Grace Under Fire

On Tuesday evening, Senator John McCain gave the best speech of his campaign: he conceded victory to President-Elect Obama, and more importantly, he acknowledged the historic nature of that win.

Up until this past year, I had admired Senator McCain, and not just for the obvious reasons: the heroism he had shown in war or the principled stances he adopted on campaign finance reform and immigration. I also deeply respected his decision not to engage in the ugly racial smear tactics that were used against him by Karl Rove in North Carolina in 2000 when phone calls suggested that he had a black illegitimate daughter.

McCain made many mistakes in this campaign and in recent weeks stooped to tactics that were not worthy of him. But he never played the race card. There was no Willie Horton in this campaign, and for that I continue to respect him.

But I was also moved and saddened by the emergence of his former self in his concession speech. In the past few months McCain has seemed uncomfortable in his own skin, perhaps regretting his moves to the right to court the Republican base, perhaps unnerved and disheartened by the bigotry displayed at his own campaign rallies from people who called Obama a “Muslim” and a “socialist” as if those were two of the seven dirty words you can't say on the air.

On Tuesday night, McCain hushed the boos from the audience; he took full responsibility for his loss. “The failure is mine,” he said, but not before he had alluded to the seismic change this election represents in American history.

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he 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.

This is the John McCain who believes in the power of American democracy and not just winning elections, the man who can recognize that the expansion of the electorate and the record numbers of Americans who cast their votes, many of them for the first time, was something to celebrate and not something to try to suppress, the man who can acknowledge the “special pride” of black Americans who know that the United States truly is a land of opportunity when a man who might not have been able to vote freely a half century earlier in the American south can now lead this country as its President.

I appreciate Senator McCain's long service to this country and I hope to see the real John McCain, who exhibits grace under fire, continue to serve in the United States Senate for many years to come.