Atonement
Frank Foer speaks for many once and future McCain admirers:
As a one-time admirer of John McCain, I was grateful to see him at his patriotic, eloquent best tonight. It harkened back to his performance during the first half of the Bush administration, when he was one of the best spokesmen for a progressive agenda in Washington. During the past campaign, I wondered if his performance during those years was an aberration. Was he only driven to the left by his hatred for George W. Bush and his despicable performance in the 2000 primary? Or was he a decent man with humane instincts who had never thought about the world very hard—but had the capability for genuine outrage when confronted with injustice?
McCain made a devil’s deal when he decided to run for the presidency this cycle. He reconciled himself with George W. Bush’s party and the Karl Rove style of dirty politics. His flip-flops were some of the most absurd in recent history. My reading is that he clearly didn’t feel comfortable with this new persona. You could see it in his unease in interviews and his overall moodiness. My guess is that he’s going to spend the next few years atoning for his performance these past couple of months—and the fact that he’s about to become a piñata of the right will likely drive him further in that direction.
Since I was never a McCain fanboy, I never felt the sense of betrayal and anger than some did. But by the same token, I think there’s no atoning for this. McCain’s not a young man who can learn his lesson and do better next time. In 2000, he ran a high-toned campaign as long as it suited him, and then endorsed the Confederate Flag when he thought that’s what he had to do to win. When he lost, he “atoned.” Then in 2008, he went through the whole rotten cycle again. A man who violates the dictates of his honor whenever it’s convenient, and apologizes for doing so only after his opportunistic gambits fail, is not a man of honor at all.
Or think about it another way. If John McCain had never backed off the McCain-Lieberman climate change bill, and had never gone against his previous beliefs by embracing “drill baby drill” and coal demagoguery then it seems to me that the legislative prospects for some kind of serious cap and trade bill would, today, be considerably better than they are. And if we fail to take serious action in the near term, real and very dire consequences will befall the world — especially portions of the developing world where the resources to “adapt” don’t exists. The lives of millions of people hang in the balance over this, and I doubt the people of Bangladesh and the world’s island nations are going to care very much about McCain’s atonement-oriented words or his “humane instincts.” I hope he’ll flip-flop back to a decent position on these now, but nevertheless doing so now won’t have nearly the impact that having stuck to his guns when it counted could have.
63 Responses to “Atonement”
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November 5th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
McCain who? The election is over; I’ve already forgotten about him.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Considering that Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc. are holding populations that are already absolutely out of proportion to any sane estimate of how many people those nations can support, the most “humane” thing McCain could do is get them to move to the US, Canada, Russia, and anywhere else population densities are low enough to support them.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I liked his concession speech as much as the next guy and I sincerely hope it will foster some reconciliation after a tough election. However, I am not above pointing out that striking such a tone was an important first step toward McCain remaining relevant in the next Congress, and therefore it was consistent with the broader hypothesis that McCain is more a man of ambition than a man of principle. But again, I don’t so much care about that as long as McCain’s ambitions now lead him in productive directions.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I predict, in the spirit of other recent books like Scott McClellan’s, John McCain is going to write a tell-all book about what it was really like being on the inside of the John McCain campaign.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
Abraham Lincoln
If you care about the environment and Bangladesh, write provocative pieces in-favor of those causes; not ones denigrating someone else.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
As I keep saying, the key is to forgive, but never forget, if McCain can show he’s willing to be the man he was built up to be before the last campaign got under war and what he will be built up as now that it has ended. I think it would take a few years of honest work, both in a supportive and in a critical sense, to get him back in my good graces, so if he expects it to happen overnight, as if the campaign he just ran never took place, then he’s fooling himself. If he’s willing to help us pass legitimate climate change legislation, for instance, then there’s no reason people should want to hang him each time he acts. Or at least, less of a reason.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
If liberals seriously care about the fate of the world they would be fully behind a multilateral approach to tackling climate change. Take the whole redistribution aspect out of the debate and force binding targets on China, Russia, and Brazil. This whole lead by example strategy won’t work politically (just look at Europe) and would only buy those poor Bangladeshi’s a few more years.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Give McCain credit for an impressively classy (and patriotic) concession speech. That it may have been based on in part on his ambition to stay relevant in the next Congress doesn’t make it less impressive. McCain could’ve tried to stay relevant by leading the angry rump of the Republican party in disloyal opposition. He chose to try to stay relevant by positioning himself as the leader of the loyal opposition. This choice speaks well of him. He will be increasingly vilified by the angry rump for it over the next few years. There is a percentage chance that he ends up as almost a bizarro Joe Lieberman 2-4 years from now.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
there is no atoning for this.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I thought his speech was way overrated – way too much on the racial patronizing, and remarkably ungracious to his campaign staff and volunteers – no wonder the media likes it, and if they had any self-awareness, partisan Republicans should be deeply upset at the candidate who showed just how he feels about them one last time for good measure.
