By Calvin Palmer
Last night’s edition of Frontline focused on the background of the two presidential candidates. It made for interesting viewing, particularly the change that has come about in John McCain.
Before the presidential campaign got under way, I had enormous respect for McCain. The harrowing pictures of him in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war were part of the reason why I always had a sense of admiration; no one could be failed to be moved by the courage he displayed whilst held in captivity.
The first part of the program also explored his early political career, the time when McCain was a man of honor and principle, qualities usually in short supply when it comes to politicians.
In the 2000 Republican nomination, McCain became the victim of probably one of the most vicious smear campaigns ever mounted against a politician; a smear campaign all the more remarkable and hateful because it came from supporters of the party McCain represents.
While McCain was being beaten and tortured by his captors at the Hanoi Hilton, George W. Bush was doing his “bit” in the Texas Air National Guard and working his way to becoming an alcoholic.
It is plainly clear that McCain was the better man but the South Carolina voters chose to believe the lies and George W. Bush won the primary and it set him on the road to the White House.
It was also during the 2000 nomination campaign that McCain spoke out about the intolerance of the religious right; intolerance that has shaped the Republican Party since the day Ronald Reagan became president.
In a speech made in Virginia, McCain singled out Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as “corrupting influences on religion and politics.”
He said: “The political tactics of division and slander are not our values. They are corrupting influences on religion and politics and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country.”
McCain added: “Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance.”
Those were words that needed to be said and John McCain was probably one of the few people who had the guts to say them. But the characters to whom he referred simply smirked; the bigots knew that they had won.
McCain continued to stick to his principles and was a staunch critic of the Bush administration, voting against tax cuts for the rich and questioning the strategy that was being employed in Iraq. He was still a man to respect.
But after 2004 and the re-election of George W. Bush for a second term, something changed. McCain realized that, as the senior Republican, the time was right to fulfill his dream of becoming president.
McCain’s present campaign criticizes Barack Obama for his blind ambition. McCain has simply gone for naked ambition. He has climbed into bed with all of his former enemies in order to secure the Republican nomination in 2008.
He backtracked on his criticism of Bush, voted for those very same tax cuts he originally opposed and ingratiated himself with Jerry Falwell. And when that wasn’t enough to win over the neo-con element of the Republican Party, he chose the right-wing Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his vice presidential running mate in the hope that it would bring that faction of the party on board.
But what has happened to the John McCain who railed against the political tactics of division and slander, and the definition of the party by agents of intolerance?
The past week saw attack upon attack on the character of Obama, seeking to depict him as a terrorist and not a true American. Those words mainly came out of the mouth of Sarah Palin, I doubt she had the wit to think of them all by herself. But they were sanctioned by McCain until the media seized on the hate and intolerance that was being spewed out on his behalf and the realization sank in that such attacks were not improving McCain’s position in the opinion polls.
It begs the question as to what the McCain of old is doing trying to pander to the very people who destroyed his chance to become president in 2000. Is he really in accord with the people who made up the audience for Sarah Palin at the Richmond International Raceway?
People like Dwayne Schnakenberg, a 40-year-old Navy veteran who said: “Obama and Biden will take this country too far to the left. They’ll take away the freedoms I’ve spent 40 years defending.
Or what about Heather Zimerman, aged 39, a substitute teacher who said: “What turned me off was the way Obama wouldn’t put his hand over his heart for the Pledge of Allegiance or wear a flag pin. I don’t know how you can call yourself an American if you don’t do that.”
“Obama’s smart, articulate and beguiling but his supporters, his inner circle, are radicals who want revolution,” said Billy Benton, aged 55, a realtor.
“I don’t know what Obama was doing in Indonesia all those years – hanging around with Muslim terrorists?” asked Madeleine Willis, aged 60, a retired factory worker.
And before Sarah Palin took the platform, a minister thanked God for McCain and Palin, “exactly the leaders we need in troubled times like these.”
Those remarks by Republican supporters, and the invocation of the Almighty, are not the constituency that the old John McCain represents. It is a tragedy of Faustian proportions that he has sold his soul, not to the devil but to the spirit of Jerry Falwell. Such, it would appear, is McCain’s lust for power.
[Based on reports in the International Herald Tribune and The Times.]
1 Comment
October 26, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Mr. Palmer — I’m sorry you and Frontline feel the need to diss John McCain, because he had to make some adjustments to keep his base of Republicans happy. What was it that you used to respect about him….the fact that he made some Libs gleeful, because he was giving his own party problems? Who do you think is going to vote for him…you all in the media…or the Democrats? Give me a break! If he did not modify some of his positions (running as a Republican), you would be deriding him for being “politically stupid.” How about you all getting on the game field to run for office….instead of sitting in stands booing and criticizing a man does already had a long and distinguished career….but wants to keep serving to put his country first?