McCain Softens Language on Jerry Falwell

WASHINGTON - Potential presidential candidate John McCain says he longer considers evangelist Jerry Falwell to be one of the "agents of intolerance" that he criticized during a previous White House run.

The Republican senator from Arizona will be the commencement speaker in May at Liberty University, the Lynchburg, Va., institution that Falwell founded in 1971.

"We agreed to disagree on certain issues, and we agreed to move forward," McCain said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

In 2000, as he sought the Republican nomination that eventually went to George W. Bush, McCain said: "Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right."

On Sunday, McCain said that Christian conservatives have a major role to play in the Republican Party, but added, "I don't have to agree with everything they stand for."

Senator McCain is an honorable gentleman, wise public servant, statesman and presidential caliber. Had he been in charge since 2000 we wouldn't be suffering the FUBAR in Iraq we now labor under with the White House Gang that can't get it right. They ran off the only guy, Colin Powell, who had his stuff together and knew that the emperor was without the proverbial clothes while leaving a tyrant incapable of rational thought processes in charge of DOD.

Wow, that's a mouth full. I once thought Colin Powell had the tools to be a latter day George Marshall. I no longer think so. I don't see him as a giant in formulating policy etc. He strikes me as a guy to implement policy, and perhaps good at that. He did a good job in Pakistan, though, during the Afghanistan battle.

I seriously doubt Senator McCain will ever get the opportunity to prove what a fine President he would have been. I have often wondered where his moral and ethical center of gravity is. He has managed to insult the base of the Republican Party at just about every turn. That is a great deal of ground to make up. He seems to worry a great deal whether the editorial staff of the NYT considers him Presidential timber. Anyway, it doesn't matter at this point. There are others that are building the foundation so when the time comes to start the race, McCain will find he can't muster the popularity to survive the primary process.

As for Iraq, I'm pretty sure the big picture there was painted in the White House. After that I am willing to bet the nuts and bolts, levers, buttons and switches were assembled at the Pentagon. Over all I think they have done a pretty good job.

The plan seems to be to change the dynamic in the entire region. If the good guys succeed at that in Iraq and Afghanistan, a whole new world commences. Some folks think the Iraqi are subhuman that neither deserve nor are capable of self rule and the rule of law. I guess we will see.

If it fails, I'd like to see it fail for some reason than that Democrats, the press and other liberals want it to fail.

Afghanistan and Iraq are two distinct and completely separate issues. The job in Afghanistan was appropriate to kick off and it's been done pretty well, although with too few troops. Iraq is something else. The successful campaign to depose the bad guy was a super effort, although again, with 'way too few troops. The total FUBAR was the post organized fight insurgency. The DOD and White House couldn't have screwed that up any worse if they had done a staff study on how to screw the pooch and implemented it perfectly.

Before his untimely death, Colonel David Hackworth had the failures we've experienced pegged and unambiguously predicted. The fault lies right at the feet of the worst SecDef we've had the poor luck to have in charge since 1968. From the infamous and idiotic quote during the immediate post fight looting that: "Democracy and freedom are sometimes messy...." God, what a moron! To the inflexibility of reacting to reality and failing to see the obvious, Rumsfeld might have been able to CEO some industry but he earned a big, fat zero in how to fight a 360 degree insurgency. Like most war managers who've never heard the whiz of rounds coming your way, he's doing only what he learned in class, namely, fighting the last war while not having a clue as to the current one. And we all know from observation what happens to a guy in uniform who dissents from what Rumsfeld wants to do, even if it's dumb as a stalk of celery; he gets retired.

McCain would have put up with that incompetent and his equally bumbling crowd for approximately 30 seconds and sent them back to the farm and replacing them with knowledgeable civilian war/insurgency fight managers and planners.

While admittedly a little self-serving, I did spend approximately 17 of my 30 years in active service dealing with strategic planning and in analysis of likely strategy of real (Soviet Bloc) as well as potential enemies of the US. It's fair game to disagree with conclusions, but your terse remarks would have more credibility if they were founded in something more than knee-jerk party line and relentless anathema to NYT.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.