Cartoon: Dave GranlundThere are three reasons to believe John McCain can win in November. One of them is shown left. If Nader runs and pulls 1% of the total vote, 80% of them would have voted for the democrat. Obviously, that helps McCain, and some big states are sure to be close races, i.e., Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
Another has to do with who he is. I watched a McCain television biography on MSNBC the otherday. It showed footage of him being escorted off the plane after landing on USA soil and after spending 5 years in a Vietnamese POW camp. It is moving to watch a110 pound soldier cripple down a plane's steps -- you can not but respect him, regardless of political affiliation.
But back to the POW camp itself. Let me repeat, that was 5 years folks, two of them in solitary. Read one of the Hanoi Hilton stories. It's chilling in its realistic portrayal of pain. He was tortured, abused, and broken. At one point, McCain was offered repatriation because of his father's military status and he refused unless everyone was released. So he stayed. The guy has some character. He survived the ordeal somehow, returned and became a US Senator. That doesn't make him Mother Theresa, it doesn't make him a good President, but it does give him a certain "gravitas" that you have to respect. He hasn't tried to use this suffering for money or power, he doesn't talk about it much. He has none of the Rudy Guiliani, I was there at 9/11 attitutde. He is not trying to be a rhetorician or appeal to everyone. He tells it as straight as any politician does -- and that's his appeal. He is the anti-politician. And that kind of character is a contrast to Barack Obama, whose appeal is newness, change, and let's start over.
The third reason he could win is that he does appeal to the middle, independent voter. I have listened to several talk shows in the last few weeks with a left-leaning bent and I hear people say over and over that they could vote for McCain, and that they might. He's the only Republican since Reagan who had that kind of appeal to Independents.
Can he beat the hi-speed, Barach Obama bullet-train. I don't know but he does appeal to a broader base than Romney, Huckabee, et. al. He's the only Republican that can win in November, and in my view the best one to make decisions about the war and the economy.
