Sen. John McCain speaks to the Family Research Council, Friday, Oct. 19, 2007, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
by Mark Silva
Sen. John McCain, delivering an exceptionally personal and emotional appeal for the vote of social conservatives assembled in Washington today, also opened with a blunt comment for his competition in the search for the religious right vote.
“I am a conservative Republican and proud of it,’’ McCain told the crowd at the Values Voter Summit. Challenging people to measure his record against any other candidate in the presidential race, he said: “I hope you know, I’m not going to con you.’’
While mentioning no one by name, McCain’s opening address at the two-day summit clearly serves as a marker for some of his party’s leading candidates: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who supports abortion rights for women, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who once stood pro-choice but has since evolved to opposition to abortion. Romney will address this conference sponsored by the Family Research Council this evening, and Giuliani tomorrow – followed by a straw poll.
“I will appoint strict constructionist judges that won’t legislate from the bench,’’ McCain told an estimated two thousand people filling the hotel ballroom here, and they applauded.
“I have been pro-life my entire political career,’’ McCain said. “I believe I am the only major candidate in either party that can make that claim… I am pro-life because I know what it is like to live without human rights…. That is a personal testament that you need not take on faith. You need only examine my public record to know that I will not change my position.’’
Self-respect is essential, McCain solemnly stated, adding: “I’m not going to trade mine for anyone’s vote.’’
McCain, who also made his case for the war in Iraq as essential to a global conflict against radical Islamic extremists, built his somberly spoken appeal to this conservative audience around his own war story. The Naval Academy graduate, a bomber pilot during the Vietnam War, spent five and a half years in captivity after his plane was shot down over Hanoi.
McCain, near teary at some turns in the story of his own captivity, explained that it was there, in a cement-floored cell lit by a dim bulb, that he cemented his own faith in a greater glory.
““When I was a young man, I thought glory was the highest ambition and all glory was self glory,’’ he said. But he learned that “I had to have faith in something greater than myself, not only to survive, but to survive with my self-respect intact.’’
He spoke slowly of being hog-tied as a prisoner of war, with his arms pulled behind his back and tightened and the rope pulled over his head, tucked between his legs, and left in that position for hours. One day, tied like that for hours and awaiting interrogation, a guard walked into the room.
The guard “put his finger to his lips and loosened the ropes that held me. Five hours later he came back tightened the ropes and left,’’ he said. On Christmas day, prisoners were allowed to stand outside the cell – “and who comes up but the gun guard. With his sandal he drew a cross on the ground and he stood there… and then with his sandal, he rubbed out the cross and walked away.’’
At this point, McCain slowed and prevented tears.
“Religious freedom does not require Americans to hidE their faith from public view,’’ he said. “Judges should not legislate from the bench,’’ he said, drawing applause in the hall. “And I am proud to have played a role, and a major role in the confirmation of Judges Alito and Roberts and many others.’’ (More applause.)
“Wisdom suggests that we should be reluctant to change the definition of marriage that has existed for thousands of years,’’ he said. “Mothers and fathers have complimentary roles in raising children… and marriage reinforces’’ that.
“Wisdom suggests that we should give unborn children the same protection our parents gave us,’’ he said to greater applause.
“We are involved in a struggle against Islamic extremism,’’ he said. It demands “courage and perseverance on our part.’’
“We’re at a crossroads… in this struggle… and we need a president who has the credibility to lead… and take the right path, even if means walking a lonely road,’’ McCain said.
“We have gone to war to secure our… values,’’ he said. “It is a just war, and like all wars, it requires the sacrifice and taking of life, but let us not abandon our humility in its prosecution.
McCain also told another war story that he has recounted many times on his campaign trails. About his cellmate, Mike Christian, who had sewn an American flag inside his shirt with a bamboo needle. Each night before a supper of soup, the prisoners would take out the flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance.
A guard came and confiscated the flag and removed its maker for a beating. When he was returned, his cellmates cleaned him up and settled him to rest. And they watched as he pulled out a bamboo needle, eyes nearly swollen shut, and started sewing anew.
“Today, we have another generation of Mike Christians, who are over there, fighting for someone else’s freedom,’’ McCain said. “They are the best, the very best, that America has ever produced.’’
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Comments
I hope there were a lot of barf bags in the room where McCain spoke. This conservative mantra of "I'm pro life, I'll keep us safe, I'll protect our religious freedoms, I'll appoint judges in the mold of Clarence Thomas and Scalia, I will bring prayers back to the schools, I'll monitor everybody's bedroom, etc etc sounds so tired and lame. Especially when you consider that the real crown jewel in the conservative agenda is helping the wealthy consolidate their power. McCain will have the country believe that he is the only one who patriotic and cares about what happens to this nation. He always seems to be using his experiences in the manner of a conman.
