The Black Republican

It sometimes worries me when I think how the best we can hope for is a McCain presidency. But those worries are tempered by stories like this.

(I)n 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by her husband, who asked what all this was about.

Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of rehabilitation. "I hope she can stay with us," she told her husband. Mr. McCain agreed. Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget.

...(T)here was a second infant Mrs. McCain brought back. She ended up being adopted by a young McCain aide and his wife.

"We were called at midnight by Cindy," Wes Gullett remembers, and "five days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the L.A. airport wearing the only clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-shirt she bought in the Bangkok airport." Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore. Mr. Gullett told me, "I never saw a hospital bill" for her care.

I disagree with much of what McCain stands for, and saying I distrust his conservatism is an understatement. But while his decisions could end up causing problems unintended by him, and I have no illusion that he sometimes postures for political gain, I suspect "Doctor McCain" has a rather hippocratic view of politics: first, do no harm. Stories like this one suggest he is capable of doing much good, once the ethical gymnastics of an election are behind him.