and unleash furies that will assail us for a very long time. I believe the benefits of success will justify the costs and risks we have incurred. But if an American feels the decision was unwise, then they should state their opposition, and argue for another course. It is your right and your obligation. I respect you for it. I would not respect you if you chose to ignore such an important responsibility. But I ask that you consider the possibility that I, too, am trying to meet my responsibilities, to follow my conscience, to do my duty as best as I can, as God has given me light to see that duty.

...

All lives are a struggle against selfishness. All my life I’ve stood a little apart from institutions I willingly joined. It just felt natural to me. But if my life had shared no common purpose, it would not have amounted to much more than eccentricity. There is no honor or happiness in just being strong enough to be left alone. I have spent nearly fifty years in the service of this country and its ideals. I have made many mistakes, and I have many regrets. But I have never lived a day, in good times or bad, that I wasn’t grateful for the privilege. That’s the benefit of service to a country that is an idea and a cause, a righteous idea and cause. America and her ideals helped spare me from the weaknesses in my own character. And I cannot forget it.

Now we can certainly debate McCain's allegiances. To some liberals - who mysteriously expect something different, given his party affiliation - he is yet another dastardly conservative eager to "impose America" on people who, I guess, seek to pursue their vendetta against the West. To others he is a lily-livered Republican-in-name-only who maddeningly defies party solidarity because he either A) Actually has his own principles, or B) Is a pandering opportunist with a media-driven ego complex. But all parties should agree, especially in light of the Falwell/New School double suckerpunch - the man is a shrewd, shrewd politician.

But I would be remiss if I didn't highlight the crowd reaction from the students at Madison Square Garden today. According to a correspondent for NRO's rightie blog The Corner:

“I supported the war in Iraq.” Boos. Explains the war was not for cheap oil. A little heckling: “You're full of it!” Says he thought the “country's interest and values demanded” the war. Someone shouts: “Wrongly!” Someone else: “More poetry!” (A reference to lines from Yeats McCain had quoted earlier.)

He says “whether [the war] was necessary or not...we all should shed a tear” for those who have sacrificed in it. Some hissing. Shouting.

He eventually enters into a Bushian rift: “All people share the desire to be free”; “human rights are above the state and beyond history”; we are “insisting that all people have the right to be free.” Someone shouts: “We're graduating, not voting!” Lots of derisive shouts and laughter and applause.

As McCain continues with a personal story, a student shouts: “It's about my life, not yours.” McCain: “When I was a young man, I thought glory was the highest value...” Groans from the students. “It's not about you!” “Sit down!”

The shocking juxtaposition behind McCain's call for civility (and civil service) and the response of the graduating student body might go down in history as one of the most exquisite plays in rhetoric and politics. Another post at NRO suggests that to win the Right "one of his challenges is to get hated by the right people" - and he certainly did that today in the heart of Blue America. But he did it not because of anything he said explicitly, but for the simple reason that he smelled faintly like fundamentalism from his recent travels.

As a convenience to readers Spacetropic usually steers clear of partisanship, but as we edge closer to 2008 this policy may shift. Unless something radically changes I'm afraid to say that I expect to be working, in any capacity they will have me, on the McCain campaign for president.

“It's about my life, not yours.”

Priceless.