The McCain I Didn't Know

Last night was a revelation for me. As I watched John McCain's acceptance speech, I expected to hear the same tired format as every other politician's speech - I support this, I support that, I'm against this, I'm against that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. After the truly exciting and energizing speech by Sarah Palin the night before, my expectations for Sen. McCain's speech were not especially high.

Sen. McCain did follow some of that format last night, stating his positions on some of the key issues without getting too 'down-in-the-weeds' with details of how he intended to accomplish his solutions - nothing wrong with that since the other side followed the same format as well. The campaign trail and the debates are the arenas where that is best laid out anyway.

I knew about McCain's maverick image and his reaching across the aisle to build bipartisan support to move legislation forward in the Senate. For the most part, this has always been one of my pet-peeves with Sen. McCain and I really didn't need to be reminded of what I had always considered a flaw. But apparently, John McCain was going somewhere with it last night and I didn't know where.

Clearly, Gov. Palin is McCain's glue to bring in the conservative base that his bipartisan efforts had alienated over the years, so it was perhaps no surprise then that McCain was touting his bipartisanship in his speech to appeal to the undecided voters out there. Perhaps that is where McCain was taking us in this speech.

There had also been the reminders of McCain's close association to Ronald Reagan earlier in the convention week and his part in the Reagan Revolution. No surprise there since Reagan is still the standard by which all true conservatives should be measured but based on McCain's voting record and public statements, he's not a true conservative and no Ronald Reagan.

I was excited that he emphasized education as the 21st century's civil rights issue because I had not heard any of his positions on education and I liked what I heard last night. School choice is the only remedy for failing school systems as competition breeds excellence in all things. Democrats always fail to see the value of competition because they choose to elevate those that don't attempt to compete.

I was also excited by McCain's promise that if elected, he would appoint judges and justices that are not activists and won't legislate from the bench. Most people don't understand that the most enduring legacy of any presidency is the judicial appointments of that presidency and impacts the direction of our nation well beyond any administration. I know what kind of judicial appointments Obama will make and his would cripple our nation forever.

All week, McCain's ordeal as a POW was recounted. I knew the story but not all of the details so it was enlightening. I had always recognized McCain as a true war hero but that alone isn't enough to get my vote. Prior to his selection of Sarah Palin as veep, he didn't have my vote. If not for Sarah, I might not have even watched this convention.

What I had never heard was John McCain recount first-hand his time as a POW but last night he did. He explained how John McCain became the man he is today and explained what makes John McCain the type of politician he is. I finally get it. McCain described himself as a cocky, self-centered fighter jock until his tortuous transformation in captivity. Every account I had ever heard by others of McCain's captivity touted the fact that the North Vietnamese never broke him. But McCain admitted last night, they had. It what way they had broken McCain really doesn't matter. What matters is the transformation that followed.

I can't rephrase it any better than McCain stated it last night, so here is what he said:

A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did. I'd been mistreated before, but not as badly as others. I always liked to strut a little after I'd been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before. For a long time. And they broke me. When they brought me back to my cell, I was hurt and ashamed, and I didn't know how I could face my fellow prisoners. The good man in the cell next door, my friend, Bob Craner, saved me. Through taps on a wall he told me I had fought as hard as I could. No man can always stand alone. And then he told me to get back up and fight again for our country and for the men I had the honor to serve with. Because every day they fought for me. I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's.

I finally get it. I believe we all go through a transformation in our lives that either evolves slowly over time, or, because of some traumatic event, nearly instantaneously, we gain a deeper appreciation than we ever thought possible for our country, our friends, our families, our spouses, our children.

John McCain has worked with both sides of the aisle because he is an American first and a Republican second. If the only way to get the job done for the people of this nation is to reach across the aisle and anger his own party then that's what he's going to do. McCain hasn't been a maverick for the sake of being a maverick or for self-promotion. He's done it because he believed that it was the right thing to do for his country. And I can certainly appreciate that.

I had already decided to vote Sen. McCain because of Sarah Palin but John McCain made a pitch to me last night that made me realize that Sarah isn't the only reason for me to vote for the Senator. I only wish he had done it sooner so I could have avoided months of anguish over November.

But maybe that anguish was necessary to realize what we have here. Well done, Senator and future President-elect!