Happiness is a warm sense of honor

"They have given me this amazing gift of not only being invited into their inner circle, into their intimate moments, but to also document this amazing journey that they are experiencing," writes New York photographer Heather Brand, McCain daughter Meghan's friend and co-blogger at McCainBlogette.com, aptly described by CBS News recently as "an insider's view, offbeat and sometimes surprisingly intimate." (Heather Brand photo of Cindi and John McCain relaxing and working aboard campaign plane)

" . . .  young Americans, no less than earlier generations, understand that happiness is much greater than the pursuit of pleasure and can only be found by serving causes greater than self-interest," said John McCain in his totally awesome "In the Year 2000 2013" speech in Columbus, OH this morning. In our own, half-paying-attention view, the Arizona Senator pushed more than a few of the right buttons, but for a more thoughtful anaysis of the McCain agenda  — published pre-speech — see Robert Bidinnotto's "The coming November blow-out."  As soon as McCain finished, we headed over to John McCain for President to grab the transcript for later fine-tooth-combing and found ourselves signing up to become a Team McCain member and McCainSpace blogger (correct term?):

We are reviewing the website you have created and we will contact you once your site is live.

Thanks again for your support and we will send you an email once your site is approved so you can start spreading the word about your page!

What hath God wrought? While we're waiting for approval, here's what this reluctant McCain supporter wrote in the comments over there:

The heart of [McCain's speech] echoes Pope Benedict XVIs overarching message warning of a "dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has, as its highest goal, one's own ego and one's own desires."

"For John McCain, principle is fundamentally about honor — personal honor: about keeping his word, about doing what is right and doing it well," wrote Reason Magazine's Michael W. Lynch in a 1999 profile, "The Good Soldier," blogged here a couple of months back as we began to develop our rationale for voting for a man whose "principles" had often stuck in our craw. If you're so inclined, get your McCain gear here.

Go, Johnny, go! But not to worry. While we can be as "outrageously credulous" — Umberto Eco's exquisite formulation [via Ed Driscoll via Maggie's] — as the next person when the spirit moves us, unlike Michelle Obama and the Obamaniacs, we're walking into this thing with our eyes wide open. As we wrote in our post "How I learned to stop worrying and love John McCain" last winter:

"Nothing in America is inevitable. We are the captains of our fate. We can overcome any challenge as long as we keep our courage and stand by our principles," Super-Duper Tuesday's Republican man of the hour John McCain told supporters and the immediate universe in his Victory Party speech last night [via A Second Hand Conjecture]. The words were what we disaffected freedom-loving, small-government-embracing, invisible-hand-holding types thought we'd never hear from the free-speech-restricting, anthropogenic-global-warming-proseletyzing, economics-challenged frontrunner who is enjoying what Shepard Smith is calling a "monster lead" over rivals Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. Who knew the proprietor of the Fast-Talking Straight Talk Express had principles?

Michelle Obama's plaint that "our souls are broken" and only her hubby can fix 'em seems perhaps an unwitting revelation of the left elitist version of how to achieve McCain's "happiness [that] is much greater than the pursuit of pleasure and can only be found by serving causes greater than self-interest." Forget about following your own star, and leave it to your betters to figure out what's best for you. Senator Obama tells us "This election is not about me … "It's about you," but behind his soothing and sound-bite-worthy if shopworn rhetoric lurks the Hillaryesque assumption that "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

Note: Googling for some of our earlier John McCain blogging, we realized he's been in our thoughts — and posts — dozens of times through the years, mostly as the object of our scorn until recently, when we learned to stop worrying. We're starting a new category called "Go, Johnny, go" (see left column just below Pajamas Media ad) and will be filing all those posts there for our readers' — and our own — convenience.

Comments

[Gayle Miller]

Maybe Michelle Obama's soul is broken but mine is just fine, thank you very much!

The dearth of depth in Barack Obama and his campaign is quite stunning. There is no there there.

John McCain was not in any way my first choice, or even my second choice. But he should NOW be the nation's choice - any alternative other than McCain is frightening and unthinkable.

Incidentally Sissy, having that mouse pad with the Babe on it is awesome and makes me smile throughout my work day. Drinking from the Teddy Bear mug helps too!

So all y'all who haven't ordered something for yourselves, get with it!

[goomp]

You are supporting the only candidate other than the withdrawn Mitt Romney who would not be a total disaster for the future of the USA. John McCain may not have the complete understanding of how the economy works or which issues are somewhat irrelevant, but he is a man of honor and he understands how human nature works. I think he will learn and will do the right thing when the time comes.

[Laura Lee Donoho]

Yes, it is time we give John McCain the credit and honor he deserves. I'm for him and contributed to his campaign today. You were there first Sissy. Always a forward thinker.