Jan 2011: "Arizona - The old John McCain was back Sunday, writing a gallant tribute to President Obama - and delivering a veiled rebuke to former running mate Sarah Palin.
The Arizona senator who ran against Obama and was clearly deeply embittered by his loss, praised the President’s call in Arizona for greater civility as a “terrific speech.”
Obama, he said, “comforted and inspired the country.”
“We should be mindful as we argue about our differences that so much more unites than divides us,” McCain wrote in The Washington Post.
“Our political discourse should be more civil than it currently is, and we all, myself included, bear some responsibility for it not being so.”
Taking on those heated voices from the Tea Party fringes who call Obama a Nazi, a usurper, or an outright agent of evil, McCain wrote:
“I disagree with many of the President’s policies, but I believe he is a patriot sincerely intent on using his time in office to advance our country’s cause.
“I reject accusations that his policies and beliefs make him unworthy to lead America or opposed to its founding ideals,” he wrote.
That stands in stark contrast to Palin, who has called Obama’s policies “un-American” and just last week accused him of being “hellbent on weakening America.”
McCain offered some support to Palin, whose gun-happy political rhetoric was blamed by some for the Tucson massacre by a lone nut with no clear political agenda.
“Imagine how it must feel to have watched one week ago the incomprehensible massacre of innocents…and to have heard in the coverage of that tragedy voices accusing you of complicity in it,” he wrote.
But then McCain appeared to chide Palin’s defensive response, in which she rejected calls to tone down the political vitriol as attempts to “muzzle dissent.”
McCain wrote: “It is not beyond us to do better; to behave more modestly and courteously and respectfully toward one another.”
Influential Washington Post columnist Dan Balz said the column should be the beginning of a thaw between McCain and Obama, who have been wary adversaries since 2008.
“Not since his gracious concession speech on the night of the election has McCain spoken so generously of his rival,” Balz wrote. “Obama should not let the opportunity pass to reach out to McCain in return.”