Wednesday - November 05, 2008

JOHN MCCAIN AND A VERY WELL WRITTEN EDITORIAL COMMENT BY OUR GRUMPY OLD FART.

I’ll have to admit I wasn’t thinking along these lines the last week or more.  GOF has stated the case very well.  I don’t think it should be hidden away under comments and so am taking the liberty of posting it here.

Yeah, there are things about Mr.McCain that rile us. No denying that.  But on the other hand ... well.  Grumpy’s point of view is very much valid.

Like everyone, I knew that McCain had spent time in the Hanoi Hilton. What I had NOT known until a few months ago was that he was in a training film I was required to watch in Navy boot camp: “Trial by Fire - The Ordeal of the USS Forrestal”.
The Forrestal fire started at 10:50 local time and took until 4:00 the next morning to fully defeat. It killed 134 people and injured 161. It began when an electrical surge switching from external to internal power lit off a Zuni missile, which skated across the deck and impacted an external fuel tank of an A-4, immediately engulfing two aircraft *that were awaiting launch* in a pool of burning fuel. The pilots who suddenly found themselves in the middle of that flaming pool were LCDR Fred White and LCDR John McCain.

I’m sure there are many other events in that man’s life of which I am still unaware. Nonetheless, no one can rationally deny that John McCain is the quintessential old warhorse, harder to put down than a charging rhino and with apparently more lives than a cat. And it is likewise inarguable that, even as a young man, he more than once found himself in circumstances where he not only had to make the right decision, but had to make it RIGHT NOW, with only seconds to assess the situation. He is no stranger to high-stress decision making, nor has he been for many decades.

Do we disagree on things? Hell yes we do, most notably on immigration and campaign financing. But as my mother pointed out to me, when pressed on immigration reform, he once told the questioner, “Well okay then, what would you do? You may not like my solution, but it IS a solution, it can realistically be made to happen. Ideal solutions are often useless in a less than ideal world.” In other words, when you’re sitting in a burning aircraft is NOT the time to bitch about proper maintenance being done on the aircraft that just mistakenly fired a missile into you. You deal with what IS.

I think it would be fitting and proper if, sometime today, we were to all take a moment to acknowledge the respect this man has long since earned. And to reflect on how deeply flattering it is that people such as him consider US worth fighting, dying.... and yes, putting up with the dishonor of modern politics… to defend.

Posted by GrumpyOldFart

Posted by peiper     on 11/05/2008 at 08:32 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • Politics •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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