WELCOME back, John McCain. After months of vigorous campaigning, tainted most notably by the unconscionable selection of Sarah Palin as a vice presidential nominee and by a vitriolic series of attack ads on Barack Obama, the real John McCain made a stunning and unexpected reappearance late Tuesday night. Regrettably, however, it seems that it took losing a presidential election to rouse the dormant spirit of the McCain I used to know and love.
While his concession speech included benevolent praise for Obama’s achievement and an entreaty to his supporters to devote their “goodwill and earnest effort” to the new president-elect, Americans should be asking serious questions about why this sort of benevolent approach to political competition occurs only in the humbling hours of defeat. We must address the fact that McCain was transformed into a different man during his campaign and learn to demand more from our politicians both while running for office and while holding it. As an Obama supporter, my satisfaction with the announcement of his victory was followed immediately by a keen interest in how McCain would approach such an overwhelming defeat. It had been 12 long years since a Republican presidential candidate had found himself in this situation, and all of America listened intently to hear how McCain would handle a moment that was so profoundly important both for his party and for the country as a whole. Judging from the way in which his campaign had been conducted, I really had no idea what to expect from this man. Although McCain’s humble and congratulatory tone was certainly appropriate and demands a measure of our respect, it is unfortunate that his speech stood in such stark contrast to the sort of campaign that he ran. If anything, McCain’s concession speech should remind Americans of how low our moral standards have become for campaigning politicians and should inspire us to expect them to exhibit the admirable messages of McCain’s concession speech at all times, not just in defeat.
One of the first substantive statements McCain made was thoughtfully rendered and addressed the historical significance of Obama’s election: “But that he [Obama] managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans, who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.” McCain continued by saying that he recognized how profoundly significant this election must be for African Americans, referring to a “special pride that must be theirs tonight.” As I heard these words, I couldn’t help recalling a McCain ad that appeared so long ago in the days immediately following Obama’s victory over Senator Clinton in the primaries. In this ad, McCain offered his congratulations to Obama, applauded his achievements, and even said “Job well done.” Unfortunately, this sort of ad was the last of a dying breed and the direction of McCain’s campaign quickly devolved into one that relied heavily on negativity, scare tactics, and name-calling. Let me be clear that I am not suggesting McCain should have saturated the final weeks of his campaign with praise for Obama’s achievements. It’s not like any of us should expect the man to offer kudos to his opponent at every rally or in the debates. It is quite regrettable, however, that his campaign had to shift so dramatically toward personal attacks and fear-mongering in its most crucial and memorable final weeks. This shift was so uncharacteristic of the McCain I thought I knew, and it was made only more visible by its contradiction to the tone of his concession speech.
The conclusion of McCain’s speech was deeply inspiring but was also painful to watch. Had he harnessed the passion shown in that speech throughout the campaign, I submit that his messages would have resonated more deeply with independent and undecided voters. And, who knows, maybe if he had maintained a positive campaign that utilized his capacity for positive self-promotion, he would be heading to the White House in January.
While we should be glad that the real John McCain was resuscitated on Tuesday night, we must remember what his example has shown us. Most obviously, we learned that the way in which he allowed his campaign to stoop to such low levels of negativity and fear-mongering was regrettable and should not be accepted in the future. More importantly, however, we should strive to demand our politicians exhibit the admirable messages of his speech — appreciation of the opposition party’s achievements, increased bipartisanship, selflessness — not just in the humbling hours of defeat, but during every single hour they hold office.
Jed Crumbo’s column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at j.crumbo@cavalierdaily.com.
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