John McCain Speaks to Jay Leno

Senator John McCain made his first post election appearance on the Jay Leno Tonight Show on November 11^th, Veterans Day. It was John McCain's fourteenth appearance on Jay Leno and he was gregarious and relaxed, happy one suspects for the campaign to be over.

John McCain told Jay Leno a funny story about Arizona, the state he represents in the Senate. If Virginia was at one time considered the "Mother of Presidents," perhaps Arizona could be considered the "Mother of Also Rans":

"And we have a problem in Arizona. It's really kind of a sad thing, because Barry Goldwater from Arizona ran for President of the United States. Morris Udall from Arizona ran for President of the United States. Bruce Babbitt from Arizona ran for President of the United States. I, twice. Arizona may be the only state in America where mothers don't tell their children that some day they can grow up and be President of the United States."

John McCain was effusive with praise for his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin, and about time too. People being identified as "unnamed McCain staffers" had been trashing Sarah Palin the week since the election. Scurrilous stories about clothing, Africa, and NAFTA filled the news from people obviously very anxious to shift blame for the failure of the campaign.

John McCain told Leno, "One -- these things happen in campaigns too. I think I have at least a thousand, quote, top advisors. 'A top advisor said' -- people I've never even heard of, much less a, quote, top advisor or a high-ranking Republican official. It's -- these things go on in campaigns..."

John McCain was later effusive with praise about two men named Joe, Joe Lieberman and Joe the Plumber, who were each in their own way assets in his campaign. Joe Lieberman is now facing the wrath of his fellow Senate Democrats for putting county over party. Joe the Plumber is facing life after his fifteen minutes of fame have expired.

It would not be a John McCain conversation if a story about his five and a half years as a prisoner of war did not come up. Typically, the story McCain told Leno was not about himself, but of another aviator named Mike Christian.

"He took his blue shirt, fashioned himself a bamboo needle, got a piece of white cloth, piece of red cloth, and sewed the American flag on the inside of his shirt. Every evening before we would have our bowl of soup, we would put his flag -- his shirt on the wall of the cell and pledge our allegiance to the country. It was an important part of our day. One day the Vietnamese came, searched the cell, found his shirt, removed it, came back that night -- and I'm telling it fast -- opened the door of the cell, called for him to come out, closed the door of the cell, and beat him very badly for a couple hours. Then they threw him back into the cell. The cell in which we slept had a concrete slab, light bulbs in all four corners, naked light bulbs. We cleaned Mike up as well as we could. I went over to lie down on the concrete and go to sleep. And I happened to look over in the corner of the cell, and underneath the light bulb, with a piece of white cloth and a piece of red cloth and his bamboo needle, was Mike, with his eyes almost shut from the beating that he had received, sewing another American flag. He wasn't doing that for us. He was doing it for his country. He wasn't doing it for himself. He was doing it for his country and our ability to pledge our allegiance to our flag and country. I'll never forget Mike Christian."

John McCain is the type of man who will always deny being a hero, but will say that he "served with heroes." It is a sad fact of life that from time to time the better man does not get elected President of the United States. The times are not right. The other guy runs a better campaign. Some issue or another just cuts the wrong way.

To say that the better man did not win the 2008 Election is not to make a partisan slam against the man who did. It is just to state a fact. Despite his ethnic background, Barack Obama has led a life of relative ease compared to that of John McCain, and is thus not as tested, not as ready as the man he beat. No doubt, because of his maverick tendencies, a John McCain Presidency would have occasionally been irritating. But in the next four to eight years, people will very likely, more than once, wonder how things might have been different if Arizona had at least proven to be the mother of at least one President.

Source: Transcript of McCain on "The Tonight Show", Politico.Com, November 11th, 2008