But, thinking about the future – if this means McCain is now going to want to be back on Sunday morning news shows and lauded at “Georgetown cocktail parties” for being a post-partisan leader – then that bodes well for a future Obama administration. Dealing with his ego shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. And taking Collins, Spector, McCain, Snowe, and Lieberman along for the ride to 60 is not only bi-partisan, but probably easier on most issues than if Musgrove and Lunsford had made it in.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I’m not a McCain fan at all, but I did get the sense that he welcomed the opportunity to give a gracious concession speech. I would not call this “atonement” by any stretch but I wonder if he just felt a sense of relief. He can be pretty sure he won’t be fighting this battled again in 2012. He’s probably a fairly decent person (granted, with whom I would disagree about nearly everything) who just desperately wanted to win and thought he needed to pull out all stops. He took some bad advice and was also hurt by conditions beyond his control. I don’t feel sorry for McCain, but his concession speech was making the most of a bad outcome. McCain bothers me a lot less than the knuckleheads booing in the audience.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I for one am sick to death of politicians who will say literally anything about their opponent during a campaign and as soon as it’s over pretend that it was all in good sport, because, you know, wink-wink, “they all do it.” Bullshit. Campaigning for office does not give you a free pass to act like a total douche-bag.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
John has got, what, 2 years left in the Senate? If, after a few weeks back in Sedona to meditate (drink) and clear his chi (bbq), he decides to come out swinging against the GOP wingnuts, break the threat of filibustering everything, and get some helpful legislation out of the Senate, he could retire with a decent reputation.
Otherwise, he’s going to end up like any other short-timer with one lei in the grave: noted for his Viagra commercials.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
McCain and Lieberman are the kind of guys that’ll bang your wife and then taunt you for not having a beer with them and chatting about what a lousy fuck she is. You know, guys that need a good pistol whipping.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Kerry’s best speech was his concession speech; Gore made a wonderful speech following the Bush v Gore decision; so it shouldn’t be too surprising that McCain’s concession speech was one of his best. Too bad they can’t summon up sincere emotion until they’ve lost.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
McCain has devoted the last few months, tirelessly, to scorching earth and poisoning wells–pandering to the worst elements in our political life and doing significant damage to the landscape of our discourse. It was a good speech he gave last night (over the boorish shouts of the dead-enders), but one good speech doesn’t heal the harm he has done.
Whatever McCain may truly believe about this issue or that, there is one thing we’ve learned about him that we should never forget: For John McCain, “honor” is just a word. It doesn’t mean he has to _do_ anything. Certainly not anything that he thinks to be against his own interests.
We should keep that in mind as he tries for yet another round of “I’ve learned my lesson and I’m sorry.”
November 5th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
If, after a few weeks back in Sedona to meditate (drink) and clear his chi (bbq)…Otherwise, he’s going to end up like any other short-timer with one lei in the grave: noted for his Viagra commercials.
@cmholm – Priceless! You should have KristolMeth’s spot on the NYTimes.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
McCain’s treatment of his first wife. The Keating 5 scandal. The Confederate flag issue. His 2008 campaign.
When are people going to figure out that these aren’t rare instances of McCain sadly abandoning his true principles, but rather examples of his true principles showing through?
November 5th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I agree with Bahrad, in that McCain’s speech is getting way too much praise. Here’s why:
1) Too much emphasis on Obama’s racial milestone. It’s significant, but to focus on that positive aspect of his election exclusively is to demean his whole campaign. He did not just inspire black people to get involved, he inspired huge portions of the entire country.
2) Since his speech was entirely inconsistent with everything that came before it, it gives me the impression of just something he read off the teleprompter. In contrast, Obama’s speech was consistent with what he has said before. We know that Obama had a strong role in writing it. McCain? Not so sure, so I’m not sure how much credit he gets for delivering it. Peorgie makes this point.
3) The booing. Throughout the campaign, McCain did nothing (except for one town hall in Ohio or somewhere) to discourage hate for Obama, and he arguably encouraged it. So now he can’t just sit back and call those who boo in the middle of his speech bad apples. If you watch an injustice be committed and do nothing, you’re complicit. The booing was just a reminder.
