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January 25, 2012

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Wed Jan 25, 2012, 02:25 AM EST

Say what you will about John McCain, the Republican nominee for president in 2008 who inflicted an ignorant Sarah Palin upon an unsuspecting nation.

The man had character.

The 2008 race was rough and tumble, and like all campaigns _ including Barack Obama's _ there were probably some things done and said that weren't exactly kosher.

Since that election, we have seen the former political "maverick" take a hard turn to the right and oppose virtually everything President Obama has proposed.

But there was a seminal moment in 2008 that brought to memory the magnificent courage and sense of honor McCain displayed as a prisoner of war in Vietnam from 1967 to 1973.

The man who refused an out-of-sequence repatriation despite torture that left him with physical disabilities, had his decency on display again in 2008.

At a McCain town hall rally in Minnesota, an elderly woman named Gayle Quinnell had the microphone and said that Obama "is an Arab."

McCain shook his head, gently took the microphone from her and said: "No ma'am; he's a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that's what this campaign is all about."

McCain was not about to trade his honor for the wingnut vote. Contrast that with Rick Santorum, one of the remaining four Republican candidates.

On Monday, during a town hall question-and-answer session at an American Legion Hall in Lady Lake, Fla., Santorum was presented with a similar situation.

"I never refer to Obama as President Obama because legally he is not," said a woman in the audience, who added that she believes Obama ignores the Constitution. "He is an avowed Muslim and my question is, why isn't something being done to get him out of government? He has no legal right to be calling himself president."

What did Santorum do? Did he tell the questioner the truth? Did he say that Obama was born in the United States and that he's a Christian?

Not Rick Santorum, who, like the rest of the current disappointing Republican field, is clearly no John McCain.

Santorum agreed that the president "uniformly ignores the Constitution" and didn't comment on the woman's Muslim nonsense.

Asked later by CNN's John King why he didn't correct the false assertion, Santorum said he saw no need to.

"I don't feel it's my obligation every time someone says something I don't agree with to contradict them, and the president's a big boy, he can defend himself and his record. ..."

His record? Of being a Muslim?

Kinda makes you wish John McCain would run again, doesn't it?