McCain still has enough time to lose with dignitySusan Estrich, Scripps Howard
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Losing a presidential race is not an easy thing. Losing the primary is one thing. But making it to the finals, and then watching it slip through your fingers is one of those experiences from which few people ever fully recover.
If it's a race for re-election, a first term that doesn't become a second, at least you can go off, build the library and console yourself that you're a member of the club. If you're young enough, you can convince yourself that there is always next time, that the next campaign is only days away. Even if you never run again, you can get a long way thinking you might.
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There will be no such solace for John McCain if he loses. He tried twice. He made it to the finals. He is too old to try again. It will be someone else's turn next time.
And it's not clear, even if the talking heads don't want to admit it, that there is anything he can do now to change an outcome. You can "what if" the race to death: what if he hadn't picked Sarah Palin; what if the economy hadn't collapsed; what if Hillary Clinton had won instead of Barack Obama? But "what is" matters, not "what if." He did pick Palin; the economy did collapse; and I think Hillary would have beaten him.
At this point, almost everything that matters is beyond McCain's control. He can't control the fact that the Dow has collapsed, that Joe the Plumber has a lien on his house, that Palin doesn't read newspapers, or that Obama doesn't make mistakes.
He is on the verge of the final days of a campaign that he will second-guess for the rest of his life. He may not be able to do anything to change the numbers on Nov. 4. But there is one thing he can do. He can decide how he will go out, what kind of man America will see, whether the candidate America remembers will be the one who started this race, the one who served in the Senate with distinction, the one who crossed congressional aisles to do what was right, the one who stood up for Kerry when he was being swift-boated; or a bad copy of the guy who beat him by playing dirty politics in 2000.
McCain brought tears to my eyes in 1988 when he led the Republican Convention in the Pledge of Allegiance. He made me believe there was such a thing as principle when he stood up to the scumbags trashing him in 2000, stood up to the scumbags trashing Kerry in 2004, stood up to the talk-show hosts spreading anti-immigrant ire in 2007.
I haven't seen that guy lately. I haven't seen the guy who carried his own briefcase and was willing to take every question and do his best to tell the truth in answering them.
What I've seen is another desperate politician tossing mud at his rival.
Maybe with the economy the way it is, the Bush presidency as unpopular as it is, the desire for change as great as it is, there was never a chance for the guy McCain used to be. It may be too late for him to win with dignity, but there is still time for him to lose that way.
It will matter to him for the rest of his life. It matters to the process he has fought for and to the country to which he has dedicated his life. Two weeks isn't much time. But it's time enough to change the way the ending feels, if not how it plays.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/oct/25/changing-the-ending/?partner=RSS*she said this on one of the Fox shows also. what a sweetheart
Topic: Susan Estrich tells McCain "lose w/dignity" (Read 554 times)