John McCain's remarks to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference here on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King were written by his campaign's newest hire, Matthew Scully, the former White House speechwriter and essayist.
"It's just a lovely piece of writing," said Mark Salter, McCain's senior strategist and principle speechwriter. "Just right out of the box, he really gets John in his first speech."
McCain's words are mostly about Dr. King. But then there is this paragraph of contrition:
Sometimes the most radical thing is to be confronted with our own standards -- to be asked simply that we live up to the principles we profess. Even in this most idealistic of nations, we do not always take kindly to being reminded of what more we can do, or how much better we can be, or who else can be included in the promise of America. We can be slow as well to give greatness its due, a mistake I made myself long ago when I voted against a federal holiday in memory of Dr. King. I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona. We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans. But he knew as well that in the long term, confidence in the reasonability and good heart of America is always well placed. And always, that was his method in word and action -- to remind us of who we are and what we believe. His arguments were unanswerable and they were familiar, the case always resting on the writings of the Founders, the teachings of the prophets, and the Word of the Lord.
The invitation from the SCLC was extended last week, and the campaign eagerly accepted. They are just as eager to want to rebut the conventional wisdom that McCain has no chance of wresting more than a tenth of the black vote away from Barack Obama; maybe the results will be futile in November, but there will be plenty of campaign trips to places that Republicans don't normally campaign. (There is also, as always, the subtle messages that are sent to race-conscious moderate whites.)
McCain sees King's life of one of service to America.; Coincidentally, the name of McCain's biographical tour is "Service to America."
Here is how McCain ends his speech:
And yet for all of this, forty years and a world away, we look up to that balcony, we remember that night, and we are still left with a feeling of loss. Here was a young man who composed one of literature's finest testimonies to the yearning for equality and justice under law -- writing on the margins of a newspaper, in the confinement of a prison cell. Here was a preacher who endured beatings, survived bombings, suffered knifings, abuse, and ridicule, and still placed his trust in the Prince of Peace. Here was a husband and father who will stand to children in every generation as a model of Christian manhood, but never got to raise his own sons and daughters, or to share in the gift of years with his good wife.All of this was lost on the fourth of April, 1968, and there are no consolations to balance the scale. What remains, however, is the example and witness of The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and that is forever.
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'Here was a husband and father who will stand to children in every generation as a model of Christian manhood.'
Isn't this a bit... off?
Posted by pregethwr | April 4, 2008 12:40 PM