The American Spectator : Empire State Holdouts

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Empire State Holdouts

By John A. Barnes on 11.3.08 @ 6:07AM

Veterans for McCain rally in a most unlikely place.

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But men who have faced enemy fire won't be so easily brushed aside. Mark Moody, a Mississippi-born Bronx resident who walks with a cane due to the injuries he sustained leading an Army platoon in Iraq in 2005, moves immediately to interpose his bulk between the Obama supporters and the cameras. He is joined quickly by several other veterans. Realizing that knocking an injured war veteran to the ground might not be the best publicity, the Obama supporters give up and slink off.

The rally was capped by a man who has known John McCain longer than anyone else in attendance. More than forty years after his F-4 Phantom was downed over North Vietnam, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Barry Bridger still looks fit enough to climb back into the cockpit and fly again. He met McCain when he found himself confined in the next cell after they and 34 other prisoners were removed from the Hanoi Hilton and isolated in a separate prison because they were "troublemakers."

"John McCain showed up at the Hanoi Hilton with a broken leg, two broken arms, a broken shoulder and a bad attitude," he recalls. But McCain also brought with him, Bridger says, "the values of his ancestors. And those values were what brought him and the rest of us through. And those values are embedded in the DNA of every American."

Does he think that the sacrifices he and other veterans made are still held in the same esteem as they once were in this country?

He thinks for a moment.

"The country has changed a lot since Vietnam," he says. "A 'politically correct' mindset has taken hold in a lot of areas since then. We didn't have that back in Hanoi. We couldn't have afforded it."

Page: < 12

topics:
Election 2008, Foreign Policy, John McCain

About the Author

John A. Barnes is a writer living in New York.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (17) | Leave a comment

Appleby| 11.3.08 @ 6:32AM

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate and tireless minority keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."

Sam Adams

Grissie| 11.3.08 @ 8:11AM

The 2008 Election has made one fact totally clear. Millions of the masses have no idea what their actually voting for. It is not the man in this volatile appointment, it is the substance of his belief in our Constitution, freedom and liberty at stake.
From Veterans I would expect nothing less than support for John McCain. This happens to be what is so disturbing about the voting issues from the battlefields of Iraq. Who was the genius that thought of "notorized ballots" from deployed troops in battle. Almost as ridiculous as Obamas qualifications for Presidency.
It is no secret or surprise that 70% of the military will vote for McCain the Patriot. He is one of them. Obama has no connection whatsoever with any facet of Patriotism although he uses the term often with great frivolity. The Freedom and Liberty battle rages here at home as on the foriegn battlefields. We must all be Patriots urgently to halt this manuervering of the blatant march to Socialism and possibly much worse.

Tom Paine| 11.3.08 @ 9:15AM

Vets voting for McCain -- anywhere -- is not so surprising. McCain is a war hero.

A truly interesting story, however, is just how many vets are voting for and contributing to Obama.

McCain will carry the military vote, I'm sure, but the final count will not be nearly as one-sided as chicken hawks honking and braying from sidelines would have you believe.

Senior Chief| 11.3.08 @ 9:58AM

You can bet that this military vet will be voting for McCain. Like many vets, I'm under no delusions that the enemies of this great republic will simply fade away once Obama is placed in office. We need a strong Commander-In-Chief to stand firm against our adversaries who I am sure, are already plotting their next confrontation with the United States. We need the proven leadership & tenacity of McCain to stand up to them.

Tom Paine| 11.3.08 @ 10:24AM

Senior Chief --

No doubt you have a good man to vote for in John McCain.

I think, however, you're going to be surprised by a) the numbers of soldiers voting for Obama; and b) the strength and resolve of Obama as commander in chief.

You may buy into the stereotypes and cliches about Democrats for now. Mark my words. I've rarely seen a more aggressive, stalwart presidential candidate than Obama.

I think you'll find he wins the respect of brass early on (he knows he needs to) and does not hesitate to use the military when necessary.

Depend upon it. Obama is no Bill Clinton. You can say what you want now. Let's see what you think in a year or two.

michelle White| 11.3.08 @ 10:31AM

i like this website
it gives alot of imfo and i'm going to show it to my fellow citizians! :)
thank you for beening there for McCain!
you are a great help to the republican party && i;m suppoting you all the way! :)
so thanks

Karin| 11.3.08 @ 10:36AM

Tom Paine, your post elicited a snort-laugh from me. Strength and resolve as a commander in chief? Please, this kittenish dove knows nothing about matters military. He is unfit to command by any vetting criteria.

