It Is Still Worth Fighting For

I was going to type up a lengthy closing argument for as to why I am voting for John McCain. I may still do so. But it would be hard to encapsulate those reasons better than Jay Nordlinger has done with this short post over at The Corner:

There are a lot of people who didn’t like Edmund Morris’s biography of Reagan, which was authorized — they said it was a failure, or at least a missed opportunity. I don’t know. I didn’t read it. But I do know this: Morris had one insight into Reagan, and it was perfectly observed.

Reagan spent his entire life standing up to the bully. From boyhood on, he interposed himself between the bully and the innocent. He stood up to the bullies in his schools. He stood up to the Communists in Hollywood, and to the coercive unions. He stood up to the student radicals and their abettors. He stood up to the Soviets.

He simply stood up.

In the world today are a lot of bullies to stand up to: al-Qaeda, the mullahs, the North Koreans, the Chinese Communists, the Castro brothers, Chávez. John McCain will almost certainly do it. Barack Obama will almost certainly not.

That’s one reason — probably the biggest reason — I’m voting for McCain on Tuesday.

(Read my take and further comments after the leap)

There is a lot to being President of the United States.

You have to stand up. You have to stand up and fight.

Name me one time that Barack Obama has ever really stood up in his life and fought for something greater than himself and it will be the first. No, “community organizing” with Bill Ayers doesn’t count.

Barack Obama has made a career out of voting present or signing on late to bipartisan measures so full of consensus that they pass by unanimous consent and voice votes.

Even when I have damned him for it, John McCain has stood up and fought. He has fought for things that he believed in, even when others did not share that view, and even (especially, even) when what he was fighting for was not popular. He did it anyway.

As it was said memorably much earlier in another context by someone else and paraphrased here, it’s true that when history calls out for a strong choice on some issue, I often say “No!” as John McCain, on the television, declared “Yes!” And in response to that same choice, Barack Obama has answered loud and clear in his brief time in elected office: “Present!”

The contrast between such bravery and such mealy-mouthed vapidity and effete wishy-washiness is astounding.

America is not done yet. Not by a long shot. But the trying times and immense challenges of the present and the likely future are insurmountable by a fresh face spouting empty words.

Action is required, and that action requires someone that knows what they are doing and has taken real action before. There is only one man in this race that fits that requirement.

Ultimately, for all of its flaws, America is still worth fighting for.

I choose to fight for her.

I choose the man that will fight for her.

I choose the only candidate that will fight for her.

I choose John McCain.