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!

Don't Give Up - We're Behind You, Sarah!

Another day and another news cycle of vicious attacks against Sarah Palin and her family. The leftist media has no moral compass nor ethics whatsoever. The same slimebags that defended Bill Clinton for having an extramarital affair with an employee are lambasting Gov. Palin for her daughter's pregnancy.

I could tell on Friday that the liberal mainstream media was scared to death at what McCain had unleashed upon Obama's ascension to the presidency. The initial response from Obama's campaign immediately attacked Gov. Palin's experience, which is fair game since that is political. But shortly thereafter, the left went pouring into tiny Wasilla looking for dirt.

Instead of real journalism and real fact-finding, these derelicts began concocting a story that Gov. Palin's 16 year old daughter was really the mother of Gov. Palin's baby born in April and that the governor claimed it was her own to hide her daughter's pregnancy. It was already posted on the internet over the holiday weekend by the Daily Kos as if it were fact.

Now, since Monday's revelation by the Palin family that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant and engaged to the father of the teen's unborn child, the left has turned its attack machine on to Bristol Palin. This teenage girl didn't ask to be put in this spotlight and yet the liberal media has abused her for political gain. If there ever was a case of abuse of freedom of the press, this is it. Despite Sen. Obama's statement yesterday that the families of candidates, particularly the children, should be off-limits, the attacks continue.

Most people in Sarah Palin's shoes would probably say enough is enough and turn tail. And I wouldn't blame Gov. Palin for a moment for doing so, knowing the pain that these yellow journalists are inflicting on this family. But I want Sarah Palin and her family to know this - we conservatives back her completely. She has a record as a fighter and a fighter for what is right regardless of the odds. She didn't back down from big oil, from the Alaskan Republican Party, and she sure as hell isn't going to back down from the spineless leftist media.

I urge everyone to write to the editor of your local paper and tell them that you're mad as hell about the media's double standards and their treatment of Sarah Palin and her family and you're not going to take it anymore! Tell them you're sick of the media falling over itself defending the likes of a president caught with his pants down with a subordinate but viciously attacking a pregnant teenager. You're tired of the media making up stories to defend the actions of the Bill Clintons, the Jesse Jacksons, the Ted Kennedys, et al. What does Bristol Palin have to do with the presidential race? If Ted Kennedy murdering a girl in his car has no bearing on his being a Senator, or Bill Clinton's pecadilloes are a private matter, why is Bristol Palin's pregnancy a political issue in this campaign?

Furthermore, in case you missed it on the nightly news (because it wasn't broadcast), the DNC leaked the opposition research documents on Sarah Palin, just like they did on Michael Steele, to the media. So Gov. Palin's home phone number and social security number are out there and available to anyone wanting to steal her personal information. Where does this end? No one was ever charged or convicted when the Dems did this Steele. No one will likely be charged or convicted as a result of this illegal disclosure.

Gov. Palin, the only reason the Democrats and their tasteless minions in the media are doing this to you is that they are scared to death by you. Before you were announced as the VP on McCain's ticket, they knew that Barack Obama was going to get elected this November. That's been plain for months now. But they never counted on facing a strong, conservative woman with a track record of reform and executive experience.

They know that there are some women out there that will vote for you simply because you are a woman just like there are certain constituencies out there that will vote for Obama simply because he is black and some constituencies that will not vote for Obama simply because he is black. That's the nature of this political beast and that will never change. But young women and young moms typically vote Democratic because of the perception that Democrats are the party of women. And in this election, it just isn't so.

Whether Hillary Clinton should have been selected as Obama's running mate is moot because she wasn't and there are alot of women out there that probably still would have voted for Obama had you not showed up on the McCain ticket. The reality is that those women, who are not issue-driven voters, will vote for McCain-Palin in November. Glad to have them on board.

The most frightening thing for the Obama campaign and the leftist media is that you are much more than the former beauty queen from Alaska. You have energized the conservative base of the Republican Party in ways that Sen. McCain could never do alone. Obama was counting on not just a huge turnout from his base constituency in November - he was counting on the conservative base to stay home in November. And that base would likely not have shown up this November if not for you.

If it sounds like I'm pleading a case, I am. I'm asking you, Sarah Palin, to continue to be the bare-knuckled fighter you have been your entire career and not let the onslaught of the Left upon you and your family wear you down and make you quit. That's why the Left is attacking you so hard - because you are the game-changer - you are their worst nightmare.

Sarah, I've got your back. To steal a line from our favorite band, Van Halen, "Come baby, finish what ya started!"