McCain’s speech was a political concession speech. Nothing more.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I was quite touched by McCain’s speech, and thought it was not only gracious, but civically minded (compared to say, Palin’s horrid diatribe at the convention, which was some Civil War-type shit IMO).
Hopefully, if nothing more, McCain will be remembered as a cautionary tale for any reasonable person tempted by the Faustian, criminal apparatus of the modern Republican Party.
But as Les Savy Fav say:
November 5th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I thought the words of McCain’s speech were OK, with the requisite graciousness. I have to say that his demeanor in delivering it seemed to me like was just going through the motions and trying to get it over with as fast as possible. Not trying to dump on the guy, that’s just honestly how it felt to me.
As for Foer’s observation: McCain was “one of the best spokesmen for a progressive agenda in Washington”? What the fuck is Foer smoking, and can I get some?
November 5th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
McCain’s concession speech was a long concluding sentence repeated over and over, each time followed by a reprise of yet another concluding sentence. It was as if he was aware it was the last time he would have an audience hanging on his words, booing at his cues; an audience dumbfounded when he told them he was just kidding about Obama being a Muslim, an extremist Christian, a socialist, a terrorist, an exotic Hawaiian. It was just a rough campaign, folks, you weren’t supposed to believe the lies.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
McCain could’ve tried to stay relevant by leading the angry rump of the Republican party in disloyal opposition . . . .
Could he? For one thing, with the Democrats short of 60 in the Senate the real players in the Republican caucus will be the ones getting them over 60 on any particular measure, not the diehard naysayers. For another, I’m not sure the diehard naysayers in the Senate would accept McCain’s leadership even if it was offered.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Otherwise, he’s going to end up like any other short-timer with one lei in the grave: noted for his Viagra commercials.
Looks like Elizabeth Dole may be available to do some Viagra commercials…..
November 5th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I find it more than hilarious that a man (McCain) who spent a strange amount of time this year telling us and everyone how speeches don’t matter, its how you conduct business that matters to expect everyone to “forgive” him because of one speech he made that doesnt square up with the past 8 months of his campaigning, statements, behavior and manners. For me, he doesnt walk back from this. I never liked him much to begin with but was always fine with the open arms that seem to always welcome this man back from less than respectable acts, simply because he says he got lost in the moment, and has learned his lesson this time. He’s been “learning lessons” for over two decades and keeps making these kind of mistakes, time for people to realize he really is the corrupt bigot he keeps “accidentally” becoming.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I think that McCain is a self-punisher– he goes ahead and does the wrong thing again and again. It’s probably superfluous to say so, but he’s really not the sort of guy you’d want as President.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Well said, Matt. None of us is perfect, but when violating core principles one putatively holds for advantage only to apologize when the advantage disappears, becomes a pattern, there is no honor or sincerity in the apology. Good speech for McCain, but that’s it.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
When has McCain ever stuck to his principles when it would have hurt him? That is the question has to be answered if you want to defend McCain’s honor. But as MY says, if he wants to play a conciliatory role, this is politics, we’ll play ball.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Be very, very, very careful of people who are really, really good at constructing sincere-sounding apologies, particularly if they keep on doing bad things and then apologising for them. As a foreigner I’d never presume to tell Americans what they ought to do as regards McCain’s future political career, but if it was up to me I wouldn’t trust him with a job cleaning shithouses.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Let us remember that even Rick Santorum gave a gracious concesssion speech. Graciousness in defeat has to come relatively easily to these people; there’s really no downside to it and they don’t have to nervously walk a line between being an aggressive campaigner and an asshole. I’m just glad the people on my side consider graciousness, humanity and warmth to be winning qualities as well.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I think Bahrad is closest to correct on both fronts.
As to the speeches:
Apart from the obvious difference of last night’s night’s speech being in concession, among the main differences between the speeches given by the two was how they came into being.
As always, McCain didn’t compose his, but rather relied on the relationship between a mythological image and its caretaker, Mark Salter. That is, McCain, as a function of the same motivations that led him to the point of entrusting his public image to Salter from some time following the Keating 5 scandal, followed a by-now familiar pattern of trusting in the ability of Salter to come up with the words and phrases to express the sentiments appropriate to both the situation and, assuming McCain to be the person he chose to have the world to accept him as being, would be expressed by that person – that fiction being an American male for whom ‘heroic and honorable service to country’ is the first priority, and occupies a plane so much higher than anything else as to diminish to trivial the significance of all other features of his character.