Posted by: GW | October 19, 2007 11:23 AM
Isn't it strange how when the liberals had the DailyKos convention, all the GOP were hollering about how the Dems were selling out to the far left base of their party.
So what do you call those great social moderates like Mitt and Rudy coming to this convention to lick the boots of the far right fringe of the Republican Party??
Posted by: BobinATL | October 19, 2007 11:38 AM
I could have voted for the old John McCain, but not this new one.
Posted by: Tom | October 19, 2007 11:41 AM
If one is looking for a change of course from the present policies of this country, you will not vote for Sen. McCain. In addition to his ultra-conservative social views, he echoes the same refrain s heard from those who refused to let go of failed policies re Viet Nam;e.g. we must win-our credibilty as a nation is at stake--our national security is at risk, etc. Too bad. I initially had hopes for him.
Posted by: Frank | October 19, 2007 12:22 PM
"Especially when you consider that the real crown jewel in the conservative agenda is helping the wealthy consolidate their power"
Typical liberal baloney. Tell me how many poor Democratic representatives there are in Washington? Are they not attempting to consolidate their power? These rich fat cat Democrats move their assets overseas to escape taxes (yes I know Republicans do to)and then have the balls to want to increase taxes on the guy with 3 or 4 kids busting his butt and making a hundred grand or so. And they do it by taking their money and giving it to deadbeats. Fundamentally buying their votes. Yes there are truly poor people in this country and those with mental illness that need and deserve our assistance, but the majority of these people can work and have the capacity to learn a skill.
I'm not voting for McCain, but the man has my respect. Any person in this country that shows this man disrespect is not an American. This man was tortured for five years to protect the American way of life. Whether Vietnam was misguided or not, McCain was simply doing what he was told to do.
Posted by: Stewart | October 19, 2007 12:23 PM
Bobin, there is a difference between the social conservatives the Republicans are cowtowing to and the dailykos kooks. The social conservatives are real Americans, real people who love the U.S. They are often the real backbone of this nation.
The Dailykos kooks, are not real Americans, they are not people who love the U.S., but hate it. They are not the backbone of the country. Most Dailykos kooks are either folks with no jobs because no one would want to hire them or a few of them are the rich elite, who play by different rules than the rest of us like George Soros.
Posted by: John D | October 19, 2007 12:50 PM
"GOP CONFESSIONS RUNNING RAMPANT"
JOHN MCCAIN THE ONE OF FIVE MOST POWERFULL GOP STATESMEN WE HAVE, just sits there and allows George Bush trash the Constitution so he already has conned America. He is a do nothing Republican. He is not offering any counter to George Bush. He is not offering any counter to Dick Cheney. He is not offering any counter to Alberto Gonzales.
IF HE REALLY WAS A REPUBLICAN HE WOULD STAND BEFORE AMERICA AND HIS PARTY AND SAY, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. GEORGE YOU HAVE TO GO, AND PERSONALLY ASK NANCY PELOSI TO BRING IMPEACHMENT TO THE FLOOR FOR THE SAKE OF AMERICA.
SO THE CON IS IN THE CON.
CAN ONE OF THESE CONS SPARE AMERICA A DIME. $90.00 A BARRELL UNDER THEIR CONGRESSIONAL WATCH IN 02, 03, 04, 05, AND 2006.
FILLIBUSTER PRESIDENT BUSH AND HIS ENTIRE ADMINISTRATION AND CABINET AND REALLY STOP THE CON JOB
Posted by: Roger Morris | October 19, 2007 1:06 PM
"I'm not voting for McCain, but the man has my respect. Any person in this country that shows this man disrespect is not an American."
Siorry Stewart, I disagree.
While I do respect Senator McCain's service 40 years ago, his most recent political positions have lost my respect.
He has become the staunchest defender of the Iraq War.
He has declared the he thinks only Christians should be President.
He has copromised his principals of the 2000 campaign to suck up the the "religious right" as evidenced by his speach today.
He stands shoulder to shoulder with an Administration that condones torture. He even voted to supprt the Graham-Levin Amendment, which allows the use of evidence gained through torture, and which gave the tortured no avenue for legal recourse.
John McCain's actions of 40 years ago don't negate these more recent actions in determining my opinion of him.
Does that make me un-american Stewart?
Posted by: AJF | October 19, 2007 1:36 PM
"The social conservatives are real Americans, real people who love the U.S."
Only social conservatives are "real Americans"?
To be a "real American" I have to support discrimination based on sexual preference?
