Politics and Culture

Karl Rove's assertion that John McCain is too reluctant (private) to talk about his impressive personal story (good in person, not so good in an election) contained the following story:

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.

Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complemented 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.

Modesty and personal courage are two wonderful character traits by themselves and three times more impressive when combined within the same individual.

And, there's sacrificial kindness:

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 airport 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. airport wearing the only clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-shirt she bought in the Bangkok airport." Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore. Mr. Gullett told me, "I never saw a hospital bill" for her care.

And, how many times have you heard the greatest advocate of the "surge" strategy in Iraq mention that his son (Take that, Michael Moore.) served with the USMC in Iraq and may be going back.

Now, let's take a look at Kerry, who couldn't drone four words without mentioning his service in Vietnam (After which, he threw the whole military under the bus [below].). If Kerry's son had bought an Neapolitan from an Iraqi ice cream vendor in Boston, Kerry probably would have worn a T-shirt with his son's face.

The following speculation may be unfair since Obama has never been in a similarly challenging circumstance (which is a point in and of itself), but can't you imagine Obama "condemning" Day after briefly telling the Vietcong: "I can no more distance myself from Day than I can from the American Navy."

That "thump" you imagine is the underside of the Obama express.