I feel proud to post this.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120951606847454685.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
Getting to Know John McCain
By KARL ROVE
April 30, 2008; Page A17
It came to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day. No, not that
Doris Day. The Doris Day who is married to Col. Bud Day, Congressional
Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of
John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton.
As we ate near the Days' home in Florida recently, I heard things about
Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving
because they told me things about him the American people need to know.
And troubling because it is clear that Mr. McCain is one of the most
private individuals to run for president in history.
[Getting to Know John Mccain]
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Col. (Ret.) Bud Day with John McCain at a campaign stop in Pensacola,
Fla., in January.
When it comes to choosing a president, the American people want to know
more about a candidate than policy positions. They want to know about
character, the values ingrained in his heart. For Mr. McCain, that means
they will want to know more about him personally than he has been
willing to reveal.
Mr. Day relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It
involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese
prison during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke
his arm and said, "I told you I would make you a cripple."
The break was designed to shatter Mr. Day's will. He had survived in
prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and
be able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a
bone sticking out of his arm, and put him in a misshapen cast. This was
done so that the arm would heal at "a goofy angle," as Mr. Day
explained. Had it done so, he never would have flown again.
But it didn't heal that way because of John McCain. Risking severe
punishment, Messrs. McCain and Day collected pieces of bamboo in the
prison courtyard to use as a splint. Mr. McCain put Mr. Day on the floor
of their cell and, using his foot, jerked the broken bone into place.
Then, using strips from the bandage on his own wounded leg and the
bamboo, he put Mr. Day's splint in place.
Former POW Earnest Brace describes conversations with John McCain
through the walls of a Hanoi prison.
Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complimented the
treatment he'd gotten from his captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was
Dr. McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again.
Another story I heard over dinner with the Days involved Mr. McCain
serving as one of the three chaplains for his fellow prisoners. At one
point, after being shuttled among different prisons, Mr. Day had found
himself as the most senior officer at the Hanoi Hilton. So he tapped Mr.
McCain to help administer religious services to the other prisoners.
Today, Mr. Day, a very active 83, still vividly recalls Mr. McCain's
sermons. "He remembered the Episcopal liturgy," Mr. Day says, "and
sounded like a bona fide preacher." One of Mr. McCain's first sermons
took as its text Luke 20:25 and Matthew 22:21, "render unto Caesar what
is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." Mr. McCain said he and his
fellow prisoners shouldn't ask God to free them, but to help them become
the best people they could be while serving as POWs. It was Caesar who
put them in prison and Caesar who would get them out. Their task was to
act with honor.
Another McCain story, somewhat better known, is about the Vietnamese
practice of torturing him by tying his head between his ankles with his
arms behind him, and then leaving him for hours. The torture so badly
busted up his shoulders that to this day Mr. McCain can't raise his arms
over his head.
One night, a Vietnamese guard loosened his bonds, returning at the end
of his watch to tighten them again so no one would notice. Shortly
after, on Christmas Day, the same guard stood beside Mr. McCain in the
prison yard and drew a cross in the sand before erasing it. Mr. McCain
later said that when he returned to Vietnam for the first time after the
war, the only person he really wanted to meet was that guard.
Mr. Day recalls with pride Mr. McCain stubbornly refusing to accept
special treatment or curry favor to be released early, even when gravely
ill. Mr. McCain knew the Vietnamese wanted the propaganda victory of the
son and grandson of Navy admirals accepting special treatment. "He
wasn't corruptible then," Mr. Day says, "and he's not corruptible today."
The stories told to me by the Days involve more than wartime valor.
For example, in 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa's orphanage
in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The
orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so
Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at
the air****t by her husband, who asked what all this was about.
Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years
of rehabilitation. "I hope she can stay with us," she told her husband.
Mr. McCain agreed. Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget.
I was aware of this story. What I did not know, and what I learned from
Doris, is that there was a second infant Mrs. McCain brought back. She
ended up being adopted by a young McCain aide and his wife.
"We were called at midnight by Cindy," Wes Gullett remembers, and "five
days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the L.A. air****t wearing the
only clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-****rt she
bought in the Bangkok air****t." Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore.
Mr. Gullett told me, "I never saw a hospital bill" for her care.
A few, but not many, of the stories told to me by the Days have been
written about, such as in Robert Timberg's 1996 book "A Nightingale's
Song." But Mr. McCain rarely refers to them on the campaign trail. There
is something admirable in his reticence, but he needs to overcome it.
Private people like Mr. McCain are rare in politics for a reason.
Candidates who are uncomfortable sharing their interior lives limit
their appeal. But if Mr. McCain is to win the election this fall, he has
to open up.
Americans need to know about his vision for the nation's future,
especially his policy positions and domestic reforms. They also need to
learn about the moments in his life that shaped him. Mr. McCain cannot
make this a biography-only campaign – but he can't afford to make it a
biography-free campaign either. Unless he opens up more, many voters
will never know the experiences of his life that show his character,
integrity and essential decency.
These qualities mattered in America's first president and will matter as
Americans decide on their 44th president.
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Posted by HOPPIE, 30 Years Active Duty ,11 Campaigns Vietnam, 100% DAV,
Life Member; Am.Lgn,DAV,VFW,AFSA,VVA.
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