John McCain Faces Off With Cindy Sheehan
Senator John McCain often tells a story about one of his fellow inmates in the Hanoi prison camp where he spent five and a half years. Mike Christian was a humble but courageous Navy pilot from Alabama who fashioned a small American flag from scraps of cloth using a homemade bamboo needle. He sewed that American flag on the inside of his shirt to hide it from the North Vietnamese.
McCain relates that Christian would hang his shirt on the wall of their sparse cell every afternoon and they would all salute the flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Under the conditions they were forced to live says McCain, that small ritual was the highlight of the day.
At one point, the Communists found the American flag sewn inside Christians shirt and they beat him to within an inch of his life. No sooner was he back in the cell than he began sewing another American flag.
The interesting thing about this story is that it not only says something about Mike Christian, but that it may say something pretty powerful about the teller. John McCain, although very well known and popular in a general sort of way has, nonetheless, somewhat of an image problem with the Republican base. He’s seen as a political chameleon who often allies with the wrong side.
That’s why when I heard that he had agreed to meet with Cindy Sheehan, my reaction was that he was attempting to appease the Democrats he might need to rely on in another Presidential bid.
But that’s not how it shook out. Instead of kissing up to the Sheehan Threat Machine, he stood his ground, and that made Sheehan a very angry woman. "He is a warmonger, and I’m not," Sheehan said after their meeting. "I believe this war is not keeping America safer."
McCain’s reply was calm and matter-of-fact, "She’s entitled to her opinion. We just have fundamental disagreements."
McCain is a consumate politician so I would be very surprised if this whole thing was not calculated, at least to some degree, to demonstrate to the conservative base of the Republican Party that he isn’t intimidated by the likes of Sheehan. But I would also like to think that, like his willingness to pledge allegiance to the American flag in defiance of the enemy so many years ago, his willingness to defy a new enemy demonstrates a strength of character that may play well with the Republican base.