If it were a music show, the main stage would open with The Star Spangled Banner sung acapella by Brooks & Dunn, get the audience warmed up with novelty acts like a barbershop quartet and a fiddle-and-washboard band, feature an orchestra in formal attire playing compositions by John Phillps Souza, and end with a Kate Smith imitator singing God Bless America.
As always, Obama assembled around a theme a set of aural images from those he’s developed over years of public speaking in a wide variety of contexts, including social interactions with thousands of widely – and in many instances wildly – diverse egos, brains and agendas, the law school lecture context featuring a heavy reliance on the Socractic exhange, small to extremely large groups; while leaving himself with room to add, substract, riff and deconstruct, to play off the circumstances and his audience’s mood.
If it were a music show, it would open with Motown, move through a mix of roos and post-hip-hop, morph into bebop, and finish with a poem interspersing words by Whitman and Ginzburg all set to the music of Copeland.
Thus McCain’s gave off the flat aspect of pscychopathy, and he had in to stop the production just to get his audience a few thousand back onto the semblance of civility; whereas Obama’s showed him in complete charge of his audience, manipulated through the timing with which we are becoming so familiar [It reminds me of the conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler.] over the ground of his Mozartian composition, with sparse reminders of previously developed themes, and the introduction of his latest new one.
As to the behavior we can anticipate from McCain in the Senate:
He was a wild, undisciplined, impatient and erratic young man; after Viet Nam into his middle years he was less wild and more focused, and still all those things, plus inconsistent and easily tempted; in his senior years he has shown himself still a bit less wild and a bit more focused, but still all those other things, plus grasping – and is now so old this exercise could well prove irrelevant.
But if, as in the past, he sticks with the familiar role models, we should expect him to try to emulate the late Goldwater. If he gets that right even half the time, that won’t be a bad thing.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I watched McCain’s speech (and all of the election returns) with a mixed race (mostly black, though) group of about 40 people at the Obama campaign office in my little neck of the woods in Florida. We all stopped talking and listened to the man and we generally were not impressed.
There was a clear sense in the room that McCain was trying to give African Americans a little pat on the head. It was all about race. We heard that clearly and we did not agree.
Also, someone in the room kept shouting “You suck!” while he spoke. Oh, wait. That was me!
November 5th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I felt the exact same way as Bahrad as well: racial patronizing. McCain pretty much said, “He’s black. He’s a black man. He’s come so far as a black man. Oh, and he’s black, too.”
There was no passion in what McCain said, he simply just said some words. And with the lack of credibility that he had just a short eight years ago, I really can’t give him credit for trying to walk back across a bridge that he helped burn.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Personally, I found McCain’s comments on the historic racial accomplishment offensive (even without the jeering). He’s basically complementing President-Elect Obama on overcoming the racism and bigotry in society that McCain did his best to stoke and use to his advantage.
November 5th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
yes, mccain’s concession speech was gracious: as gracious as his campaign was repulsive.
so what that he’s all apologetic? he always pulls this crap. mccain’s shtick is the politics of convenience quickly followed by hat-in-hand contrition. and someone whose values turn solely on the moment is a person without honor. not since st. augustine have the politics of public confession been raised to such a fine art.
we sound like domestic abuse victims when we jubiliantly celebrate the return of the “real’ mccain. you know when he hits us it means he loves us.
mccain ran a nasty, digusting campaign that catered to and validated the worst traits in our national character, which is the GOP MO. and b/c of that, I don’t think he can redeem himself either.
maybe the prodigal mccain fanboys should ask themselves why we need mccain’s redemption—especially on the left. obama, our guy, won with a clear, unapologetic progressive message. what more do we need at this moment?
a rehab mccain campaign merely revives the cult of personality politics that an issues-driven obama victory drove a stake through.
a better, saner america doesn’t need john mccain’s redemption. let’s leave him in the dustbin of history and move on.
November 5th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I agree 100% with Outsider up above. The one thing I will add is this:
McCain not only delivered a flat political concession speech without much feeling, he also missed an enormous opportunity to bolster the president-elect, or at least try to get his audience on a positive foot about the future. If his speech-writer were any good (or if it was he himself), he would have taken the finer points of Obama’s plans and put a strong voice behind them. Sure, that’s a delicate task to even attempt, considering his campaign’s continued attacks over the past few months. But it could have been done, and it would have gone a long way toward some sort of redemption for his selfish, dishonorable campaign.
Hillary Clinton, I think, delivered an extremely powerful concession speech (when she finally conceded) that energized people and gave them hope for what’s to come. While I know that’s a different story because they share the same party, I think a great man could do the same for an opponent from the other party. McCain is not that great man.