Discrimination isn't an American value. It isn't a Christian value. It is the refuge of the scared and ignorant.
Posted by: AJF | October 19, 2007 1:45 PM
Johnny D:
Liberals love America just as much as anybody. We hate America because we don't want our young men and women being killed in Iraq for a stupid war?? We hate America because we want to stand up to an administration that has said they are more important than any law of the land?? A President who uses signing statement to say which laws passed by Congress he does not have to follow? THAT is loving America??
A President who thought it was important to use MY tax money to fly to Washington DC to sign a bill about Terri Schiavo that was eventually thrown out be the courts, but $7 billion a year is too much to get kids health care??
Seems to me that we love our liberty a lot more than your conservatives - you know, the ones who want to take away a woman's right to choose, a gay person's right to feel safe on their job?
Are you proud of social conservatives like Ann Coulter, who is a hero to these people?? You know, all Jews hate Jesus?? Social conservatives, like the anti-abortion groups who want to blow up abortion clinics and kill doctors who perform abortions?
Please - we Liberals love this country also - probably a lot more than the bozos you talk about.
Posted by: BobinATL | October 19, 2007 1:45 PM
Oh puhleeeze, Stewie, McCain deserves all the kudos and accolades the country can give him for his service to the country. We've heard his story over and over again, and he has every right in the World to tell it. But, to use that as a campaign plow is beneath him. Sure, plenty of people sympathize with his plight as a wounded veteran who gave so much in a terrible debacle. But this is a new day, and his experience seems to have taught him enough about war. Otherwise he would have not been all gung ho about our invading Iraq, extending our presence there, and saber rattling the Iranians. Remember "bomb, bomb bomb bomb Iran". Is this the man who deserves our respect or has he morphed into a monster who advocates losing more American lives.
As for your dear conservatives, they are the arms merchants, they are the ones who detest government aid for indigent Americans, but give aid in a heart beat to poorly managed failing corporations, which get back on their feet and then move off shore. They are the ones who want to cut spending for eduction, but will build a prison in a heart beat. The Republicans do not take money from the middle class and give it to the poor. They take it from the poor and middle class and give it to the rich.
Posted by: GW | October 19, 2007 1:46 PM
John D, why do you hate America?
The Religious right wants to destroy the country and everything it stands for. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech and our civil liberties are the bad guys to these Christo-fascists. They are un-American.
The daily kos bunch may be kooky, they may be a little too far left for me personally, but they don't hate America. They hate that the GOP is destroying what America stands for, and I don't blame them.
As to how much money the Daily Kos people make I don't know, and neither do you. You are doing a “Rush Limbaugh” and pulling “facts” out of your butt.
What is with you righties and George Soros? He’s nothing compared to Richard Mellon Scaife. What, you don’t believe me? Read the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mellon_Scaife
Posted by: nisleib | October 19, 2007 2:13 PM
This man was tortured for five years to protect the American way of life. Whether Vietnam was misguided or not, McCain was simply doing what he was told to do.
Posted by: Stewart | October 19, 2007 12:23 PM
Actually he was bombing civilian population centers from thousands of feet in the sky in a highly advanced fighter jet bomber. From a humanist perspective, would you expect to get treated any better if the enemy got lucky and shot you down?
Posted by: john | October 19, 2007 3:42 PM
"I won't con you" means "I'm already conning you."
Posted by: Op109 | October 19, 2007 5:45 PM
I'll give McCain credit he is what he is, and he doesn't gloss over his opinion. Having said that I don't agree with him on much. But in a weird way I do respect him more than any of the other GOP hopefuls.
Posted by: Alberto | October 19, 2007 6:49 PM
BobinATL, John D is an angry man. Well he should be. He's been bamboozled!!!
Posted by: Spike | October 19, 2007 11:20 PM
"And I am proud to have played a role, and a major role in the confirmation of Judges Alito and Roberts and many others."
Just one of the many reasons why McCain should NEVER become president.
Posted by: BC | October 20, 2007 5:54 PM
[quote]
The Dailykos kooks, are not real Americans, they are not people who love the U.S., but hate it. They are not the backbone of the country. Most Dailykos kooks are either folks with no jobs because no one would want to hire them or a few of them are the rich elite, who play by different rules than the rest of us like George Soros.
Posted by: John D | October 19, 2007 12:50 PM
[/quote]
Dumb Dumb Little Johnnie D, "the Joseph Stalin of Streamwood", continues to spew the hatred and lies that make up the base of the current Republic party.
Losers like him refuse to accept the fact that posters on DailyKOS love America just as much as he does, but they care about not losing our freedoms to the world that Republic party hacks want to create.
Posted by: BC | October 20, 2007 5:58 PM