Athwarting the public

John McCain chooses Memorial Day to tell our service men and women that he doesn't want to "entice" them to not re-enlist, and then proceeds to remind them of his default position of endless war.

Conceding that the war in Iraq has divided the American people, Mr. McCain predicted that additional sacrifices would likely be necessary. He promised not to back down from his stance on the war, he said, “even if I must stand athwart popular opinion.”

“I do not know how I could choose any other course.”

Fortunately, that's what elections are for.

What's particularly interesting about the online story is the comments, which are relentlessly scathing, except for one:

I don’t always agree with McCain (as he moves right, I agree even less often), but at least he has the guts to stand by his principles and cast the tough, if unpopular, vote. He tries to do what he thinks is right, not easy. How many other Republicans could at least try to pass campaign finance reform and immigration reform? These laws have not always worked out as intended (see campaign finance), but at least McCain tries to reach across party lines to do things that he thinks will benefit the country. Given that I don’t agree with Obama and McCain on many policy issues (where is the center), I will probably vote for McCain for his character, courage and demonstrated ability to reach across party lines to get things done. This will be real change, and I can believe that McCain will do it!

Posted by Bruce

Hmmm. The exclamation point is a dead giveaway.