Grateful for the Privilege

UPDATE: New ad on economy, see below.
John McCain, "Service to America":

All lives are a struggle against selfishness. All my life I've stood a little apart from institutions that I had willingly joined. It just felt natural to me. But if my life had shared no common purpose, it would not have amounted to much more than eccentric. There is no honor or happiness in just being strong enough to be left alone. As one of my potential opponents often observes, I've spent fifty years in the service of this country and its ideals. I have made many mistakes, and I have my share of regrets. But I've never lived a day, in good times or bad, that I wasn't grateful for the privilege. That's the benefit of service to a country that is an idea and a cause, a righteous idea and cause. America and her ideals helped spare me the worst consequences of the deficiencies in my character. And I cannot forget it.

Nor can we. Honor and a wise-cracking humility.Very American. And grateful for the privilege.

UPDATE: Pat Hickey on Chicago, school choice and John McCain. Age breakdown of voter preferences. The Politico, McCain shies away from religion--well, Reagan didn't talk about religion, he talked about first principles. Raised Episcopalian, now attends a Baptist megachurch--sounds pretty ecumenical to me. (And I hardly think the Rev. Wright, Barack's spiritual mentor for 20 years, is an asset for Obama. UPDATE: Hillary may not want to talk about it either.)

UPDATE: Daniel Henninger, Hearts and Minds Again:

The Democrats appear so invested in a failure that a half-week of violence erases a year of progress. What is the source of such instincts?[snip]

Most of the time, the national Democratic party is at pains to avoid the label "San Francisco Democrats" that was coined by Jeane Kirkpatrick in her devastating "Blame America, First" speech to the 1984 GOP convention. Bill Clinton's famous 1996 triangulation strategy was designed in part to avoid this national-security virus, which is thought to sit dormant in the brains of blue-collar Reagan Democrats, always alert for an excuse to bolt right. John McCain will offer himself as that excuse. On the handling of Iraq alone, Gallup recently gave Mr. McCain a 14-point lead over either opponent.

Related post on Obama here.

Jill Zuckman in the Trib, McCain on economics. Related post here. McCain has a new ad out on the economy: