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A moment on higher ground

An editorial  —  8/30/2008 7:21 am

Barack Obama and John McCain were in agreement for a few hours on Thursday night as the Democratic National Convention in Denver ended and attention turned to next week's Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

At the close of his remarkable speech before a crowd of 84,000 ecstatic supporters, Obama dialed down the anti-McCain rhetoric.

While the Democratic nominee for president promised to vigorously debate his Republican rival on the issues, Obama said, "What I will not do is suggest that the senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.

"The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America -- they have served the United States of America."

Remarkably, McCain's camp, which has spent so much time taking shots at Obama, responded with something that has been all too rare in this intense election year: respect.

Instead of attacking, the Republican campaign's television ad on the night of the acceptance speech by the first African-American ever to accept a major party nomination featured McCain talking to the camera and saying, "Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America. Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say congratulations. How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight, senator, job well done."

The historic event he was referring to was, of course, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 before a huge rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

It would be silly to suggest that this campaign will remain long on the high ground.

But it would be sillier still to fail to note that the two men who would be president have, by their actions on Thursday night, confirmed their shared ability to occupy that better space.

An editorial  —  8/30/2008 7:21 am