Honest John, on the Loose
With McCain, you get the good, the bad, and the angry
McCain is so well known for his reform positions on tobacco and campaign financing that some who attend his speeches incorrectly assume he is some kind of squishy liberal. They soon find out different as McCain often brags about his high ratings from conservative groups, including a 90 percent approval in 1997-98 from the National Right to Life Committee. "I have two theories, and sometimes they may even appear to conflict," McCain told U.S. News. "One is a conservative view of the role of government--less government, less regulation, lower taxes--but at the same time sometimes there is a role for government. Theodore Roosevelt thought there was a need for national parks; I believe there's a need for campaign-finance reform. There's a need for us to try to do something about kids smoking. So I'm glad to be a conservative, but that doesn't mean that I'm completely passive in my views about the role of government."
Cruel captor. McCain's mood can also quickly turn from sunny to stormy without warning. With his shades on and looking out through the bus window at water-skiers crashing through silver waves under a golden sun over Lake Winnipesaukee near Laconia, McCain begins talking about his captors. They are living in Hanoi, he says, except for the Cuban, the man he called "Fidel," who would beat the American prisoners with an automobile fan belt. "He was particularly cruel," McCain says, his mood darkening almost imperceptibly. McCain says he has the CIA looking for "Fidel," and a reporter innocently asks why. "He was from a foreign country!" McCain says, his voice rising. "He had no business coming to Hanoi and killing my friends! And I'd love to bring him to justice!" And just as quickly, the storm passes. McCain adjusts his glasses a little and says, "It was a long time ago. I almost never talk about it." He looks from one reporter to another. "Really. There was a lot of humor in prison. A lot of funny stories."
At 63, one of the oldest candidates in the race, he is a bundle of energy, powering through as many as eight speeches a day. Except when he sleeps, he is virtually never silent and when you say a lot of things, some strike gold--"There is no reason a good teacher should be paid less than a bad senator"--and some strike out, as when he seemed to be changing his position on repealing Roe v. Wade and got weeks of angry commentary from some conservatives. "I've had foot-in-mouth disease all my life," he says. And he has no intention of changing. It may be a high-risk way to run, but his whole campaign is high risk. "I decided that the planets were aligned and I had a shot at it," he says. "Not a very good shot, but a shot. I'm not going to be driven by a fear of losing. I'm going to have fun and enjoy it because I'll never do this again."
McCain not only has the true politician's ability to call complete strangers "my dear friends" and sound like he means it, but he also has the ability to avoid candor when he chooses, such as when he rails in nearly every speech against the recent Republican tax bill passed by Congress--"It's a disgrace; it's obscene"--without also mentioning that he voted for it. Polling indicates that this year the voters want optimism, and both George W. Bush and Steve Forbes have been careful to position themselves that way, but McCain spends little of his speeches on the upbeat. Though he says he wants to "inspire a generation or more of Americans to be committed to more than their self-interest," he says that because of the "feckless" foreign policy of the Clinton administration, "We may have to pay a very heavy price in blood and treasure in the future." He is not downbeat about America's future, he says in an interview, "but there may be some downbeat aspects of my message because I am worried, I am worried about the future of the political system in America. And I think those concerns are legitimate."
But along with conveying a sense of urgency, McCain conveys a great sense of vigor, a sense that anything can happen on his campaign, it probably will, and if it does, McCain most assuredly will climb onto the press bus and talk about it with reporters. Maybe he really does like doing this or maybe it is therapeutic, but at least it is different. He has a huge task ahead of him, and he is going about it the only way he knows how, which is all out. So kick the tires and light the fires! To hell with the checklist. John McCain is flying once again.
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