Liberals Just Don’t Get It. It’s Not About His Military Service.

John McCain also shared his military and POW experience with the country last night. It was a compelling story that I am sure must have been extremely hard to share, but it is an important story that America needs to hear.

I was surprised to learn the North Vietnamese had broke McCain. I was unaware of that. I thought he hung strong until he came home. I was moved by this story and nearly had tears in my eyes.

It was just a few days ago Jimmy Carter told us McCain was milking his POW experience for all it was worth. This morning I heard a commentator ask the question: Does John McCain’s POW experience matter? Does it somehow make him more qualified to be president? Why is this something I should consider when I cast my vote? Because I don’t think it should matter. I think his military and POW experience is irrelevant to be president.

Maybe it is irrelevant, but liberals miss the point. McCain’s story was not about his military or POW experience. It was about his character. It was about selfless service. It was about finding a greater purpose in life than yourself. It was about always, no matter the situation you find yourself, putting your country first. Even if country first means great suffering unto yourself.

Here is how McCain told the story. I want you to notice how McCain went from a person who felt there was no greater cause than himself to fighting for a cause greater than himself…America.

On an October morning, in the Gulf of Tonkin, I prepared for my 23rd mission over North Vietnam. I hadn't any worry I wouldn't come back safe and sound. I thought I was tougher than anyone. I was pretty independent then, too. I liked to bend a few rules, and pick a few fights for the fun of it. But I did it for my own pleasure; my own pride. I didn't think there was a cause more important than me.

Then I found myself falling toward the middle of a small lake in the city of Hanoi, with two broken arms, a broken leg, and an angry crowd waiting to greet me. I was dumped in a dark cell, and left to die. I didn't feel so tough anymore. When they discovered my father was an admiral, they took me to a hospital. They couldn't set my bones properly, so they just slapped a cast on me. When I didn't get better, and was down to about a hundred pounds, they put me in a cell with two other Americans. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even feed myself. They did it for me. I was beginning to learn the limits of my selfish independence. Those men saved my life.

I was in solitary confinement when my captors offered to release me. I knew why. If I went home, they would use it as propaganda to demoralize my fellow prisoners. Our Code said we could only go home in the order of our capture, and there were men who had been shot down before me. I thought about it, though. I wasn't in great shape, and I missed everything about America. But I turned it down.

A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did. I'd been mistreated before, but not as badly as others. I always liked to strut a little after I'd been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before. For a long time. And they broke me.

When they brought me back to my cell, I was hurt and ashamed, and I didn't know how I could face my fellow prisoners. The good man in the cell next door, my friend, Bob Craner, saved me. Through taps on a wall he told me I had fought as hard as I could. No man can always stand alone. And then he told me to get back up and fight again for our country and for the men I had the honor to serve with. Because every day they fought for me.

I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's.

You see to John McCain “Country First” is not just some fancy campaign motto; it is a way of life. It is how McCain has lived his life.

Liberals miss this point, because they don’t comprehend it. To them it is always about them and their cause. It is liberalism first…or their own selfish gratification of acquiring power.