Posted on 10/19/2008 8:00:11 AM PDT by GVnana
October 19, 2008 A Harvard Trial Lawyer for McCain By William A. Jacobson
I would seem to fit the profile of a Barack Obama supporter. For over 20 years I represented investors against brokerage firms. Now I teach at an Ivy League law school. And I went to Harvard Law School. Yet I wholeheartedly support John McCain.
Why would a Harvard-educated, Ivy League-teaching, plaintiff-representing trial lawyer support John McCain? What follows will not make me popular at my upcoming 25th law school reunion, but some things need to be said.
Electing a President is a hiring decision, where the stakes are who will best preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. We forget that our legal system does not exist in a vacuum. Our constitutional and political rights can exist only if this nation is safe. Whether I agree with John McCain on each and every issue makes no difference to me. John McCain gets my vote as the person who will keep this country safe, so that we have the luxury of arguing with one another.
First and foremost, John McCain is the real thing. He reminds me of many of the most effective lawyers I have dealt with in my career. He's not polished. His ties don't quite fit. He is smart, but he didn't have good grades because he couldn't sit still in class. His clients don't have a lot of money. And sometimes his syntax is not quite right.
But John McCain is a scrappy fighter. He's the opponent who just won't quit even when things look bleak. The guy who runs circles around the Harvard lawyers, who takes the seemingly impossible case, and through sheer determination brings home the verdict. He is the guy you want on your side in good times, and more importantly, in bad times. If I were on trial for my life, I would hire John McCain as my lawyer.
And John McCain sticks around long enough to make a difference. He had a distinguished 22-year career in the Navy. He could have left the Hanoi Hilton early, but he didn't. I don't know if I would have had the strength to say no to early release from a prisoner of war camp, but John McCain did have that strength.
John McCain carried his fight to the United States Senate, where for over two decades he has fought battle after battle with both political parties on some of the hardest issues confronting the nation. John McCain put country before career in supporting the surge in Iraq. On some of these issues I have agreed with John McCain, and on others not. But what is important to me is that John McCain has proven over time that he is his own man. What you see is what you get, and he will be there for the long haul.
Barack Obama also reminds me of many lawyers I have dealt with in my career. He's the smooth talking lawyer on TV who will get you "the settlement you deserve." But he has no credibility where it counts because he hasn't beaten the insurance companies at trial. He is a paper lawyer who fools only his own clients. So Barack Obama can promise "tough diplomacy" with the likes of Iran, but he hasn't fought the tough fights that would cause dictators and tyrants to take him seriously.
Barack Obama also is the deep thinker who ponders great things. And the thing that Barack Obama seems to ponder most is his own greatness. He doesn't write biographies, he writes only autobiographies. He gives speeches which he declares to be historic. He recognizes his place in history long before he has created history. This nation is but a stage upon which Barack Obama creates his life story, and it's all about him.
Yet Barack Obama has never been in one place long enough to make a real difference, or to fight the hard fights. He was a community activist for a few years, then a law student, then in private practice for not too long, then a state senator for not too long, then a United States Senator for not too long. The paint was barely dry in his Senate office when he began running for President. Barack Obama's career is a series of not-too-long positions, each one more grand than the one before it.
Yet what great achievement has Barack Obama obtained other than his own political advancement? What historic law did he author, what historic court case did he argue, what historic battle did he fight, what cause greater than himself warranted more than a passing interest in his historic life? If my life were on the line, I wouldn't hire Barack Obama as my lawyer. I'd be concerned that he'd be up late at night working on a draft of his book about how my case affected his life.
Barack Obama loves this country, in his own words, because nowhere else could his story be possible. John McCain loves this country just because. And that's why I'll vote for John McCain.
William A. Jacobson is Associate Clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School in Ithaca, NY, and author of the Legal Insurrection Blog.
Country First!
Is it true that Obama lost his license to practice law?
I love the part about tie not quite fitting. I know both those lawyers he describes.
[Barack Obama also is the deep thinker who ponders great things. And the thing that Barack Obama seems to ponder most is his own greatness. He doesn’t write biographies, he writes only autobiographies. He gives speeches which he declares to be historic. He recognizes his place in history long before he has created history. This nation is but a stage upon which Barack Obama creates his life story, and it’s all about him.]
Exactly!
...great line! Although I suspect it would be William Ayers up late at night working on the next Obama autobiography.
Well said. The guy make the crucial point...this is a hiring decision.
Powell has made hundreds of personnel decisions and yet can’t see with clarity what this author can see plain as day.
Well said! I don’t know what words to highlight. Solid.
Powell just burned his bridge. He might have hurt McCain a little for a few days, but he hurt himself for a lifetime. Powell never really thinks enough about all the words he memorizes. But when the truth sinks in, he’ll one day regret his endoorsement. I hope he has the courage to second guess himself before November.
Over the years and especially over a few contentious issues, for me the tarnish began to form on McCain's hero status and I was depressed that he was the Republican nominee. I wasn't going to vote for him ever again, especially this election! But then I got to know 0bama.
John McCain is the man who stands between us and 0bama, his islamist, domestic terrorist, assorted black supremacist and msm supporters and all they will do to our great nation and its Constitution. Save the country: Vote McCain/Palin!
Very good writing, creating such a clear visual with so few words. Thanks.
Excellent...putting the microscope on O’s CHARACTER is almost more scary than a review of O’s political ‘philosophy’.
Good stuff, that
This gentleman is located in Ithaca.
Talk about behind enemy lines!
I hope he’s either 6’6”, 300 pounds,
or a black belt.
McCain bump ping!
Something else to consider -- the biggest crises we've had in the last eight years was our strategy in Iraq and the financial meltdown. McCain called both of them dead right. On Iraq, he got Dubya to listen. Unfortunately, couldn't get the Dems to listen on Freddie/Fannie.
Go McCain
So true.
BTTT for a great summary on why to vote McCain!
“He is a paper lawyer who fools only his own clients.”
Precisely.
Hussein Soetoro will be honest and accommodating to our adversaries like Achmadinijad; to his clients - the American people - he will lie and misrepresent both himself and his agenda.
Beginning an argument with a solid premise is always auspicious.
John McCain put country before career in supporting the surge in Iraq. On some of these issues I have agreed with John McCain, and on others not. But what is important to me is that John McCain has proven over time that he is his own man. What you see is what you get, and he will be there for the long haul.
This is the same basic argument my teacher gave me about supporting McCain.
Even if the MSM were the only 0bama supporters from that list wouldn't that be enough to tell us that 0bama isn't right for America?
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