Brian Chatwin
Staff Writer
Sometimes it’s better to be a statesman than a president. A statesman sacrifices short term political gain for the good of the country. As John McCain stares into the mirror every morning, he should be thinking that he can be a better statesman than a president.
McCain thinks he should be the next president. He thinks the country owes him. It was McCain who served his country and fought in the Vietnam War. It was McCain who endured five-and-a-half years of torture in North Vietnam while President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara huddled together, wrongly trying to justify reasons for not invading Hanoi.
It was McCain who was beaten with rubber hoses, strung up on a strappado, which hangs a person from a rope tied to the wrists, and left for dead in the Hanoi Hilton. It was McCain who came back, got elected to office, and has served his country. Now he wants to be your president. He thinks you owe him that. He thinks he has earned it.
McCain missed his opportunity. His chance was in 2000, but he was unorganized, testy and usually off-message. I worked for him during the 2000 campaign and saw first hand how mismanaged his team was. Against the famous Barbara Bush fundraising Rolodex, McCain had no shot.
Even though he was the popular “maverick,” in today’s political environment, popularity is not enough. You have to be polished, organized, and able to raise millions of dollars a week. With the McCain 2000 campaign, money trickled into the coffers, when it needed to overflow them.
Now he is back. He is older, slower, testier (if that is possible) and has an unusual growth on the side of his face, which is the result of his struggle with melanoma. He looks like he doesn’t want to be onstage but is going through the motions because he knows he must. The spring in his step, the one he had during the 2000 campaign, is gone. Quite frankly, he looks old and tired.
Indeed he is old and tired. McCain will be the second oldest president to take office if he wins in 2008 at the ripe old age of 71. It is unclear if McCain will be able to stand up to the long days and constant travel that presidential hopefuls endure during a campaign. He is already trailing in the polls behind the popular Giuliani and is threatened from the third place candidate Romney who is well funded, younger and more energetic.
One slip (politically or in the tub old-man-style) could find McCain out of the race for good.
But that’s not such a bad thing. McCain should consider the possibility of being the leading American statesman. As great presidents are rare in this country so are great statesmen. Thinking back on the 20th century, you only can name Henry Cabot Lodge and Henry Jackson as great statesmen. McCain could join these great men.
McCain has proven himself as a war hero, but he is more than that. He is someone who has crossed the political aisle to sponsor legislation with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. He has openly opposed Donald Rumsfeld, much to the chagrin of President Bush. He has looked at this country from the 10,000 ft in the air statesman perspective and fought for everything from campaign finance reform, to steroid legislation, to Iraq. He truly is an asset to this country but not as president.
The United States is better served with McCain in the Senate, arguing at times with the Democrats and at times against them for the good of the United States as a whole. This is the measure of a true statesman.
In a time when the country is polarized by foreign policy, economic policy, and global reputation, a true statesman would be a welcome relief. A true statesman doesn’t worry about political correctness, or irritating special interest groups or even getting re-elected.
A true statesman thinks only of his country and how he can best serve it. Thank God we have one in John McCain. I just hope one day, when he is looking in the mirror he will realize his true calling. Presidents are temporary. Statesmen last forever. This should be McCain’s legacy.
02-22-2007