he never lost the joy that time can dull or the edge that political life so often sands away. i myself from time to time find myself on the receiving end of john s zing brand of candor, happily so. i remember thinking more than once yeah, he really does talk like a sailor. but you see with john, it was never feigned disagreement. the man didn t feign anything. he just relished the fight. he showed us that in the arena, the honest back and forth, that s where the cause gets bigger. that s where the triumph is all the sweeter. we get stronger at the broken places.
ali? retail politics is how he did it all the time. that was the before the part. he could be i would almost argue that he was better one-on-one or in small groups than he was on a stage. yes, the big stage. yes. the big speech was not his strength. it was the town hall meeting format where he would take any question from anyone. he was not afraid to tell reporters and constituents when he disagreed, we ve seen that play out in memorable clips. but he could also be funny, and you could see that in the moment. you could see him wrestle with a question he hadn t anticipated, more than a big soaring speech. his concession speech in 2008 lives up to great rhetoric in our modern political moment. but his interpersonal connection is what you aptly described, the retail politics of john mccain were something that the national audience didn t see as much but was very much a part of his stor story. look at the service that took
garrett, let s just talk a little bit about this conversation that we were just having about who steps up and who can fill john mccain s shoes because what are we talking about when we say fill john mccain s shoes? somebody who can put party country over party, someone who can reach out to the other side, someone whose views are consistent and yet are able to be moderated by discussion and negotiation and bipartisanship. give me your sense of that. i think those things are all right, and if you want to add to that list someone who sees themselves as a united states senator which john mccain was fond of describing himself as not just for arizona but who sees the bigger picture and the important role of the senate in the world, the name ben sasse was just mentioned. he s high on my list, as well. he s someone talked about in that way more or less since he s gotten here and has yet to really step forward. there s a couple of younger senators mccain had mentored on the republican and d
can we remember john mccain in the way we act and the way we behave which ties back to charlie s point. who steps up and carries some broader lesson from what we ve seen over the last week into the debate over kavanaugh next week into the next big fight that brews with the trump administration. who steps into that void and do they do it next week or next year? i think that will be the lingering question after all of this is done on sunday. michael, interesting point that garrett makes. we ve heard everybody who has spoken about john mccain discuss some fight they were in with him. right. joe biden talked about it, paul ryan mentioned the fact that he is reminded in his arguments with john mccain that john mccain is a navy man and uses some salty language. why is it that when that is seen in other quarts it seems personal and petty and yet people seem to joke about and wear as badges of honor getting into it with john mccain. we have to point out there s a big difference in a fi
thank you for lending him to us longer than we had a right. thank you for supporting him while he supported us. half a world away wearing our nation s uniform, john mccain stood up for every value that this capitol building represents. then he brought that same patriotism inside its walls to advocate for our service members, our veterans, and our moral leadership in the world. so it is only right that today near the end of his long journey, john lies here in this great hall under this mighty dome like other american heroes before him. here as a restless wave