McCain moves ahead
Photos and Story By John Temple Ligon Temple@TheColumbiaStar.com

Rex Wilson and Sen. John McCain

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R- AZ) spoke to the Columbia Rotary at Seawell's, Monday, August 13.

Ordinarily, the room fills with about 250 Rotary members, but to hear McCain the place was packed with 350, according to the club counter at the door.

McCain was introduced by Columbia's Jack Van Loan, his friend and fellow inmate at The Plantation, their North Vietnamese POW camp.

Van Loan was a witness to McCain's refusal to participate in the enemy's propaganda play, a plan to release McCain as an early bargaining chip due to his father's position as a high- ranking admiral in the U.S. Navy.

McCain thanked Van Loan for the introduction, a far improvement over a recent Arizona speaking gig where McCain's talk followed the introduction, "And now here's the latest dope from Washington."

Remembering his last run through the S.C. Republican primary, which was his to lose after winning New Hampshire, McCain said he slept like a baby: two hours of sleep, wake up and cry, followed by another two hours of sleep, then wake up and cry.

S.C. Attorney General Henry Dargan McMaster and Judy Gaskins hear it from Sen.McCain.

Speaking of losing, McCain blamed the Republicans for losing their way since gaining control of Congress in 1994. And having lost their way, their defeats in the 2006 election should have been no surprise. McCain had actually been, on rare occasion, a drunken sailor, and took umbrage while he had to agree the Republicans were spending like a drunken sailor.

Shifting from economics to defense, McCain said the war in Iraq was a work in progress, and he really meant progress. There are secure areas that just six months ago were shooting galleries. General Petreaus is due to report to Congress in September, and McCain expects much more progress.

Should the U.S. follow the lead of the calls to pull out, the civil war in Iraq will likely worsen, explode with genocide, and the U.S. would have to return at far higher expense than the cost of the current military campaign. Keeping the context of the region in mind, McCain said, the prudent and cost- efficient thing to do is tough it out until the job is done.

President's don't lose wars, and political parties don't lose wars, but nations lose wars and the nations pay dearly for their losses, as McCain warned.

A question from the audience asked of McCain's opinion of the proposed return to the Fairness Doctrine, the idea that liberal thought is not shared over the radio waves as much as conservative, so the government should correct the balance. McCain offered the currency in communications is such that every voice gets plenty of opportunity to be heard. There are two many outlets to offer opinions and advice for there to be a complaint about unfair access to the public's ears.

Another audience member asked McCain about education, and he said he would put more money into the system along with competition, such as vouchers.

McCain's concern over the effectiveness of money, however, was rooted in his D.C. experience. The highest cost per pupil in the U.S. is the D.C. school system, and the lowest performance per pupil is in the D.C. school system.

McCain fielded a few other audience questions, and some of his answers were not necessarily the stuff of populism or poll- watching. As McCain put it, "I operate on principle, not on public opinion polls."