FAITH OF MY FATHERS
Anyone who reads my columns, or hears me on the radio, or knows me, or lives near me, or who has stood in line with me at the grocery store, knows who I've been cheerleading for in the upcoming election. With the New Hampshire primary just around the corner on January 8th, I thought I would use this week's column as my last chant for John McCain. It has been a blitz of a weekend up here and I saw him yesterday at one of his now-famous Town Hall Meetings in Merrimack, New Hampshire. It was last March that I attended his first stop in New Hampshire with a crowd of seventy-five or a hundred, and as his campaign kicked off, he almost immediately assumed front-runner status.
Then, something happened. Rumors of campaign-mismanagement, lack-luster fund raising and an imploding campaign were afloat. The emotion-saturated immigration issue enveloped McCain like a black cloud, and the far-right ideologues hammered him as a traitor offering "amnesty" to illegals. There was no discernable rationale in the country's conversation regarding this issue. Even amongst close friends, I found the subject to be too hot to handle. I spoke with many folks who supported McCain in 2000, but were so disheartened by his position on immigration that they were no longer retrievable. I tried countless times to talk some sense into people, the argument that legislation is always rife with compromise, that it was a starting point. But many people seemed content, indeed eager, to label the Arizona Senator as the villain. As though he himself had snuck out at night and opened our borders. That it was not, after all, the entire nation that had turned a blind eye towards a festering national sore, as though it would go away by itself. Under the weight of all this, and with the buzz of Fred Thompson announcing and the expectation that he, or Romney, or Rudy, would walk away with the nomination.
Then, something happened. Actually, a lot of things happened almost at once. Romney's mask began to melt away under the scrutiny of the campaign spotlight. The chronic flipping, the propensity for exaggeration, the positions he has had, matters of public record, that are contrary to those he has today. And last week, the crown jewel..."I saw my father march with Martin Luther King...", followed by instructions to New Hampshire voters to "get out their dictionaries" and look up the word "saw". Bye Bye, Mitt. Giuliani left the state without tipping, on is way to work on his tan. Thompson announced yesterday on national television that he's "not that interested" in running for President. I've been waiting for Rod Serling to step out from behind a curtain. Suddenly, on the heels of the Union Leader endorsement, McCain was looking real again. Really real.
As of this morning, when the Nashua Telegraph endorsed McCain, he had 26 of the 27 newspapers in this state. I hate to say I told you so, but I am on record at two radio stations and several letters to editors, saying McCain would not drop out and that he would stage a miraculous comeback. I am proud of my prediction, though it wasn't really a prediction at all. I knew it. I knew he would traverse this state on a bicycle if necessary with a cup full of coins. He wants...no, he needs to save this country. His love for it is that deep. I won't bore you with the now-well-known details of his military career and time as a prisoner of war. I have read his books and there is so much more to him than that. He is the man we who embodies all those qualities we ask our children to inherit. Loyalty. To friends, to family, to country. Honor. To friends, to family, to country. Dignity, character and honesty to friends, family and country. Honesty, even when it hurts, and service to a cause greater than yourself.
He is the last of a breed. An American icon. Most importantly, like the title of his first book which should be mandatory reading for every American, he will carry the Faith of Our Fathers to Washington D.C. and restore the honor and dignity to a country which has paid so dearly for it.