Better Late than Never…
To be fair to my earlier posts here and in the Huffington Post warning about the irresponsible incitement being fomented by the McCain campaign, John McCain at a town hall meeting on Friday Oct 10th reminded me finally of the John McCain I had admired in the primaries, in his acceptance speech, and in the last 10 years prior to his general election run and his selection of Sarah Palin as his VP. Here is some proof:
If the campaign continues to spew out terrorist innuendos through proxies including Sarah Palin, while McCain acts as the nice guy, then he should actually get even more blame for irresponsibility and hypocrisy. Indeed, some of the ugly comments you see in the video were to be expected – once you bring out the genie of racism & hatred, it is hard to bring him back in.
But McCain displayed extraordinary leadership in standing up in the midst of all his supporters and providing principled responses that visibly shook up the partisan crowd and channeled them towards the higher road. It sounds easy, but it takes enormous courage to tell your supporters, "No", and reject any support you get if it is ill-founded.
Here is hoping that the remainder of the campaign – on both sides – focuses on issues and is more principled.
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