Great AP Photo!
The resentment produced by sincerity, whatever be its immediate cause, is so certain, and generally so keen, that very few have magnanimity sufficient for the practice of a duty, which above most others exposes its votaries to hardships and persecutions; yet friendship without it is of very little value, since the great use of so close an intimacy is, that our virtues may be guarded and encouraged, and our vices repressed in their first appearance by timely detection and salutary remonstrances."
Johnson: Rambler #40 (August 4, 1750)
Samuel Johnson - the 18th Century genius and Patriot would have loved John McCain!
No political candidate took more hits than John McCain over his support of the Iraq War on Islamist terror and especially for his championing Immigration Reform.
REDSTATE, a GOP Blog site was larded with Anit-McCain Acid Tossings all through the late Spring, Summer and Fall of 2007, but John McCain withstood the tangy taunts like he did his North Vietnamese captors - with humor and self-deprecating Honesty.
Who else would refer to the Arizona retirement community of Leisure World as "Seizure World," as he did in his first Senate campaign? Just for fun, out loud? He couldn't help himself. (He won anyway.)
Consider McCain's life as a series of impolitic one-liners, each one illuminating complex threads of the past.
He's had a line for everything and everyone — those he tormented at the Naval Academy as a n'er-do-well midshipman, those who tortured him in Vietnam, his legion of friends and foes in the capital, the "little jerks" he ribbed in a campaign crowd, an "idiot" reporter, his own ego and, these days, his advancing age — 70.
McCain, "the Punk" in high school, has plenty of targets and none more tempting than himself.
It's a quality that sets him apart in the carefully staged presidential race, a replay of sorts of his Navy academy daze. Then as now, McCain verged on flunking out but pulled himself together in the nick of time. He's gone from chump to hero before, and he's trying again.
Calvin, He don't 'Try' - He Do!
Read Calvin Woodward's wonderful piece linked to my Post Title. Every American should give this great American some serious study and committed support.
