John McCain: The Common Man's Hero

There are some politicians would give their right arm for the personal biography of John McCain: prominent war hero, dashing fighter pilot, scion of a Navy family who continued the family tradition, and a prisoner of war with a compelling story - and what a story! With broken bones, a tortured body and a battered spirit, his North Vietnamese captors offered to let him free once they discovered his father was a high-ranking admiral.

John McCain however, stuck to the code that American prisoners of war lived and died by: he would only leave once the soldiers captured before him were let go. His refusal bought him four more years of brutal torture. He didn't have to sacrifice his right arm, but he did lose the ability to raise his arms. Maybe Rambo could match that story. But Sylvester Stallone isn't in the race. So the Obama campaign has attempted to acknowledge the heroism but belittle its relevance to the Presidency - more implicitly from Obama's mouth and more clearly from surrogates such as Gen. Wesley Clark.

Yet attempts to distinguish between John McCain's military and political behavior miss the point. John McCain is not simply (simply!) a military hero. Throughout his political career, and most particularly on the biggest issues, he has demonstrated courage to do what he thinks is right for the country when it will hurt his political career. Despite his long years in Washington, D.C. and his heroic history, he has never allowed the Beltway culture to dominate his thoughts or personality. He doesn't wink at petty corruption or speak in the tongues of the Senate. He doesn't vote for a bill before he votes against it; and he doesn't vote for something because others expect him to follow nicely and politely in line. He acts based on his conscience and what he thinks is right.

New York Times columnist David Brooks noted that though there were many talented people running for President in 2008, John McCain is "the one great man." In part due to the searing experiences as a POW, he has almost always allowed his moral instinct to overrule his political calculus.

In short, he was not only a military hero in Vietnam, but a political hero in DC.

In this vein, he is similar to two of his heroes, Teddy Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Experienced in war and vigorous defenders of their countries' role in the world, they both emerged as dominant political figures of their time while never fully adhering to their parties' orthodoxy. The two shared a strength of character that allowed them to withstand any political pressures at home (both switched parties twice) and oppose any foe abroad (both prosecuted successful wars). And both exhibited a simple, yet powerful speaking style that established a bond with the common man and rallied their countries behind their force of will.

McCain has followed in their footsteps - as a politician, a person and a leader. He has been an independent thinker since he arrived in Congress. On foreign policy, he opposed the Republican President Reagan on sending Marines to Beirut and supported the Democratic President Clinton in Congress on dispatching troops to Kosovo.

And in the recent Iraq War, as his presidential aspirations seemed to dissolve in the smoke of suicide bombings and turmoil of 2005 and '06, McCain did not waver in his advocacy of a strong prosecution of the war. He promoted the concept of a surge in troops while the Joint Chiefs argued for a reduction. In all of the above circumstances, history proved him right - demonstrating not only McCain's sound foreign policy judgment, but his independence of ideology and party.

On domestic issues, he has violated Republican orthodoxy almost as a matter of course. He believes in the free market and supports lower taxes. Yet whenever he thinks that corruption of government or big business looms, he strikes against it with the decisiveness and anger he shows to enemies of the state.

He led the charge in the Senate on campaign finance (named McCain-Feingold for his efforts) a patient's bill of rights (McCain-Kennedy-Edwards), and climate change (McCain-Lieberman). He works well with the two paragons of evil for Republicans, Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton. Conservative groups fume over his heretical behavior with frustration and threats. His moral clarity as a Senator is not restricted to anti-Republican actions; the grab for pork infuriates his conscience, so he eschews all earmarks, and he has attacked those who serve snacks to their districts at the taxpayer's expense, while Sen. Obama has taken hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks.

Ethanol subsidies are generally viewed as a necessary check mark on the road to the presidency; one can't win Iowa without supporting them. McCain thinks they're wasteful, and has never supported them. Obama, though, took the ethanol pledge.

Many treated the recent $300-billion farm subsidy bills as a means to buy farm votes, including Sen. Obama. McCain did not.

Certainly, over the course of his 28-year career, he has made mistakes and fallen prey to the everyday dealings of Washington, D.C. The Keating Five scandal stands as a clear example. Yet after the scandal, he recognized the potential corrosive impact of money in politics, and embarked on a decade-long crusade against its abuse, culminating in the greatest limitation on campaign finance to date. While the bill was popular with the press, it was against his party's ideological instincts and pragmatic interests.

Whatever one's opinion of its efficacy or its constitutionality, his persistent support of the bill underscored McCain's dogged determination to do what he thinks is right - regardless how heated the opposition and the damage to his personal future.

What further separates John McCain from other politicians is that his independence has allowed him to maintain a bond with the common man and his own common sense. He is the driver of the "Straight Talk Express" for his long-time willingness to speak his mind (which often gets him in trouble). He excels in town halls, in conversations with voters, because he knows how to speak not just to people, but with them - to participate in a conversation, a real debate.

Many high-minded individuals go to Washington with John McCain's sense of principle; few have a record of demonstrating it for decades. Many Arizonians and Illinoisans leave their homes as ordinary folks, and few return with the parlance of their hometown constituents. Dozens of politicians have before campaigned on the slogan "country first"; not nearly that many have practiced it as a religion.

Peggy Noonan saw two Senators often tweaked by McCain joking about his wrath. Yet when they discussed why different candidates wished t be president, they agreed that McCain had one reason, and one reason alone: "to make America stronger."

We are now fighting two wars, a struggling economy and a broken Washington culture. The next president will have enormous power to reshape the economic landscape and place his stamp on the world. John McCain is not perfect; he has a ready temper, for one. This man is no Messiah.

But as many look away as deals siphon off tax dollars and American interests, this we know about John McCain: he will always be battling for the average American. He will always place country first.