The summer between college and grad school, I worked at the Department of Commerce. One day I was just coming to work and McCain and an aide were leaving the building.
"Excuse me?" I said. "Senator McCain?"
"Yes?" he said, turning around.
"You're my friend Rob's hero." His face broke into a wide smile. He stepped forward and pumped my hand. "He named his van 'the Straight Talk Express annex," I gushed.
McCain's laugh was deep and genuine.
"That's great to hear." He said. "Tell Rob I said hello. I'd write him a note, but I don't have any paper on me."
Indeed, I didn't either and neither did the aide. So a verbal "hello" was going to have to do.
Senator McCain and I said goodbye.
It's hard to believe that the gracious dude who shook my hand eight years ago has
turned into this guy.
For the record, Rob's an Obama supporter too now.
CC
3 comments:
A good article I hadn't seen.
Eight years of wanting to be president and seeing the football repeatedly pulled out of reach -- in South Carolina in 2000; by the necessity of rallying 'round the incumbent after 9/11; by the GOP's unpopularity and a sudden dive in the economy in 2008 -- will screw a guy up.
I think the "happy warrior" side of McCain is coming back, though; the ugliness that he and Palin were rousing among their supporters seems to have shocked him.
What makes you think that John McCain "turned into" someone else? You offered him praise and he responded graciously. Perhaps if you had offered him opposition and criticism at the time he might not have responded quite so graciously. Who knows? He might have even used the 'C' word on you. . . He does have a well established reputation for being rather short-tempered doesn't he?
He really is not the same guy Rob and I met in South Carolina in '99. It makes me a bit sad.
People ask Rob if this campaign has been hard for him to decide who to support, and his answer is always an unequivocal no, because it is not the same John McCain.
It was 2002 when Rob and first started saying to each other "What is he doing? Why would he say that?", primarily regarding the war in Iraq, and McCain really hasn't been the same since.
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