Lary Bloom
Writer, Editor, Teacher
The Bloom Blog
Photo by Nancy Dionne
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
John McCain's Sweater Vest
Senator John McCain traveled to New Haven this week to appear at benefit for Read To Grow. He had a book to plug of course. This, his fourth (done in partnership with his writer and chief of staff Mark Salter) is about admirable historical figures. Mother Teresa is in Character Is Destiny. So are other usual suspects: Gandhi, Sir Thomas More, Abe Lincoln, Nelson Mandela. But also, interestingly, Charles Darwin.This is McCain's version, I suppose, of JFK's Profiles in Courage, and it is quite well done. It will come in handy if the Arizona senator is foolish enough to go up once again against party loyalists and seek the Republican candidacy for president.
Indeed, one of the members of the sold-out audience, which raised a ton of money for a charity that gives books to newborns, asked if the sweater vest McCain was wearing would be part of his New Hampshire outfit. "You'd be a great president," the lunch guest pronounced, "and bring honor back to the White House."
I was pleased to see McCain, and to introduce myself at the reception held before hand -- and to ask for his help. He was only too pleased to oblige, giving me the name of a person I could contact on his staff who is an expert on issues involving POWs and MIAs. I need this for a book I'm working on. And of course, McCain is an obvious source. It is hard to imagine his five and half years in the hands of his North Vietnamese captors. He is certainly one of the few in Washington (Jack Murtha is another) who has any credibility in discussing war-related issues. I say this though I disagree with his view that the Iraq can be won by sending more troops. As a Vietnam himself (as I am), he surely recalls that generals asked for more troops all the time, and got them, and nevertheless couldn't win that war.
Even so, McCain seems like a thoughtful man, and, more than that, a man with an infectious intelligence. His answers on the hardest questions thrown to him at the luncheon reflected deep experience and immersion in our nation's problems. He admits that that "the system is broken in Washington," and that "most of the nation's business is done behind closed doors," and that money is being wasted everywhere ($24 billion in pork in the last transportation bill), and that the federal budget is tragically out of whack. He understands how it was that Duke Cunningham could hoodwink everyone in his kickback scheme, and that his fellow committee members, if they are not guilty of that crime, are part of a general culture that makes such crimes possible.
The luncheon questioner pleaded, at the end, "Please consider running for president." And, if the standing ovation was any indication of the banquet room's general feeling, it seemed clear that there were at least 900 votes he could count on.
Posted by:Lary Bloom at 9:06 AM
Web
Design by Arvid
Tomayko-Peters
Lary Bloom • Telephone: 860.526.2067 • Fax: 860.526.8088 • Email: