McCain campaigns with wife Cindy in Florence, S.C. Photo by Brett Flashnick / AP
by Andrew Malcolm
Nearly four decades ago, John McCain and his fellow American POWs imprisoned in North Vietnam would climb onto each other's shoulders to peer out their cell grate and signal each other by hand.
Today, the 71-year-old McCain is running in an uphill campaign for the Republican nomination for president, and he's counting on his war buddies and hundreds like them to help him.
This weekend the Arizona senator is completing another leg of his "No Surrender Tour," this part in South Carolina. The tour title has a double meaning, no surrender to the rough days of overspending and staff turmoil that sent his poll numbers plummeting and no surrender in the Iraq war, which McCain says is the "seminal" national issue and must take precedence over his political ambitions.
We've written about McCain's scrappy campaigning alone in the back of a commercial plane last month. And you can see him this morning on NBC's Meet the Press. Now, in a compelling update from the campaign trail by The Los Angeles Times' James Rainey, we learn how McCain the unrelenting underdog is doing and why his poll numbers are now showing a resurgence, despite or perhaps because of his adamant straight-talking defense of the unpopular war and its importance to U.S. national security.
"It won't be easy," says the senator, now back in his comfortable role as political maverick and straight-shooting politician, "but it's not supposed to be easy. This is the most important job in the world."
McCain gets a close hearing from his audiences. And he tells it like it is.
"This conflict was badly mismanaged," says McCain, an early critic of the early strategy, "and Americans are frustrated and angry and saddened by the tremendous sacrifices that have been made. But we do have a new strategy and a new general and it’s succeeding. And we ought to give it a chance to succeed."
At every stop, McCain denounces the MoveOn.org ad calling the U.S. commander in Iraq "Gen. Betray Us," and he dismisses talk of his being a hero, saying dismissively that he simply got in the way of an anti-aircraft missile.
Of course, he also suffered multiple injuries that plague him to this day and spent nearly six years in a prison camp, turning down one opportunity to leave because others had been there longer.
Now in a long political struggle, McCain vows that he can "out-campaign" anyone, and Rainey's account tells us how. The complete story is available here on this website now and in Sunday's print editions. We'll have a link here.
Andrew Malcolm writes for Top of the Ticket, the Los Angeles Times' political blog.
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Comments
America and the World can no longer afford the best non-representative government special interest money can buy.
Posted by: x32792 | September 16, 2007 8:51 AM
"This conflict was badly mismanaged," says McCain, an early critic of the early strategy, "and Americans are frustrated and angry and saddened by the tremendous sacrifices that have been made.
I'll give him credit for at least getting this part right. McCain is way off the mark on almost everything else.
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | September 16, 2007 10:52 AM
I just watched McCain on Meet the Press.
He's as deluded as Dubya.
Posted by: Doug Zook | September 16, 2007 11:14 AM
McCain has it right spot on. There is another way forward. If you want more George W. Bush leadership then vote for Giuliani, Thompson or Romney. Folks just don't get it that if McCain had his way four years ago when we went in to Iraq, the picture would be much brighter today. There is a third way besides Bush or the Democrats and, to me, McCain has exemplified this other way. Our future depends on this third way.
Posted by: NH Indy | September 16, 2007 12:28 PM
But Doug, McCain is a true war hero and a true patriot, whereas you are just, well, hmmmmm, not.
By the way, for weeks I had engaged you in legit commentary, but you're "vagina" comment means the gloves are off.
Posted by: John D | September 16, 2007 3:54 PM
John D.,
I apologize for that.
Posted by: Doug Zook | September 16, 2007 5:03 PM
I used to love McCain, I admired the way he stood up to the religous right and stumped for campaign finance reform. I thought he was genuine.
Then I saw him (embrace) Bush at a campaign event in 2004. I lost all respect for him.
That being said NH Indy is correct. He would be better than Mitt, Rudy or Freddie. If I have to vote for a Republican (ie if hillary wins the Dem nomination) I hope it is McCain.
Posted by: nisleib | September 16, 2007 5:21 PM
McCain needs to be in a home.
Posted by: Cheryl | September 16, 2007 6:37 PM
Doug, apology accepted. Stay away from the John E syndrome. It's not worth it!
Posted by: John D | September 16, 2007 6:47 PM
McCain needs to retire.
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | September 17, 2007 8:59 AM
[quote]
But Doug, McCain is a true war hero and a true patriot, whereas you are just, well, hmmmmm, not.
Posted by: John D | September 16, 2007 3:54 PM
[/quote]
And as you have admitted in print here in the Swamp, John D "The Joseph Stalin of Streamwood", everybody in your family has military experience...
EXCEPT YOU!!!
Why is that? You talk big behind your keyboard, but you refuse to put your butt on the line where it counts - in Iraq.
Chickenhawk.
Posted by: BC | September 17, 2007 10:52 AM
Someone explain this one to me:
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has long identified himself as an Episcopalian, said this weekend that he is a Baptist and has been for years.
Campaigning in this predominantly Baptist state Sunday, McCain said he and his family have been members of North Phoenix Baptist Church in Arizona for more than 15 years. ''It's well known because I'm an active member,'' the Arizona senator said.
This summer, McCain said he found the Baptist church more fulfilling than the Episcopalian church, but still referred to himself as an Episcopalian. AP
Posted by: Cheryl | September 17, 2007 1:03 PM
Someone explain this one to me:
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has long identified himself as an Episcopalian, said this weekend that he is a Baptist and has been for years.
Posted by: Cheryl | September 17, 2007 1:03 PM
That's easy Cheryl, senile!
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | September 17, 2007 10:19 PM