November 5th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Jim T, I don’t know why you’d think McCain would use a concession speech to bolster the president elect. The point is to concede defeat and congratulate the victor, generally followed by thanking supporters and promising to try harder to win next time.
I admit I hadn’t really thought about McCain’s speech in terms of being racially condescending. That is a valid point. But he could have made it a lot worse. If you look at transcripts of Kerry’s speech four years ago, he congratulates Bush briefly and returns to what he had wanted to accomplish. If he had done more than that (or tried to “bolster” Bush) I would have felt betrayed. By contrast, McCain almost wallows in defeat (at this point I start to think, hey maybe the boos are justified; what if the shoe was on the other foot?).
Hillary Clinton had a very different task, which was to pass the torch–regretfully–to a member of her own party and pledge her support. It would be unreasonable to expect McCain to apply similar rhetoric.
Finally, you can overanalyze a concession speech. McCain’s speech did its job. That’s all. The best eulogy in the world won’t bring the dead back to life.
November 5th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
You know, the one silver lining I kept thinking to myself, anytime I got to thinking that somehow, some way McC would win was: ‘He’s just doing all this stupid shit to win; when he gets in the white house, he’ll go back to being himself.’
I was trying really hard to find some sort of consolation at the thought of him winning.
November 5th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I thought McCain’s speech was wonderful! When he has reached the point of only appealing to the bitter dead-enders, he grasciously concedes, and alienates even them. Every gracious word he spoke, every cogent sentence about the race and its significance, simply indicted him all the more. The man simply has no ondependent judgement, does he, until it’s too late.
McCains speech was only topped by Mr. Ralph Nader’s “Uncle Sam or Uncle Tom” dichotomy, as posited on his Fox News interview. The interview did yoeman suicide prevention work, but Nader evaded his grasp, and was over the side of the bridge in a twinkling. You could hear him all the way down “That’s what I said, Uncle Sam or Uncle Tom”
My judgement is that Obama’s status as an “Uncle Tom” is one question Nader should have left to others, more qualified than he. Or more qualified then him, have it either way.
November 5th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
To sincerely help his supporters walk back from the hateful fringes McCain led them to during the campaign, he needs to mount a believable mea culpa and admit that all of his rants about Obama during the campaign were ill-advised and flat wrong, that the Bill Ayers thing was stupid and irrelevant and the celebrity meme was rooted in personal jealousy and the Palin pick was a huge mistake and reflected poor judgment on his part and that he became well aware that she was nowhere qualified for VP. much less President and he actually wonders about her qualifications to be a governor of Alaska. Anything less won’t do the job.
November 5th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Although McCain’s speech sounded noble, he used faint praise to lay his loss at the feet of race. President Bush followed suit with his “smooth transition” remarks today. As McCain warned repeatedly, “Listen to the rhetoric.”
I believe that this will become the Republican Party’s justification for yesterday’s sound whooping. On CNN last night, Bill Bennett stuck to the “America is still a center-right country” talking point and then excused himself before Obama’s win was projected. I laughed MAO as he denied that the GOP represents a very narrow slice of Americans. In narrow thinking, they have become small.
Being from the Chicagoland area, I felt a deep sense of pride as I watched a quarter million people gathered in Grant Park. The rich diversity of race, ethnicity, age, and social class the faces of “real” America to the world.
As the GOP finds itself picking up the pieces, I’m sure that they will find ways to further justify their losses rather than reflect, reexamine, and refocus their efforts to learn to embrace change.
November 5th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Mpowell,
Re: When has McCain ever stuck to his principles when it would have hurt him?
Er, under torture?
November 5th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
McCain will be a test case for the treatment of Republicans who’ve participated in or rationalized the party’s slimy campaigning over the past 20 years. Obama will have to come to terms with some of these people if he proposes to govern by consensus, just as JFK and LBJ had to come to terms with (semi-)reformed McCarthyite Republicans in the 1960s.
If Obama and the congressional Dems are smart, they will let journalists, bloggers and historians hang the negatives on McCain. There is no way that lasting progressive reforms in energy, environment, healthcare, financial regulation and education can be enacted without the support — or at least the acquiescence — of some Senate Republicans who’ve engaged in culture warfare, attacks on Democrats’ patriotism, “other”-bashing and the rest.
There simply aren’t enough Olympia Snowes and Colin Powells left for Obama to govern successfully without the cooperation of some tainted characters.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Great! Lets move them to your house.
.
November 6th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Hector:
No, sorry, not then either.
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