John McCain would be far more valuable alive, spry, and well, being a maverick on Capitol Hill, making everyone uncomfortable, including Trump. But, none of us control our fate when it comes to that godforsaken disease, and John McCain was taken from us in a moment when perhaps we needed him most.
McCain seems to have realized this with the clarity one might expect from a man who had literally seen it all, from all the parties and women, to the torture, to the flying, to the debates for the presidency, the maverick of the Senate. He is going out on his terms, and sending a message that is taking a toll on McCain’s last nemesis, and a man McCain saw as a threat to the nation he loved, Trump.
First, we have the fact that Trump will botch anything, even the easiest of duties for the president. A hero dies, your staff has prepared a statement befitting the loss of an essential American, imperfect, yet perfectly suited for the times. Trump nixes it, sends a tweet deliberately leaving McCain out. Trump’s response reportedly sent Sarah Huckabee-Sanders – in Trump’s own words, into a “nervous breakdown.”
Asked if McCain would have been a better president, Trump declined to say, even as his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, stared at him.
“I don’t want to comment on it,” he said. “I have a very strong opinion, all right.”
Sanders, he joked, was “having a nervous breakdown” over his response. “Maybe I’ll give you that answer some day later.”
That is just Trump hurting himself, though, nothing McCain did drove that process. Trump simply cannot handle the magnitude of the office, or the moment. That was bankable.
Where McCain comes in is through memorials and dedications to his life, a life where bravery mattered, where putting country first, mattered, where one’s word mattered, and all this coverage clearly illuminates a contrast that leaves Trump looking even smaller in comparison, as someone who never “gave of himself,” never suffered, and never truly fought for anything but his own self-aggrandizement. The public has noticed.
The polls out today from ABC and the WaPo are simply devastating. The numbers are here, by way of Esquire.com:
Sixty percent in the national survey disapprove of Trump’s performance in office, numerically the highest of his presidency, albeit by a single point; that includes 53 percent who disapprove strongly, more than half for the first time. Thirty-six percent approve, matching his low.
The national survey, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that half the public supports Congress initiating impeachment proceedings against Trump, 49-46 percent; support rises to 57 percent among women. And support for the investigation running its course is broader: Americans overall back Mueller’s probe by 63-29 percent. Fifty-two percent support it strongly, a high level of strong sentiment.
Suspicions of the president relating to the Mueller investigation are substantial. Sixty-one percent say that if assertions by Cohen are true, Trump broke the law. Fifty-three percent also think Trump obstructed special counsel Robert Mueller’s work…In Trump’s dispute with Attorney General Jeff Sessions for allowing the investigation to proceed, the public sides with Sessions, 62-23 percent. Sixty-four percent also oppose the idea of Trump firing Sessions; just 19 percent support it. Further, while Trump has railed against the Manafort prosecution, Americans call it justified by an overwhelming 67-17 percent, including nearly half of Republicans. The public opposes Trump pardoning Manafort by essentially the same margin, 66-18 percent, with 53 percent strongly opposed. Even among Republicans, 45 percent oppose a Manafort pardon; 36 percent support it.
When historians look back to when Trump lost that critical fraction that kept him confident in his power, to when the country fully turned (or at least enough of it, the requisite fraction) will it have been this week? When the country saw that it is led by a man too small to fill such a big role? When leading the nation should have been easiest, being the bigger man should have been a natural, Trump failed.
Charlie Pierce seems to think that McCain’s death is playing a role:
Bear in mind that this is at a time in which the Democratic Party would rather talk about exotic livestock diseases than about impeachment. (The Republicans, on the other hand, are using it as a scarecrow to rile up the goobers, but every time a prominent Republican mentions impeachment, more people stroke their chins and think, “Hmm. Sounds interesting. Maybe we should give it a try.”) What also is clear— from these numbers, at least—is that the president*’s recent ravings aren’t landing with the power they once had. It’s hard to avoid the notion that the country is just getting sick of this bag of clowns and mountebanks and would like a little normality to return before the kids have to go back to school.
And, on Saturday, there will be a huge memorial service for John McCain at the National Cathedral. Two presidents will speak. Pundits will continue to gush. Comparisons will fly thick and fast and none of them will be complimentary to the current occupant of the White House. Damn, John McCain. You may have given everyone the last laugh.
I still expect to hear from Mueller later today, but whether we do or do not may not matter. Tomorrow, two men who were big enough to fill the office, two imperfect men, will rise, perfectly suited for the role required right now. They will represent the nation as it says good-bye to a hero, two men selected by John McCain, one from each party. Will the country look on and recall what it is like to have such a person? McCain took politics off the table, and selected two men that beat him in elections, “W” and Obama, two men who can stand side by side, as friends, as Americans, and appropriately say thank you to a man who gave near everything, and suddenly long to have the office filled by such men – again, not caring about party?
I think so.
Damn, I didn’t like George W. Bush. But, that man rallied this country after 9-11, took the bull by the horns regarding vigilantism, made sure there was no violence against American Muslims, or Muslims generally around the world. In that moment, he was perfect, and gave a gift to this nation that we may still not appreciate enough. I know that when I hear “W” speak tomorrow, that I – as a Democrat – will long to have a “W” as president during these times. That’s the impact on me, and John McCain planned it just that way.
Yes, it sure does seem as though McCain is giving us …well, not a laugh, not for me, but one last nod of appreciation, a salute from someone out of uniform (unfit to wear one). He is going out serving his country, possibly with the greatest impact he ever had, pulling the country back from a brink.
Fitting.
Thank you, Senator, god speed, Anchors Away, and may history remember you, and this period, as you at your absolute finest.
