Posted: Tuesday, 22 July 2008 10:11AM
I Can Live With McCain
Steve Corbett Reporting
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
First and foremost in my mind, Sen. John McCain will always be a former POW in North Vietnam. Much, if not most, of what he is today took root each time he crawled out of that prison cell in Hanoi.
Bent but not broken, McCain is above all a survivor.
Love him or leave him, the Republican senator from Arizona carries those survival skills into his campaign for the presidency.
But McCain is much more than the cracked parts left over after America’s least popular war.
McCain might be America’s most influential member of the Senate. And he appeals as much to Democrats and independents as he does to Republicans – maybe even more to those who do not carry the banner of the GOP.
Once a strong supporter of former President Ronald Reagan, McCain’s conservative appeal takes in the blue-collar Democrats upon whom he might depend to push him over the top in Pennsylvania and into the White House.
His demand for “reform” attracts independents and many Democrats who are frustrated by traditional party Democrats like John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and even Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
Sen. Hillary Clinton’s supporters understand how Kerry, Kennedy and Dean wield the typical backroom political power that turns off countless Americans and betrayed Hillary and her army.
This mad triumvirate now hoists Barack Obama on their shoulders and carries him as the slick savior who will do their bidding.
McCain can easily see through this ruse as can those who now consider voting for McCain, a man whom his captors once counted out.
Who will do the people’s bidding?
That question will accompany McCain to Wilkes-Barre tomorrow morning as he takes the stage at the F.M. Kirby Center for a town hall meeting. That question will follow him around Northeastern Pennsylvania as he decides how best to appeal to the hardscrabble voters in a state with a history of oppression by robber baron captors who once left them for dead.
But the hard men and women of the coal region survived.
Their descendents will now decide the presidency. As I’ve said from the beginning, if you come through here, you come through us. The White House depends on Pennsylvania’s coal fields.
McCain needs to know just how important we are to his aspirations.
Like his colleagues in the Hanoi Hilton, we can help keep his dream alive.
As a Democrat and strong Hillary supporter, I now ponder my next move. I will not vote for McCain but will understand if many of my friends in the party endorse him for the presidency.
If McCain wins - and I believe he might - I can live with him as the commander-in-chief.
I do not fear his appointments to the Supreme Court because Democrats in Congress will have to rise to the challenge and stop them. If they fail, it’s their fault, not mine.
I refuse to take the rap for an Obama loss.
My conscience is clean, clear and ready to rumble.
The Democrats can stick their concept of party unity.
Like McCain, I, too, am a maverick.
I hope to speak with McCain either in person tomorrow or on “Corbett” tomorrow afternoon.
Today we’ll talk about his strategy to win support in Northeastern Pennsylvania and why people like what he represents even if they don’t agree with all his public policy positions.
McCain wields terrific power in the Senate. He is a longtime bipartisan bridge builder upon whom the most senior senators regularly depend.
If he’s good enough for them, he’s good enough for many Pennsylvanians.
Just one piece of advice for now, John: Lose the baseball cap. You look like you’re dressing up for Halloween as Jerry Mathers on “Leave it to Beaver.”
Treat us.
Don’t trick us.
Bamboozler Barack is already in costume - a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a prisoner of his own deception.
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