Blogs For Victory

Being as its football season, and all that – ya know? Anyways…

Democrats had dared Sen. John McCain to show leadership on the Wall Street crisis and he stepped up. He put his campaign on hold Wednesday and challenged Sen. Barack Obama to postpone Friday’s debate, which Democrats had hoped to turn into a forum on failed Republican economic policies.

Less than a month after he canceled the first night of the Republican National Convention, Mr. McCain again flashed his signature maverick style, declaring President Bush’s proposed $700 billion bailout dead and, as he’s done so often in the past, said he could help broker a bipartisan deal to cut through the political clutter…

…The McCain campaign said last night that Mr. Obama’s refusal would not affect their plans. The Arizona senator announced that he was canceling his political commercials and would return to Washington after a final nonpartisan speech Thursday to the Clinton Global Initiative. He also said he was suspending fundraising, though the link on his Web site for contributions to his campaign compliance fund still worked Wednesday night.

Mr. McCain said top leaders from both parties should meet and hammer out details of a bill that that they would then present to their colleagues as the best solution possible – exactly the way he has crafted deals on other major issues, such as judicial nominees and immigration.

“I am confident that before the markets open on Monday, we can achieve consensus on legislation that will stabilize our financial markets, protect taxpayers and homeowners, and earn the confidence of the American people,” he said. “All we must do to achieve this is temporarily set politics aside, and I am committed to doing so.”

It occured to me yesterday morning – long before McCain’s announcement – that the key to understanding Obama is to realise that he always takes the easy way out. His whole life is nothing but a series of swift turns away from adversity and towards the open door. In a way, I actually understand this and I think its why – believe it or not – I’ve always felt a level of sympathy for Obama since he first rocketed on the scene. One of the things I had to overcome (and, indeed, am still overcoming, with God’s help) was my own desire to always take the easy way out.

Think about it – is Obama a liberal because liberalism appealed to him, or is it just that as a black college student being a liberal was a heck of a lot easier than being a conservative? Why did Obama work to get opponents off the ballot rather than be willing to mix it up with them? Why did Obama vote “present” so many times? Why did he spend his time in caucus States rather than working the more difficult rough and tumble of the big primary States? Why did he give in to Hillary’s absurd demand for a roll call vote? Why did he go with Biden? And, now, why was he caught flat-footed by John McCain in this financial crisis which is ready-made for a strong Democrat to run it for all its worth? Because each and every time the thing Obama decided to do was the easier thing – the less confrontational thing, the thing which held the least risk of Obama coming in second.

The best thing which can ever happen to a leader of a nation is to fail miserably one or more times early on – Lincoln in his Senate campaign; Churchill with the Dardanelles; Theodore Roosevelt with his election losses and bankruptcy in the cattle trade; Reagan with the collapse of his once-successful acting career and the breakup of his first marriage…the thing in common with all these failures is that they represent a failed attempt; these men tried to do something, came out badly, and emerged wiser and stronger for it. McCain has had his character-building failures – being a POW for years, the breakup of his first marriage, his loss in the 2000 GOP primary; he’s a tried and tested man who had done the hard things, lost at times, and is now ready to apply his wisdom to the problems of our age. Obama hasn’t dared greatly – heck, he hasn’t really dared at all; he’ll be eaten alive by the Presidency, if he manages to win it.

Obama has in him the seeds of greatness – he really does, even though his politics are liberal. But until he’s tempered with some hard reality and/or obtains some hard and fast executive experience, he’s just too weak a reed for America to rely on in these troubled times. Needless to say, some of this tempering would do Obama well in the policy area, too – the facts of life, as Margaret Thatcher pointed out, are conservative…and the more a person is exposed to the hard realities of life the more likely he is to become conservative in his views, or at least to modify the more flighty aspects of liberalism (its the difference between war-hero JFK’s liberalism and never-suffered-a-minute Ted Kennedy’s liberalism).

The tmes call for a man of maturity, wisdom and proven courage – the times call for John McCain. Obama’s day may yet come, but it isn’t today – and, actually, the worst thing which could happen to him at this juncture (and to us, incidentally) is for him to win. He’s not ready, McCain is. Let’s go with McCain.