An Exemplary Man, But the Wrong One

Imagine, for a moment, you’re a pilot landing a fighter jet. Instead of the typical runway a couple of miles long, let’s say the runway is 600 feet long and that you must actually touch down somewhere within about a quarter of that length. Now imagine that the runway is moving at, say, 25 miles per hour. And going up and down 20 feet a couple of times a minute. Oh, and it’s a moonless night.

Several words come to mind that might accurately describe those who actually repeatedly and, if one can use the word, routinely perform this maneuver. Among these might be “crazy.” Also “navy carrier pilots.” Having served aboard an aircraft carrier, I knew and can claim some familiarity with these guys, and can assure you that they are wholly unlike the rest of us.

All this comes to mind, of course, in connection with John McCain. Democrats appear to have some difficulty in criticizing Mc Cain – apart, of course, from many of his past, present, and outlined future positions. But criticism of McCain the individual is muted. His unimaginable experience as a prisoner of war seems a kind of Teflon shield, protecting against any ad hominim negativity, such as suggesting that having the right stuff to be a jet jock might not be the best qualification for running the country. And it hardly hurts that in this respect, among others, McCain is clearly the real deal, certainly in comparison to the all-hat-and-no-cattle incumbent.

But the hyper self-assurance, bravado on steroids that are the special province of McCain and his carrier pilot brethren will not serve him – or, selfishly, the rest of us – all that well were he to be President. While it may be that war is “merely the continuation of politics by other means,” as von Clausewitz famously observed, much in the long sad history of mankind begs for exhausting the latter before pursuing the former. It would seem prudent for the finger on the nuclear trigger to be more experienced in the nuances and subtleties of international relations than handling a joy stick. A foreign policy of “Bomb, bomb Iran,” no matter how jocularly offered, is hardly assuring.

One might dare hope that after eight years of a President so blinkered and so supremely self-confident as to be oblivious to any and all indications of failing, let alone already dismally failed policies that we could do better. Self-assurance by all means. But seasoned with the humility to accept that the complexities and consequences of the issues to be confronted rarely if ever lend themselves to the kind of solitary, split-second, seat-of-the-pants reaction required of carrier pilots. Land a jet on a carrier or help a family apply for housing assistance? The latter seems the better preparation for leading the country out of its pitiful morass.