McCain, the living symbol, whom no man may criticize

Mona Charen writes at NRO:

They say that John McCain harbors a particular dislike for Romney. And why would that be? Well, Romney is pretty much the only candidate in the race who has had the temerity (a.k.a. cash) to run ads criticizing McCain. The senator from Arizona has some fine qualities but no one has ever suggested that enduring criticism manfully is one of them. He tried his best to make such effrontery illegal with the McCain/Feingold campaign finance law. Romney found a loophole and Sen. McCain is irritated….

McCain’s phosphorescent patriotism is his most appealing trait. But in the past few weeks, as he has been winning, his love of country has been riding in tandem with a signally unattractive love of self.

- end of initial entry -

Sage McLaughlin writes:

The question with McCain isn’t whether he possesses a burning love of country. The question is, in what does this love of country consist? As nearly as I can tell, McCain’s patriotism consists in the all-important fact that it produces people like himself. Thus an attack on him is an attack on America. Thus his purple-faced rage over any criticism or any obstruction of any part of his agenda, and thus also his more or less explicit claim that to examine his record is to attack his patriotism.

McCain’s overweening and unseemly obsession with his own time as a POW has given him an obvious and unhealthy sense of entitlement—America owes him, damn it, and don’t you forget it. He is, in short, a man whose supposed positive qualities only point to much uglier ones, and the end result is that I can find absolutely nothing to offer in the way of praise for the man. Part of serving honorably is wearing your service well after the fact, and McCain hasn’t even done that much. I’d like to see somebody in the punditocracy acknowledge that fact—but then, if he gets the nomination, we may very well see it, at long last.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 01, 2008 01:00 PM | Send