"Senator McCain is Right ..."

I know that everybody and his aunt Maude has already weighed on the "Obama concedes McCain is right" meme (migawd, doesn't anybody have a day job any more?), but I yield to the impulse to throw in my own two cents' worth, with the intent to clarify just what is at stake.

After all, who could quarrel with civility, detachment, the effort to rise above petty partisanship.

Glad you asked; I'll tell you who: the point is there is a segment of the body politic--in the Republican party, running somewhere between one and 99 percent--that believes that force and violence are a sign of manliness, and that to betray any hint of conciliation is a sign of weakness. This is the crowd that doesn't really believe it has won anything unless it has blown something up. The presidency of the United States being vacant at the moment (and the vice-president in an undisclosed location), I'd nominate John Bolton as honorary chairman. But that is just so's you get the idea; any number of other names might do.

Remarkably enough, this sentiment is not particularly prevalent in the military, where you might expect it to flourish. Sure, there are always a few George C. Pattons and Curis LeMays around-- a few guys who like the smell of napalm in the morning. But a remarkable number of generals understand that war is a bloody business, and that the measure of military success the question of who prevails, not the amount of carnage on the ground.

Acolytes of the explosives party necessarily think that people like Obama are a buncha pussies. On this standard, by conceding virtue in his opponent, Obama was just begging to have his butt snapped with a wet towel. They were delighted with an opportunity to frog-march him down the gauntlet of derision.

I'm not sure just how big this segmenty of the electorate might be. Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure they have been with McCain all along, so the new blizzard of advertising will do more than remind and reaffirm. I don't think it is likely to win many new converts. It might turn a few people off but on the whole, I suppose it is something that you just have to learn with with.