John McCain Back On The Political Stage Again

Right now would be a very good time for John McCain to graciously give Mr. Obama the opportunity to finish putting his bipartisan cabinet and administration together and allow him some room to develop some new policies to reverse the serious global economic crisis. But instead, Mr. McCain is starting some new political organization called Country First, which is meant to elect Republicans at all levels to office and to undermine the clear election mandate that the voters gave to the Democrats in their sweeping November victories. This is hardly Country First, but partisanship and division at a time this nation can hardly afford it.

Even if things were reversed, I would have expected Mr. Obama to give a President McCain some opportunity to prove himself as well, and not immediately rush to undermine his efforts to rescue this nation from the grips of the most serious economic mess since the Great Depression. It's way too early for Mr. McCain to be placing himself atop some partisan organization meant to undermine the voters mandate when the new administration hasn't even spent a single day in office. Mr. McCain is acting far too much like just some political partisan, and not the elder statesman who gave such a wonderful concession speech after his crushing victory on November 4.

The fact of the matter is that John McCain didn't even come close to winning in November. He lost by well over 8 million votes, and only won about half as many electoral votes as Mr. Obama. And John McCain only hung on to winning his home state by a relatively close margin as well. After all the debates, and the campaigning, Mr. Obama's opinions on the economy struck a far better chord with voters than the views of John McCain or his running mate, Sarah Palin, who squandered away many opportunities by falsely calling Mr. Obama a Socialist or other derogatory things, when in fact his cabinet reflects that he will indeed be a centrist, and inclusive of some Republicans in his administration.

Mr. McCain needs to return to that elder statesman who gave that great concession speech and to be respected as a gracious loser. His loss was huge, and nearly humiliating, but he needs to put up a respectable face and be respected by voters as a decent loser. But McCain's efforts today to put together some new Republican partisan organization, that is only concerned with electing Republicans to office solely because of their political party, and not what they have to offer this country is hardly putting "Country First" as the title might suggest.