Saturday, August 25, 2018

Meeting John McCain


Tonight is not the night to cite the many times I disagreed with Senator John McCain politically.  Perhaps that will come at a later time, when our country is not under siege from within and without by scoundrels, crooks and opportunists and my energy is better directed at resisting. 

No, tonight is a night to remember the evening I shook John McCain’s hand.  It was February 28, 2000 and Republican candidate for President, Senator John McCain, was flying into Redding for a campaign stop.  Tim and I were immersed in following all things politic and he insisted we take the one-hour drive north to see a presidential candidate although we were both probably not going to vote for him.  Still, we were curious about this “maverick” and just what brand of Republicanism he represented.

We arrived at the airport and waited in a hangar that had been set up for a brief stop.  The hangar was packed for a Monday night and we spotted Joe Klein, Time political writer and (originally anonymous) author of Primary Colors, restlessly waiting for the candidate.  His coat was rumpled, no doubt from too much time on the press bus or press plane. We waited and waited and waited.

When the McCain plane finally arrived, we were standing near the back of the hangar and remained there during the very brief speech which was not memorable except for the fact that a national candidate was in Redding.  The crowd was enthused but the wait had taken a bit out of them.

Tim was comfortable in this milieu and also, as always, intent on making every adventure memorable.  He saw McCain and his wife descend from the makeshift stage and quickly tracked the likely exit back to their plane.  It was then that he insisted we get up to the rope line so I could shake McCain’s hand as he worked his way back to the plane.

I am too short to see in a crowd, but followed Tim’s back as he knifed our way through the crowd.  Suddenly, there was the rope line.  Tim nudged me into place and shortly thereafter I shook the hand of the Republican candidate for president.  (I have to insert that Tim was similarly insistent about a Clinton book-signing line; I had given up – the line was very long – but we worked it and I now have a signed Clinton book and a memory of shaking Bill Clinton’s hand.)

I knew at the time that McCain was a war hero, a prisoner of war who was tortured and in solitary confinement in the Hanoi Hilton.  I also knew that he was coming to California on the heels of a South Carolina GOP primary, during which Bush operatives odiously spread misinformation which accused him of not being a hero, of fathering children out wedlock and fathering a black child (the McCains had adopted an orphan from Bangladesh).  Leaflets and phone calls spread this ‘fake news;’  Bush’s campaign had not done well in New Hampshire and so Rove and company broke out all the stops to take South Carolina.

I did not know that because of his injuries he could not comb his own hair or raise his hands above his shoulders and there was probably some pain in shaking so many hands at so many events.  I did not hear him that night in February 2000 vent or whine about the below-the-belt tactics of his opponent in South Carolina.  He was a total pro, continuing to speak out on his issues and moving ahead with his campaign on his terms.

He was a public servant his whole adult life and in the twilight of his life cast a memorably decisive vote on the attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act and spoke out about the dismal performance and disgraceful actions of the current occupant of the Oval Office.   But before those last stands, there was a moment I will never forget  -- a gracious concession speech after losing to Barack Obama which the nation needed to hear.  (Aside from the praise of Palin – again, another blog another time).  It was an important moment in American history and the right words were required to meet the moment.

The nation had just elected the first African American president, the Palin tea party crowd was ascending right and wacky in the GOP, but the tone of his speech, filled with the usual thanks and acknowledgments, considered history and acknowledged and elegantly appreciated the significance of the moment.  We needed a citizen patriot at that moment and I think he rose to that occasion.

For that moment and for his years of service, I thank Senator John McCain.  In pain no more.