Courage Under Fire – A Tale Of Two Senators, Obama And McCain

COURAGE UNDER FIRE – A TALE OF TWO SENATORS, OBAMA AND McCAIN

Dr Robin McFee

If, as Sen. Obama states, the Wall Street fiasco is the single most important issue facing the American public, why was he glad-handing for much of the day while serious players went into action? Telling the Congress and by extension the American public – including the folks who voted for him that he still represents, “if you need me call” is an insult. His argument that the American people need to know their candidates – justifying his continuous “meet and greet” sessions with the notion that the average citizen really cares more about what the new president will do in four months instead of an elected senator fulfilling his obligation to address a crisis today – it is ludicrous. But it was informative – the average American got to see firsthand how Barack Obama handles a crisis – he gets an ice cream cone and chats it up with the folks while letting the real leaders fight it out in Washington, trying to solve the problem.

Of course in all fairness, perhaps Obama was thinking about the energy crisis – it takes a lot of jet fuel to fly a candidate with all his Secret Service agents, and dozens of advisors, portable generators for the remote teleprompters and extra books for autograph hounds back to Washington. Since the Senator rarely makes a decision to vote anyway, why expend the gas? Much of his voting record looks like he’s advertising for Nevada given the initials “NV” (No Vote) are after his name as much or more than a Yes or No vote. Of course at the last hour, not wanting to be upstaged by Sen. McCain, or perhaps not wanting to break a pretty impressive record in his case referred to as “present,” Sen. Obama finally took his seat at the grown-ups table. He offered no ideas, no insights beyond his sound bite concern offered after he left the meeting that the cameras focused on the candidates may have changed the equation. Is that is the best insight Sen. Obama can bring to an almost trillion dollar catastrophe in American economics? What is most surprising is his blasé approach to his job. Last I checked, the citizens of Illinois hired Barack Obama to represent, protect, warn and assist them. Of course, if he bothered to show up once in a while he might have noticed some things were going amiss in Washington. But then, it is really hard to sit dozens of advisors in one Senator’s seat. Obama without handlers does not seem equipped to respond to, let alone solve, real time challenges.

Contrast this with Sen. McCain – upon hearing about the outrageous bail out, bereft of safeguards for the taxpayer, he announced he would stop campaigning and get back to Washington. Whether this was a politically astute maneuver is irrelevant; he was hired to represent the people, and to do so required his presence on the job.

But this isn’t the first time Sen. McCain put duty first and took the moral high-ground. During Hurricane Ike, he delayed the Republican National Convention. His rationale – it is unseemly to celebrate when fellow Americans are losing their homes or facing a crisis. Apparently Sen. Obama doesn’t believe his own words about the financial crisis as harmful to the public. If he did, then why go about campaigning business as usual?

It is not just domestic economic issues where one can see the difference between McCain and Obama. Consider their respective resumes – Sen. McCain has been a military leader, war veteran, and long-standing member of Congress. He has earned bipartisan cooperation from some of the most partisan Democrats. And, he has had the courage to vote against his party. He votes. He does what he can to get the job done. Meanwhile, Sen. Obama seems divisive and highly partisan, with little significant legislation either authored or co-authored by him and an absentee record that would get the average employee fired. No one can take away from Obama his clear intelligence, but if you wrote in bullet points the major activities of each candidate, the difference is difficult to ignore. Obama may have what it takes become a statesman, but a few years at activism, a few years in a state legislature (giving the benefit of the doubt – attendance record notwithstanding) and a few in the U.S. Senate, while important achievements to be sure, are light on the experience and outcomes.

Leadership matters when you are going to be the leader of the free world. Sen. McCain has liteally shown leadership under fire, as a squadron commander during a time of war, sending friends and comrades to do a difficult job that may cost them their lives. Name a life or death job, or decision that Sen. Obama has been involved in, or name a major decision or issue he has taken a leadership role in.

