McCain vs. Obama

I have yet to see a McCain for President bumper sticker around here in bitter, backwoods country. But according to the pundits, this election is not so much about McCain's positives as Obama's negatives. So here’s a bumper sticker for us non-Obama fans.

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., editor-in-chief of The American Spectator, compares and contrasts the two Presidential candidates and provides the most complete bio I have read to date to explain why Sen. John McCain should be the next President in Captain McCain. You might be surprised to learn a lot about McCain that isn’t commonly known. I’m impressed and even more convinced McCain belongs in the White House.

Senator McCain brings with his candidacy a life spent in public service, on which I shall presently elaborate with insights from Grover Norquist, former Solicitor General Ted Olson, and another longtime AmSpec colleague, former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman. McCain's public service, however, is not of the kind bragged about by so many conventional Washington figures, which is to say, a life of personal hustle, shameless self-promotion, but with one's muzzle deep in the public trough and one's paw outstretched to every passing lobbyist. Public service for McCain began in the United States Navy following the exemplary careers of his father and grandfather. Then in 1982 he won a House seat. Then he replaced the retiring Senator Goldwater.

…Interviewed for this piece, Lehman told me of one of their earlier disagreements that reveals the senator's peculiar sense of public service. It was February 1981. Lehman had just become secretary of the Navy. Captain McCain dropped by his office to tell him he was quitting to run for Congress. Lehman objected, telling him he was certain to be promoted to admiral in the autumn and was on track to reach four stars. The young officer who had just been so effectual in reviving the military rejected the stars, stars his father and grandfather had won. He wanted to enter Congress, saying, as Lehman recalls: "The Navy's in good shape, but I have never seen such a f -- -ed up organization as Congress. I can do more to help the country there."

SENATOR OBAMA too brings with his candidacy a life of public service. He claims it is a different kind of public service than that of "the status quo in Washington," though it looks like status quo Washington to me -- at least as lived by the Clintons, the Gores, and every Kennedy ever heard of. Obama has been a political hustler throughout his adult life, so much so that by the end of his 2004 election to the Senate he was sending aides to Iowa to test his presidential prospects. That was a mere four years ago! Before that he spent eight years as an Illinois state senator, and before that he was a "community organizer."

Read the whole thing. Then make up your mind who to vote for. You might just come away with a different view of McCain vs. Obama.

And if you’ve noticed the McCain campaign has come to life lately with sharper attacks on Obama, guess why? His nickname is Sgt. Schmidt.

Jennifer Rubin at Pajamas Media reports the arrival of ex-Bush campaign wiz Steve Schmidt has breathed new life into the candidate's moribund efforts in The New and Improved John McCain