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Is John McCain a once in a lifetime politician?

I came to know about John McCain in 2000 and have been following his political career since. Let me also say that I supported Gore in 2000 and Kerry (who later turned out to be rather disappointing) in 2004.

The one thing that always made McCain stand out from other politicians is his willingness to do what he considered the "right thing" at the cost of damage to his political career. Here are a few examples:

1) In 2004 he opposed a federal ban on gay marriage.
Why? He said it was not something for the federal government to be involved in.
Impact? Lost support of an important part of the Republican primary voters.

2) In 2007 he teamed up with Kennedy to write an immigration bill.
Why? He said that the reality of the situation is that illegal immigrants would not be expelled, instead stricter border controls were needed.
Imapct? Besides the Clintons, Kennedy is probably the least popular liberal politician for many Republican primary voters. McCain's probablity of winning the nomination fell to a low of 6% on intrade.com

3) 2005 onwards McCain was the leading opponent of torture in the Senate.
Why? Torture is not worthy of America.
Impact? It was seen as going against Bush/Cheney's position on the matter.

4) Change? You want REAL CHANGE? Washington has long been seen as a place where lobbyists and politicians form "mutually beneficial" relationships with each other at the cost of the ordinary citizens. The most important legislation that tried to break the corrupt relationships was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA, McCain�Feingold Act, Pub.L. 107-155, 116 Stat. 81, enacted 2002-03-27).
Impact? As Feingold put it, the bill made both McCain and Feingold so unpopular with their fellow legislators, that they only could lunch with each other.

5) The Iraq Surge. When the Democrats were trying to cut off funding for Iraq in 2007, and supporters of continuing the war were hedging their positions, McCain clearly came out in support of the surge. Why? McCain said that losing the war would create chaos in the mid-East and prove costly to America. As he said "I would rather lose a campaign than lose a war". Impact? In 2007 the surge was quite against the public sentiment.

6) And of course his refusal to end his captivity early, an offer the Viet Cong made to an admiral's son.
Why? He wanted same treatment as his fellow captives.
Impact? Continued captivity.

Many of my friends support Obama. I asked them "Can you show me something similar Obama has done something at a personal/political cost?" After much thinking they offered me two instances:

1) Obama worked as a "community organizer". I don't buy this. Obama rose rapidly from "community organizer" to state legislator, to federal senator to one of the younges nominees for President. "Community organizer" seems to have been part of this rapid ascent.

2) Obama opposed the Iraq war. While I believe that the Iraq war was wrong, I don't think Obama's opposition carried any cost to him given that the sentiment in his liberal district was heavily against the war (unlike, say Clinton's state).

McCain is the one politician I expect to tell me the truth. He is a once in a lifetime politician, someone who can inspire by his character and courage.

I don't agree with many of his positions, but I don't expect there is any politician out there who is in perfect harmony with my views.

I believe that the economy is the most important issue facing the country. McCain has been getting a lot of flak for saying he doesn't know much about the economy. That is just further evidence about his honesty. No politician is an economics expert. Rather their job is to hire the right experts for the job. The federal deficit needs to be brought under control. When McCain says he will cut spending and curb the deficit, he is the one I believe. He will be the one who will hire the experts to get the job done.

There is a record amount of money that is going to be spent of TV advertisements attacking McCain, more than has ever been spent ($250+ million). A common refrain is "He used to be good, now he has gone bad". Of course that is what the opponents are going to say, as McCain's past is clearly good. A 72 year old man doesn't become something different from what he was for the first 71 years. He is still the same McCain.

Disillusionment with politicians is an almost permanent feature of politics. McCain represents an opportunity of a lifetime to break out of this morass of disillusionment and cynicism.

Character and courage are the rarest of politicians' virtues, and McCain is that rarity.

JN

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