“Cynicism is often the shamefaced product of inexperience.”
–A.J. Liebling
Here are the eulogies for Senator John McCain by his daughter Meghan and by former President Barack Obama:
It’s hard to miss the not-so-oblique references to a certain man who was not invited to the memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington.
“We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness,” [Meghan McCain] said, gritting her teeth through the tears. “The real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served.”
When she fiercely declared that “the America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,” the generals, senators, former presidents and other world leaders who filled the pews burst into applause.
…..
“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage,” Obama said. “It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born of fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.”
