The speech hasn't been an especially raucous one, but the crowd went nuts with McCain's final refrain: "fight with me."
Vox Politics
I guess I would be impressed if he said "Fight with me for your country and stop whining like little babies about your taxes!"
Isn't that the Rovian politican way? When you can't stand on a strong record or a progressive policy, then you always whip up patriotic fervor. March out the old military hero, brag about strong experience, and attack all new ideas. Every single speech by McCain includes a paragraph claiming on how "I know" how to solve a litany of problems. Well, McCain, why didn't you bring these solutions to G.W. Bush in the last 8 years??? Sorry, McCain, you were an impressive leader a decade ago. Now it's clear that his heart is in the right place, but the Republican machine has done little positive in the country in the last 15+ years, and it won't happen with McCain surrounded by corrupt Republican supporters. Keep McCain as a voice of reform in the Senate and hire someone else who actually listens to advisors.
The introductory bio was like The Triumph of John McCain - a photo essay by Leni Riefenstahl.
It was quickly followed by words of a man at war, someone whose life has little meaning out of uniform or apart from the worship of a uniform. He still wants victory in Iraq. Maybe I missed something, but this war does not appear to have a goal. Despite a few words to the contrary, I came away with a feeling that he believes security lies in the state of war.
He cited the heritage of Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan. Lincoln fought a war with an end - to preserve this nation against internal division. Moreover, he did not consider government an intrusion but a function "of the people". Roosevelt fought against the amassing and concentration of capital in corporate hands. Contrary to Republican myth, Reagan cut taxes, spent too much, ran up debts, and grew the government. However, he fought the Cold War to the end - Soviet collapse. We have yet to reap a peace-dividend or disarmament from this.
McCain proposes a war without a victory. We are not fighting Al-Quaida, we are not fighting nuclear proliferation, we are not fighting for our own nation, and we are not protecting former Soviet nations. What we have done is fragment a nation with an already weak sense of its identity and further destabilized a region that was already wobbling.
Moreover, this war has stolen a part of our identity and heritage. As Americans, we are the standard bearers of inalienable human rights. Our nation is a rational concept composed of Constitutional liberties. Our failure to grant these rights to those we hold prisoner in Cuba makes us hypocrites. However we try to spin this, those we hold prisoner are born with the same equal rights and stature before our Creator.
From a political perspective, we need to derive strength from our American identity and, in from that strength, grant those prisoners their natural rights. From a faith perspective, we must "Do unto others..." The idea that a fight for justice can be as simple as an act of justice eludes McCain.
Somewhat worse than our failure to bring these rights to others is our sacrifice of rights under the Patriot Act. We have, out of fear, stopped living boldly. We are defined to this world not only by fearless defense of freedom but our practice of freedom. We've tacitly agreed that desire to travel or visit a national monument is just cause for a search or our persons. We live in fear and hold our guns tight, it's a fox hole mentality. This is a victory for terrorism. McCain would perpetuate this in his fight-without-end.
His closing remarks echo Third Reich rhetoric. McCain is a good man perhaps a little overwhelmed by his time in Hanoi, dazzled by his military family, and over occupied with his own struggle -- sein Kampf.
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