My Alma Mater Goes McCain

From the Yeshiva University "The Commentator":

attempts to distinguish between John McCain's military and political behavior miss the point. John McCain is not simply (simply!) a military hero. Throughout his political career, and most particularly on the biggest issues, he has demonstrated courage to do what he thinks is right for the country when it will hurt his political career. Despite his long years in Washington, D.C. and his heroic history, he has never allowed the Beltway culture to dominate his thoughts or personality. He doesn't wink at petty corruption or speak in the tongues of the Senate. He doesn't vote for a bill before he votes against it; and he doesn't vote for something because others expect him to follow nicely and politely in line. He acts based on his conscience and what he thinks is right.

...He has been an independent thinker since he arrived in Congress. On foreign policy, he opposed the Republican President Reagan on sending Marines to Beirut and supported the Democratic President Clinton in Congress on dispatching troops to Kosovo.

And in the recent Iraq War, as his presidential aspirations seemed to dissolve in the smoke of suicide bombings and turmoil of 2005 and '06, McCain did not waver in his advocacy of a strong prosecution of the war.

...What further separates John McCain from other politicians is that his independence has allowed him to maintain a bond with the common man and his own common sense...

...Many high-minded individuals go to Washington with John McCain's sense of principle; few have a record of demonstrating it for decades.

...We are now fighting two wars, a struggling economy and a broken Washington culture. The next president will have enormous power to reshape the economic landscape and place his stamp on the world. John McCain is not perfect; he has a ready temper, for one. This man is no Messiah.

...this we know about John McCain: he will always be battling for the average American. He will always place country first.