As to New York state, I live here. There is much more to New York than NYC. I had a discussion with some friends over the weekend, and they are resolved to vote McCain. Why? Military issues. Mine were economic and constitutional issues. There are about a million reasons not to vote for this Marxist baby killer and his loathsome running mate. Pick one, any one.

Senior Chief| 11.3.08 @ 12:21PM

Tom Paine, Stereotypes and cliches have nothing to do with it. I just doubt that a man that has voted mostly 'present' for most of his political career, has the intestinal fortitude to stand up to our enemies around the globe.

Pat P| 11.3.08 @ 1:21PM

"If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." -

Abraham Lincoln

Pat P| 11.3.08 @ 1:33PM

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within . . . For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation . . . he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”

— Cicero

Tom Paine| 11.3.08 @ 2:20PM

Karin --

Calling Obama a "Marxist baby killer" is foolish. You should try to grow up.

Senior Chief --

I know it's endlessly repeated on talk radio that Obama is somehow "soft," but I think you'll find he's not. He did vote "present" -- while making his way to the top of the toughest political environment in the country. He defeated the Clintons, and soon he will have defeated Rove. He's tough. Believe it.

Or don't. It doesn't matter. He's going to win. You guys can try again in four years. And who knows, maybe Rev. Wright or Gay Marriage will work in '12.

It could be, however, that the country is passing you by.

Republicans should fear becoming a regional party. If you want to be the John Bircher party, go right ahead. But it won't be good for Republicans in the end.

Senior Chief| 11.3.08 @ 4:38PM

Tom Paine, I hate to bust your bubble there shipmate, but I don't get my opinions fed to me by talk radio. In fact I have little or no time to listen to it. The 'John Bircher' comment was funny. You and the folks you represent have no clue. The fact that you had to resort to a personal attack indicates to me that the point I made must have struck a nerve.

Larry| 11.3.08 @ 6:31PM

I find it amusing that the correspondents are debating Obama's "resolve" as commander in chief; Obama's flip-flopping of positions on a number of issues does not assure one who is looking for something approaching "resolve."
Yes, Obama will not be like Bill Clinton; the Obama presidency will much more likely take on the aura of indecisiveness of Jimmy Carter, who plunged our military as well as our foreign policy into disaster and decline during his one-term presidency. One can only hope that an Obama presidency would resemble that of Jimmy Carter, instead of something dramatically worse.

Tom Paine| 11.3.08 @ 8:14PM

Senior Chief --

I don't think I was all that insulting, but I refuse to sit still while Democrats are repeatedly accused of favoring the enemies of this country or sympathizing with terrorists.

Tens of thousands of ballots are pouring in from soldiers over seas in support of Obama, and yet people on the right cannot find their way to have a simple debate about policy. Instead, we hear that Obama (and his supporters) are Anti-American, socialists, terrorists -- and so on. And I'm sick of it.

Let me explain something to you and the fourteen other people who read this.

JFK was murdered by a scum-bag very heavily involved with communism. His brother RFK was murdered by an Islamic terrorism. These are the two most significant events in our party's history. We don't need you or Sara Palin or anyone else to tell us who this county's enemies are, and frankly, the party of Wilson and Roosevelt has a far better history fighting wars than the party of Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes.

But no hard feelings, comrade, we'll all be OK.

Denise| 11.3.08 @ 10:44PM

To Tom Paine: So, what DO you call a man who advocates "spreading the wealth" and votes 4 times in the Illinois State Senate to let living, breathing little human beings who survived their own attempted murders--sorry, "induced-labor abortions" (the nerve!) be shelved in closets till they die?

Tom Paine| 11.4.08 @ 8:27AM

Denise --

The late term abortion argument is too complicated to get into, but actually I oppose late term abortion.

The "spreading the wealth around" issue is the lamest excuse for a political argument I've ever seen.

ALL progressive taxation "spreads wealth around." In fact, all taxation spreads wealth around. Think about it, Denise.

If you believe that all taxation is a form of socialism, fine.

Obama proposes to CUT taxes for the middle class and restore tax rates for the wealthiest five percent of the country to the rates of 1990s, when we enjoyed the fastest, longest economic growth in modern history.

His tax rates on the wealthiest people are LOWER than they were when Ronald Reagan left office.

So don't give me this nonsense about marxism or socialism. It only works with low-information voters.