and listing to brian talk about the generational question. senator mccain is so interesting because he is a veteran of the vietnam war. but to so many americans he feels as if he s almost an honorary member of the greatest generation. he seems a more of a world war ii type character than one from the decades past. i remember talking to him about it sounds as though we had a book club which we did not. but there was we used to talk about hemingway which he did. but we also talked about her man woke. the great novelist who two marvelous books, winds of war and the war and remembrance and the protag annist played by robert meacham in the 80s, a naval captain named pug henry and i remember suggesting to
mccain once in an interview that his father struck me as a pug henry type and without hesitated, he said my father was exactly like pug henry. sort of a taciturn and no nonsense and do your duty. and that is that is some part of john mccain himself. he does represent a tradition of sacrifice and of service. not to be sentimental or to suggest he s a perfect figure. but there is in his legacy those virtues like senator dole, like george herber walker bush, like bob kerry and john kerry, like john lewis, who also bears the wounds of an american war from the civil rights struggle. there are very few vanishingly few people in american public life any more who bear those wounds of valor.