A post by Maynard
This article was written by a Republican to bolster the McCain campaign. So there’s an agenda here, but the points are worth knowing. They will eventually become an important factor in the election.
How aware is the public that McCain has raised seven children? Or that he adopted his two oldest sons as small boys (children from his wife’s prior marriage)? Or that he has raised a Bangladeshi girl with severe health problems adopted from Mother Theresa’s orphanage? Or that his own sons have served in the military, including in Iraq?
Read the full article for more details. This may not qualify John McCain to lead the free world, but you’ve got to admire him on a personal level. Even more so since McCain has never trumpeted his achievements.
The contrast with other politicians couldn’t be more stark. How many candidates have we heard try to score political points as they crow in the public limelight about their own brief military stints, or their wife’s cancer, son’s car accident, or sister’s death from smoking?
Indeed. With so much phoniness in Washington, I can understand why McCain doesn’t talk about these things. To do so would make his history seem like just another prop, and thus cheapen it.
Update: Pat_S points out this Washington Post article about Cindy McCain’s good works, A Quiet Humanitarian. And Marleed linked to this article, John McCain Discloses Data on His Charity Giving, which documents John McCain’s extensive (relative to his income) charity. (In contrast, Obama’s tax records show very little charity, the biggest beneficiary of his largesse being Rev. Wright’s Trinity Church, from which Obama recently distanced himself when the extent of its hatemongering was publicly exposed.)
When it comes to all that about the children, I would give a great deal of credit to the other person in the picture, the reserved Cindy McCain,
A Quiet Humanitarian.
John and Cindy McCain do not flaunt their family, or their philanthropy, but they appear to be generous, giving people. In an April issue The Chronicle of Philanthropy had an article about the McCains’ giving habits. In addition to more conventional donations, Senator McCain also contributes in some less conventional ways.
Cindy, while also donating generously to many causes also gives of her time. Most recently she took a fairly unpublicized trip with the One Campaign to Rwanda. She authored an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal about the progress being made there, especially with regards to the women of Rwanda.
John McCain could play the victim, or the hero. Cindy McCain could be Teresa Heinz Kerry. Thankfully, they’ve chosen another path. I’m quite sure it’s not a perfect path, but at least they appear to have a measure of decency and integrity.
I don’t want to take away from the McCains’ “generosity”. This isn’t directed at them, personally. But I have hard time admiring the charity of multi-millionaires. It doesn’t even put a small dent in their wealth, and they needn’t deprive themselves of anything as result. I think about the gospel story of the poor woman who had only 2 pennies, and gave one to charity because she knew there were those who had none at all. That’s real charity.
i also like the fact that they have a menagerie of pets- cats, dogs, turtles, fish, ferrets and birds. pets say a lot about people and their capacity to give of themselves and to care about something other than themselves.
the obamas have no pets.
but those who truly give of themselves from the heart have no need to advertise. it’s called humility, something that’s apparently alien to american presidential politics. thus we can have some neophyte hunk of eye and guilt candy whose political career has only been in service his own sweet self in the same field as a man whose service to his country was nearly the ultimate sacrifice coupled with an extensive career in the navy, the house and the senate.
When Mo Udall was lying in a hospital bed and couldn’t speak, McCain would visit him regularly and sit with him and talk about the doings of the congress. Tho I am not a political fan of McCain, his actions has shown him to be a very decent person.
LNBEE’s comment is the sort of ivory-tower platitude that muddles the national morality. The poor woman who gives away a penny is a decent person, but the needy are going to starve if they depend upon her. The recipients of charity should be grateful to those who gave the substantial sums that made the difference. Only an ingrate would sneer at those who did the heavy lifting while praising the person on the sidelines who didn’t help but was proclaimed to have a purer heart.
In spite of our disagreements with John McCain regarding some of his actions, or inactions on various hot points such as immigration, his ability to lead under pressure is FAR above that of Obama. The recent crisis overseas in Georgia proves that. There is a post on Michelle’s site showing the differences between McCain and Obama. Glaring differences. Obama is probably an ok, nice guy. But that ain’t a qualification for POTUS. Not damn even. John McCain’s personal integrity and that of Cindy’s is far above that of the Obamas. No, the McCain’s aren’t June and Ward Cleaver. They never claimed to be. With the things facing this country, and the world for that matter, John McCain will do fine. We could do worse. And just might…if we don’t wake up.
“…the McCain’s aren’t June and Ward Cleaver. They never claimed to be.”
Nor should we want them to be. As I think it was Dennis Miller who said, I don’t want a president right now who’s polite and humble: I want someone who’s happy to suck the marrow from the bleached-white skulls of our enemies. I think McCain could fit that bill. I know with 100% certainty that Obama doesn’t.
Real class shows not in words but deeds.