MyRightWingDad.net

> October 19, 2008
> A Harvard Trial Lawyer for McCain
>
> By William A. Jacobson
> I would seem to fit the profile of a Barack Obama supporter. For
> over 20
> years I represented investors against brokerage firms. Now I teach
> at an
> Ivy League law school. And I went to Harvard Law School. Yet I
> wholeheartedly support John McCain.
>
> Why would a Harvard-educated, Ivy League-teaching, plaintiff-
> representing
> trial lawyer support John McCain? What follows will not make me
> popular at
> my upcoming 25th law school reunion, but some things need to be said.
>
> Electing a President is a hiring decision, where the stakes are who
> will
> best preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. We forget that
> our
> legal system does not exist in a vacuum. Our constitutional and
> political
> rights can exist only if this nation is safe. Whether I agree with
> John
> McCain on each and every issue makes no difference to me. John
> McCain gets
> my vote as the person who will keep this country safe, so that we
> have the
> luxury of arguing with one another.
>
> First and foremost, John McCain is the real thing. He reminds me of
> many of
> the most effective lawyers I have dealt with in my career. He's not
> polished. His ties don't quite fit. He is smart, but he didn't
> have good
> grades because he couldn't sit still in class. His clients don't
> have a lot
> of money. And sometimes his syntax is not quite right.
>
> But John McCain is a scrappy fighter. He's the opponent who just
> won't quit
> even when things look bleak. The guy who runs circles around the
> Harvard
> lawyers, who takes the seemingly impossible case, and through sheer
> determination brings home the verdict. He is the guy you want on
> your side
> in good times, and more importantly, in bad times. If I were on
> trial for
> my life, I would hire John McCain as my lawyer.
>
> And John McCain sticks around long enough to make a difference. He
> had a
> distinguished 22-year career in the Navy. He could have left the
> Hanoi
> Hilton early, but he didn't. I don't know if I would have had the
> strength
> to say no to early release from a prisoner of war camp, but John
> McCain did
> have that strength.
>
> John McCain carried his fight to the United States Senate, where for
> over
> two decades he has fought battle after battle with both political
> parties on
> some of the hardest issues confronting the nation. John McCain put
> country
> before career in supporting the surge in Iraq. On some of these
> issues I
> have agreed with John McCain, and on others not. But what is
> important to
> me is that John McCain has proven over time that he is his own man.
> What
> you see is what you get, and he will be there for the long haul.
>
> Barack Obama also reminds me of many lawyers I have dealt with in my
> career.
> He's the smooth talking lawyer on TV who will get you "the
> settlement you
> deserve." But he has no credibility where it counts because he hasn't
> beaten the insurance companies at trial. He is a paper lawyer who
> fools
> only his own clients. So Barack Obama can promise "tough diplomacy"
> with
> the likes of Iran, but he hasn't fought the tough fights that would
> cause
> dictators and tyrants to take him seriously.
>
> Barack Obama also is the deep thinker who ponders great things. And
> the
> thing that Barack Obama seems to ponder most is his own greatness. He
> doesn't write biographies, he writes only autobiographies. He gives
> speeches which he declares to be historic. He recognizes his place in
> history long before he has created history. This nation is but a
> stage upon
> which Barack Obama creates his life story, and it's all about him.
>
> Yet Barack Obama has never been in one place long enough to make a
> real
> difference, or to fight the hard fights. He was a community
> activist for a
> few years, then a law student, then in private practice for not too
> long,
> then a state senator for not too long, then a United States Senator
> for not
> too long. The paint was barely dry in his Senate office when he began
> running for President. Barack Obama's career is a series of not-too-
> long
> positions, each one more grand than the one before it.
>
> Yet what great achievement has Barack Obama obtained other than his
> own
> political advancement? What historic law did he author, what
> historic court
> case did he argue, what historic battle did he fight, what cause
> greater
> than himself warranted more than a passing interest in his historic
> life?
> If my life were on the line, I wouldn't hire Barack Obama as my
> lawyer. I'd
> be concerned that he'd be up late at night working on a draft of his
> book
> about how my case affected his life.
>
> Barack Obama loves this country, in his own words, because nowhere
> else
> could his story be possible. John McCain loves this country just
> because.
> And that's why I'll vote for John McCain.
>
> William A. Jacobson is Associate Clinical Professor of Law at
> Cornell Law
> School in Ithaca, NY, and author of the Legal Insurrection Blog.
>
> Page Printed from:
> http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/a_harvard_trial_lawyer_for_mcc.html
> at October 22, 2008 - 01:25:37 AM EDT
>