While a war record isn’t necessarily a valid prerequisite to be an effective president, if you are going to be the Commander in Chief, it might be good for the morale of the troops you lead, to know you have worn the uniform and walked the walk. Leadership comes from leading. It is decision-making with a following. And the kind of people you attract is a reflection of who you are as a leader. People are judged by the company they keep because it exemplifies the level of judgment to choose to associate with those people. Why a presidential candidate would still associate with a co-founder of the domestic terrorist organization the Weather Underground (William Ayers) who still thinks damaging other peoples’ property is ok if the cause is just – and who is unrepentant about the people who died from his groups actions – it is beyond incredible. To counter criticism with the lame excuse that he was a child when Bill Ayers was wreaking havoc is disingenuous – all but the most partisan supporters acknowledge Obama worked closely with and had his early political career aided by Ayers. Attending an overtly racist church lead by a U.S.-hating, racist pastor – and then claiming he never heard the venomous rhetoric that made the news suggests a lack of intellectual honesty. Hanging out with soon-to-be incarcerated folks isn’t exactly the kind of lineup you want in your campaign yearbook. The folks you surround yourself reflect upon you and are a reflection of your character and judgment.

Leadership also involves instinct and sensitivity. Reading the mood of the public and putting the needs of disenfranchised constituents ahead of ambitions is critical to good leadership. Many say that if Sen. Obama had selected Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate he’d be the odds-on favorite to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But his personal feelings about Hillary – his rival who just happened to represent millions of women, who, like the African-American community, are looking for a piece of “history in the making” on Election Day – got in the way. As for Sen. McCain, the conventional wisdom had Gov. Mitt Romney or Gov. Tom Ridge as the likely running mate. However, McCain realized women felt “dissed” when Hillary was passed over.

Enter Gov. Sarah Palin. She may not resonate with every woman, but her resume indicates she is a legitimate selection for running mate. Palin held two executive positions – mayor and governor. And by all accounts, she did a great job with the former and continues to be highly effective in the latter. The McCain – Palin ticket, ignoring party politics, is, on paper and in reality the only team with battle tested leadership and executive experience. If Obama can be outplayed by a fellow Senator in his own country, while enjoying a lead in the polls, then how can anyone expect the senator from Illinois to keep up with savvy, brilliant and cunning adversaries on a dangerous world stage like Putin, Ahmadinejad, Chávez, and others? We already got a glimpse of Sen. Obama’s foreign policy “prowess” when Russia invaded Georgia – he ran to his advisors and came up with an answer – a few days after McCain weighed in. McCain didn’t need to read tea leaves, wet his finger to the wind to see which direction it was blowing or look it up on Wikipedia – he sent a clear message to the Kremlin.

Michael Douglas, playing the President in the movie The American President, opined that being the chief executive is all about character. As we approach November 4th, do we put party before country? Do we elect a leader or a leader in training? Do we select someone who occasionally showed up for work? Or someone who has worked tirelessly over the course of decades for the American public? Is partisan politics, the art of winning so important that we drop our common sense or do we think who understands foreign policy? Who has the courage to call evil what it is? Who understood that running for one office, doesn’t mean abandoning the one you are in?

We live in dangerous times. If I was an adversary of the U.S. or a terrorist, this would be the time to challenge the U.S. or strike – our economy is wobbling, our energy policy is ineffective, our reliance on foreign oil is a significant weakness – several of our domestic security programs are off line or not fully operational, our allies are on the sidelines, and our military, though the best in the world, is stretched and overburdened. Is now the time to put someone in the Oval Office who has the potential to grow into the job?

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Robin McFee is a physician and medical toxicologist. An expert in WMD preparedness, she is a consultant to government agencies, corporations and the media. Dr. McFee is a member of the Global Terrorism, Political Instability and International Crime Council of ASIS International. She has authored numerous articles on terrorism, health care and preparedness, and coauthored two books: Toxico-Terrorism by McGraw Hill and The Handbook of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Agents, published by Informa/CRC Press.

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