Dear Senator McCain:
My name is Patrick Bateman, and I work here in New York in Mergers and Acquisitions. I live at the American Gardens building on the Upper West Side, and I enjoy feeding stray cats to ATM machines.
The reason why I write today is to laud you and encourage you. Yes, that's correct. You see, I have hurled muck from this bully pulpit for a few weeks - at you, at Governor Palin (that won't stop) and at your party for its fearmongering and duplicity (likely ditto). But I will sling no more mud at your feet, Senator. Your journey is done. You have come many miles and it is time for you to have a well deserved rest - and a little bit of appreciation and understanding from this commentator.
So I write today to congratulate you, sir, on your concession speech last evening. It was one of the finest I have ever heard, and perhaps the most inspiring speech I personally have ever heard you give, Senator. It was conciliatory and supportive and you curtly cut down the negative elements in your crowd and commanded their attention, respect and that they keep their demonstrations of support positive.
I wish that your campaign had been more like your speech last night - but then again, if it had been, I think you would have been a more formidable opponent, and so perhaps I take that back. But last night, a glimmer of the man that many of us felt was a beacon of hope in the GOP years ago showed through. In your commendable address, to borrow a bit of the Star Wars comparison used by WAP in his post last night, I started to believe you were Darth Vader. You were seduced by the Dark Side of your party into compromising the ideals you once stood for in exchange for the ultimate Prize. But last night, as the final battle came to its then-inevitable conclusion, you were - as in the end of the Trilogy - redeemed. The Empire was defeated, but Anakin Skywalker, a good and decent man who simply chose the quick and easy path and got lost along the way, was given a second chance to do the right thing. I think that in losing, you, like Anakin, can reclaim your soul. In fact, I believe you will.
You have a job to do - you are still a Senator of the State of Arizona. You return to a Senate that is in need of a steady hand and leadership from both sides of the aisle to do what is necessary now in these troubled times. Let the light continue to shine through. Once it surrounded you and it is not too late for its return. It is never too late to reclaim the man you used to - a paradigm of what a politician should strive to be. The shackles of evil are off. You are unbound and free to return to Straight Talk and reason, moderation and cooperation.
We have serious problems and we need serious people to solve them. You were once one of these men. You could be again. In defeat, prevail. I have faith that this, your darkest hour, might too be the moment you turn it all around. This liberal is behind you, John. Be part of our new world. There is room for you to lead yet.
Sincerely,
Patrick Bateman
McCain Supporter 1999-2000
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10 comments:
Indeed. Great sentiment. While I think the whisper campaign for McCain in Obama's cabinet is silly, I would like to see the two game opponents form an alliance and work together. My biggest fear is that liberalism runs amuck in the Congress and demands concessions from the young president. Centrism is necessary here.
Obama wasn't pushed around by the Clintons, and he wasn't pushed around by McCain. What makes you think Pelosi is going to push him around?
As for McCain - one speech does not erase 4 months of race-baiting, lies and fear mongering. I question those who are praising last night's speech (a good one, no doubt) as the "real McCain." How do they know?
I don't think he will get pushed around, DP. But it is a whole different animal governing versus campaigning. Bit more fluid, DP. Not as many teleprompters around. It's not about staying on message because there is no message - it changes with each second.
I think he will be great. But he has no entitlement to it. He must earn it.
I agree with Bateman. You look forward. Campaigns are a "tough business" and he paid the appropriate political price. There was a man within a campaign that, admittedly, lost its way at moments into the darkness. To his credit or his detriment, he refused to mention Rev. Wright. I would have. Please give me instances of this "race-baiting" you talk about. I think he did his best as the GOP dam broke and its worst elements flooded out.
It's time to make peace and move forward. Nothing McCain did went beyond the outer limits of decency. He campaigned.
I hold him accountable, DP, for the fear-mongering that went on. But last night, that undercurrent was gone. It was as if he had stepped out from under the weight of the party he held on his shoulders and realized the old addage of being careful what you wish for. He became what he had most despised, and it is my HOPE (not expectation, but hope) that last night's speech was the beginning of his return to the man he used to be - someone, I might add, that I respected. Things were done and said that shouldn't have been. But that does not make the man unredeemable. There is good in him still - I sense it. I hope he does as well.
Examples of race-baiting? Well within the bounds of decency? Are you f'ing kidding? Wow, you've either got a short memory driven by the need to reconcile, or you didn't pay close attention. It was his campaign.
Pat - I agree that last night had a different tone, and more akin to the old McCain (I could nit-pick about his "associations" line, but I won't - too tired). I just question how anyone can be sure which guy is the real McCain at this point?
Like I said, one speech does not wash away 4 months of bad behavior (whether WAP wants to recognize the existence of that behavior, or not).
DP, you cannot even control your mouth let alone an organization of 100,000 individuals and 55,000,000 voters. The black bile of some at his rallies does not impugn McCain as a man and as the senator of Arizona.
Give me an instance, one moment, of something that cam out of McCain's mouth that was race-baiting? I want a verbatim quote. Not a surrogate. From the old horse's mouth.
Now, I did take offense at the one ad with an overall flavor of fear mongering in a Muslim context and I voiced my displeasure. His Real American shtick wasn't race-bating. Certainly divisive and ill-advised, but nothing to do with race.
Fear mongering? Absolutely, but do you remember 2004. We forget so quick the hatchet job performed on Kerry, like him or not.
Hey, DP. Just like you do not judge Obama based on what he heard from Wright, do you not extend the same courtesy to McCain from hearing the hatred of his townhall meeting participants?
There were times when McCain's negative almost went out-of-bounds (and Palin did go out of bounds and that's on McCain), but how would like to punish him? With a strongly worded letter? If anything, he helped Obama become the strident statesman you saw last night.
I'm tired and babbling. I want to go home and watch 90210 and not think for a night. Thinking is hard. Thinking hurts my head.
From Andy Sullivan: A classic from Cheney-toady Stephen Hayes at the Weekly Standard:
One writer for The Atlantic Monthly put it this way last week. "What I've learned from watching McCain these past two months is that there's nothing he wouldn't do if it could get him a small bump in a news cycle, polarize the electorate, and appeal to a rabid base that is now his only source of power." He added: "My view is that McCain has shown his character in this campaign: it's vicious, petty, lazy, reckless, vain and dishonorable."
Is there now a rule at TWS as well as at NRO to never link and (almost) never cite my name? And, by the way, yes: McCain revealed he is a total asshole in this campaign. It what he really is. And it was an ugly, hollow, vicious, cynical campaign that deserved to lose by a much bigger margin that it did.
Examples: Look no further than the Potatoe, where I covered this topic here:
http://danquaylespotatoe.blogspot.com/2008/10/baghdad-john.html
So get real. Wright was not working for the campaign. I am not talking about the people that shouted things at rallies (although McCain fostered that rage), I am talking about McCain and his campaign. You can't separate the man from the campaign - especially from the official campaign surrogates like Palin. It was HIS campaign. He is accountable.
The use of coded words and subtleties like "redistribution" and "he wants to take your hard earned money and give it to other groups of people" were loud and clear to the people looking for the racial signs.
Nvertheless, here is a blatent example of race-baiting from McCain's mouth:
"Who is the real Barack Obama?"
How about this official statement from the McCain campaign?:
"Barack Obama’s attacks on Americans who support John McCain reveal far more about him than they do about John McCain. It is clear that Barack Obama just doesn’t understand regular people and the issues they care about."
Oh yeah - this was in response to Obama's dismay at the shouts of terrorist, etc. at McCain and Palin rallies.
Or McCain's campaign co-chair calling him a "guy from the street."
GET REAL.
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