Info
Senior editor at The Daily Beast.
Blogs and Stories
McCain's Poignant Valedictory
It has taken eight years for the unravel, but we are now watching the past melt away.
There were two key moments in last night’s debate. The first when Obama spoke about the chance missed by Bush to rally the nation to service after 9/11, and the second when McCain in his closing words talked about his unique qualifications of toughness in tough times—but in doing so, essentially said farewell. The moments, an hour apart, were linked by the powerful emotional undertow of an election that has little to do with the war of manufactured “gaffes,” factual distortions and outright lies that both sides have been propagating in their desperate desire to win.
As always on TV, the moments were enhanced by the cruel physicality of the screen. The received wisdom so far has been that Town Halls are better for McCain because he can loosen up and relax and make direct contact with what are nowadays called "real people.” But a Town Hall also meant the public saw a tall lithe young senator primed for the terrors of the future, against a stiff, hunched old guy hobbling around the stage in a body held together by an act of will.
Whatever compromises with the truth Obama has made on his chilly rise to the top, he understands the central zeitgeist of the moment.
During the campaign McCain has aged dramatically. Like Dorian Gray, the bargains he has made with his conscience are reflected in the mirror. He has developed a strange Jimmy Cagney rasp and new verbal eccentricities that seem to have fused the speaking styles of Bob Dole and Ross Perot. Critics have already pounced on the explosive contempt of his jab, “You know who voted for [the energy bill]? ... THAT ONE.” The younger man watched him from his Frank Sinatra stool with the look of a family visitor marveling at the antics of the household’s resident crazy uncle.
This is all horrible to those of us who once fell in love with McCain's flinty heroism and independence. It's as if he when he made the decision that fateful day on August 10th, 2004 in Pensacola, Florida to grit his teeth and bear hug Bush, he contracted a political virus that ate away at the nobility of his soul. The most telling moment in the campaign was on Monday when in Albuquerque, New Mexico, McCain shouted at the crowd, “Who is the real Barack Obama?” and an audience member yelled back, “A terrorist!” And there was a panicked look on his face that said, “My God, what have I done?”
Whatever compromises with the truth Obama has made on his chilly rise to the top, he understands the central zeitgeist of the moment. Raising 9/11 at the debate as a psychic event rather than one of national security was a masterstroke that won the day.
“You know, a lot of you remember the tragedy of 9/11 and where you were on that day,” he told the small studio audience, “and, you know, how all of the country was ready to come together and make enormous changes to make us not only safer, but to make us a better country and a more unified country. And President Bush did some smart things at the outset, but one of the opportunities that was missed was, when he spoke to the American people, he said, 'Go out and shop.' That wasn't the kind of call to service that I think the American people were looking for. And so it's important to understand that the—I think the American people are hungry for the kind of leadership that is going to tackle these problems not just in government, but outside of government.”
Right now Americans feel they are experiencing another 9/11 as the brand-name financial institutions stagger and suddenly collapse before their eyes like the World Trade Center. Obama knows that the last dark years under Bush have been about the long postponed millennium. We all knew the shopping spree Bush sent us on had to end. It has taken eight years for the unravel, but now we are there watching the structure of the past melt away. Last night a former key player at Goldman Sachs told me at a dinner party the vast infusion of capital we need can only come from China. They have trillions of our dollars. But China won't come forward unless invited with a specific request by the president. And then they will, indeed, step in. “This is coming," he said. “And it will accelerate the twenty-first century.”
Thought this might interest you - check out Tina Brown's new web site, just started this week - it looks good.
Harriet x
Nicely put. I think that the call to service, the conversation about sacrifice and the need to give up some of the selfishness of the past 20 years is part of what is driving the younger generation to get so invloved in politics right now. Obama has his finger on that pulse and McCain simply doesn't.
As a counterbalance to the legend of McCain's "flinty heroism and independence" may I suggest a look at Rolling Stone's current cover story, online at http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_ john_mccain
Somehow this man never charmed me, and now I know why.
"the nobility of his soul"
are you for real?
An eloquent summation of what this election and these candidates represent.
Tina - You are so dead on, and I am glad The Daily Beast is up and running before the Election! Congrats!
Tina,
Congratulations on your new venue. It is very engaging.
I missed most of the debate last night. The truth distortions on both sides were too aggravating.
But I am sorry I missed Obama;s reference to 9/11. I have long held that among a long list of heinous activities, the worst thing that George W Bush did was squander the will of the American people to do whatever we were asked, and the openess of most of the world's powers to support us. The baubles and trinkets we've amassed over the last eight years are nothing in comparison to what might have been.
My hope is that now we will come together and do what needs to be done to right this country and get back on track. Americans do not see ourselves as greedy villains and it is terrible that we have spent billions and lost trillions to "earn" that reputation.
I believe that Barack Obama is our perhaps our last, and certainly our best hope.
Love your site Tina, sure to be a big success!
One suggestion: have your tech people work on download speeds!
Good luck with the "Beast"!
Tina, been as fan of your efforts ever since my wife quoted you to me during an intense discussion and I caved! A great site and I love the authors and writing. You need more server work to speed up access and downloads.
Very good comments. This is an excellent web site. Congratulations.
I believe you are spot on with McCain. Your English bard comes to mind ...
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how
abhorred in my imagination it is!
Super to have you back, Tina!
Did George Bush MAKE us go shopping after Sept 11 ?
Life comes down to personal responsibility, personal choices.
Unlike socialist thinking ... Nobody owes anyone a job,
or insurance, or a house, but there is something to be said for being loyal to one's own country. Can you hear us Wall Street?
Those of us who behave responsibly and live within our means, ignoring Bush's "orders" sending us to "go shopping", now must "Bailout" those who bought things they couldn't afford (Homes, Cars, Boats, Ipods, High Def TV's).
I believe having to redistribute my money to others is called socialism.
As for the former "key player" at Goldman Sachs saying we need capital from China, isn't China's rise directly connected to the outsourcing of American based Factories to Asia, and the fall of our own U.S. economy ... and what are the odds that very same "key player" from Sachs is all for outsourcing and leaving our borders wide open?
When I hear Goldman Sachs "key player" and China in the same sentence ... it seems very symbolic of how we got in this economic mess in the first place.
Obama's zeroing in on Bush's ``go shopping" remark --going back to post-9/11 speeches by the President--was a horribly unfair note. Go back to the post-9/11 and the Jan. '02 State of the Union addresses and you will find a context that no American found offensive at the time. The President, after rallying us to pursue the war against Al Qaeda and setting us on a wartime course, noted that we had to sustain our economy, not let our enemies weaken us by destroying it. This is the context. For Obama to have ``missed" the overwhelming patriotic content of those speeches --which were being hailed worldwide at the time, remember -- was truly disheartening. It was politics of the cheapest kind.fredpep
Tina: I think your offering is brilliant. However, you have issues with the technical end. Very slow for a sophisticated offering - I clicked on your fat story and nothing. Get help.
Obama follows Lincoln's dictum: The best way to eliminate an enemy is to make him a friend. McCain seems to be more about eliminating enemies - by eliminating enemies.
The latter may be the way to win wars, the former is the way to lead a country.
Well put, Tina. So glad that you're up and running before the election.
"Whatever compromises with the truth..."
Wow. There's a little unsubstantiated zinger. Biased much? So, you think McCain's been truthful? It's pretty well documented that they've built his campaign on lies. Even his image as an honorable maverick is a deception. Might want to read that Rolling Stones article.
I'm thrilled with Tina Brown's new online venture.
Vic
Well put, Ms. Brown.