Having acknowledged that I
misquoted the exact words of Sen. McCain during a bloggers'
call yesterday, I now turn the focus away from me and back to
McCain, where it belongs. (I write as a nervous but strong
supporter of his campaign this fall.) Sen. McCain utterly deludes
himself if he thinks, as he said in the call, that is is always
respectful of his critics on the right. This is important.
Self-awareness (as opposed to self-centeredness) is always
important in a leader. A leader who is not aware of his effect on
others, or who deludes himself about his own words and actions, is
asking for trouble. And it is incontrovertible that McCain has
lashed out with particular scorn and anger at those to his right.
He called immigration opponents "nativists" and raised the
Jim-Crow-like specter (withOUT using those two words) of those
opponents acting like they wanted immigrants to stay at the back of
the bus. He famously went way overboard in 2000 in taking what
should have been a pointed push-back against overly harsh words
from Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell into a full-fledged attack on
the whole religious right. He accused Mitt Romney of insulting our
troops and (tacitly) of being on the wrong end of serving "for
patriotism, not for profit." (Somebody please tell McCain that the
profit motive is not a bad thing, because he often acts as if the
only people with the right to a profit motive are those who own
beer distributorships.)
In arguing against the left, he says they are wrong and that he
will gladly debate them on it -- and then he does debate them,
strongly and sometimes fiercely. In arguing against the right, he
says that not only are we wrong but that "there is no debate" -- as
in his most recent jeremiad about global warning. We are not,
therefore, just mistaken, but not even worth respecting with
reasoned argument, according to McCain. (Another example: When
discussing ANWR, he doesn't discuss and debate, but shuts off all
debate by repeating that "it's pristine, it's pristine." And
therefore, it's not even worth discussing.)
His insult to the CPAC 2007 has been well reported. His
expletive-laced tirade at Sen. John Cornyn has been well reported.
His profanity-laced tirades at other GOP senators have been well
reported. He refused to shake the hand of Federal Election
Commission opponent Bradley Smith, and refused to apologize for his
slight, in so doing accusing Smith of repeatedly impugning his own
integrity -- without giving evidence thereof.
And so on and so on. The point is that this tendency of his is a
huge barrier to full-fledged conservative support for his campaign.
I asked a respetful question yesterday, a constructive question. A
candidate with grace would have said that he did not intend ever to
be disrespectful, that sometimes he knows he gets passionate and
that sometime it can come across wrong, that he has always
acknowledged he won't win any "Miss Congeniality" contests but that
he wants to take this opportunity to pledge that he will always TRY
to be respectful and to listen, and that if he fails, he is only
human and will try to do better next time.... or SOMETHING like
that. The fact is that when the standard-bearer of the more
conservative party says that his conservative critics on
immigration are "nativists," it stings.
John McCain has many strengths. A lack of sanctimony is not one
of them. He will do well not to deny the obvious truth that he
tends to bristle rather too easily against fellow conservatives,
and instead to take the opportunity to show real grace -- on the
spot, not as a canned campaign line -- by reaching out,
acknowledging past dust-ups, and re-stating his regard for those on
the right who disagree with him.
My question yesterday was actually intended as a chance for him
to show such unscripted grace. When asked, in follow-up, to provide
examples, I screwed up with a misquotation. But that doesn't let
this good man, John McCain, off the hook for the underlying premise
of the question, or for his lack of grace in refusing to
acknowledge any truth to it whatsoever.
topics:
John McCain, NATO, Immigration
