A Man of Strength and Courage

I'd be remiss if I didn't pick up on Monday morning's memo from Blogosphere Central. Every other blog seems to have commented on it, but it's just that astonishing that I have to add my voice to it. I'm talking, of course, about Nicholas Kristof's Sunday New York Times column singing the praises of that most amazing of mortals, John McCain. The piece is a logical and moral mess. I'm not even sure I can explain the argument. I think the main thesis is that we can tell that John McCain is a true man of principle because he's willing to set those principles aside when they're not convenient. He's not afraid to put a little English on his straight talk when that suits his purposes. Read it for yourself:

His most famous pander came in 2000, when, after earlier denouncing the Confederate flag as a "symbol of racism," he embraced it as "a symbol of heritage." To his credit, Mr. McCain later acknowledged, "I feared that if I answered honestly I could not win the South Carolina primary, so I chose to compromise my principles."

In short, Mr. McCain truly has principles that he bends or breaks out of desperation and with distaste. That's preferable to politicians who are congenital invertebrates.

I disagree with Mr. McCain on Iraq, taxes, abortion and almost every other major issue. He has a nasty temper, which isn't ideal for the hand holding a nuclear trigger. For a man running partly on biography, he treated his first wife, Carol, poorly. And one of the meanest put-downs in modern political history was a savage joke that Mr. McCain publicly related about Chelsea Clinton when she was 18 years old; it was inexcusable.

Now that's integrity! And keep in mind, this is Kristof rhapsodizing about McCain's good points.