The Opportunity to Speak Truth

The New Republic's Jason Zengerle writes an interesting piece here about McCain's missed opportunity during a campaign rally in New Mexico.

In case you haven't seen it, watch this video from a campaign rally McCain held yesterday in New Mexico. After McCain asks, "Who is the real Barack Obama?" someone in the crowd yells "Terrorist!" For a second there, McCain looks slightly taken aback, but then he pushes aside whatever qualms he might have and simply plunges ahead with the rest of his speech.

What if McCain, instead of continuing with his speech, had stopped cold, looked the audience member in the eye, and gently but sternly rebuked him with a homily about how we're all Americans and the problem with Obama isn't that he's a bad man or a terrorist, but that he's wrong on the issues? Sure, it would have been hypocritical--it's no coincidence McCain's supporters think Obama's a terrorist when you've got Sarah Palin accusing him of palling around with one--but it would have been dramatic and mavericky as hell, too. It would have been the lead campaign story on all the networks, it would have become a YouTube sensation, and it would have burnished McCain's badly tarnished brand as an atypically honorable and different sort of politician.

Jason Zengerle goes on to say that even though we don't expect such behavior from politicians who are primarily interested in promoting themselves and the prospects of their party, Rudy Giuliani actually did do something very similar during a campaign event in Maryland in 2006.

Zengerle's perspective is interesting for several reasons. First, he makes the point that politicians have opportunities to distinguish themselves when they take a stand for truth and decide to go out of their way to make sure that what is right is done. He really takes this point one step further and suggests that inaction, though expected, is not right. And that failure to do what is right, is at best, a huge opportunity missed.

But even more interesting is the implicit suggestion that politicians, as representatives and leaders of their party, have a responsibility to speak out to their supporters and help ensure that people focus on the relevant issues, not the mudslinging.