Presidents Day: McCain and George Washington, the Comeback Kids

Last summer John McCain was nearly politically dead. Mike Huckabee was merely Huck-a-who? Now McCain is the front runner, the comeback kid at age 71. The seesaw of slumping and surging is a super-duper American story, one that makes us root for underdogs and cheer for comeback kids. Just ask the first man honored on Presidents Day. He authored the comeback, sealing the surge strategy not with thousands of handshakes, but with the courage to live loudly for liberty.

Washington , however, was fighting the same enemy our military is fighting today: tyranny. Absolute tyranny is the core of al Qaeda’s global jihad. Anyone seeking to oppress people—whether the method is roadside bombings or crushing essential civil rights—is guilty of despotism. Terrorism is a conjoined-twin with tyranny. Destroying despotism requires people who are willing to live loudly for liberty. Even in one of his darkest hours, Washington understood the enemy was tyranny and refused to give up.

“However, under a full persuasion of the justice of our cause, I cannot entertain an Idea, that it will finally sink, tho’ it may remain for some time under a cloud,” Washington continued in that same letter.

The man who became our nation’s first president then issued his first of several “surge strategies.” Defense had been his single strategy since losing New York . He chose a new tactic. Switching to offense, Washington sent 3,000 men over the Delaware River on the night of December 25. The next morning they attacked the British outpost at Trenton . Washington ’s artillery commander described the street battle as Armageddon-like.

“The hurry, fright and confusion of the enemy was [not] unlike that which will be when the last trump shall sound,” Henry Knox wrote.

  Washington ’s willingness to invoke a new game plan gave his army the morale boost they needed. Combining the success of the Delaware surge with a promise of more pay, Washington convinced his men to stay past their contract deadline, long enough to recruit more soldiers for the next campaign.

Washington won the Revolutionary War because he was nimble, willing to shift strategies no matter what. Even when the political process lumbered, he didn’t give up. The last major battle took place in 1781, but the peace treaty took more than two years. Twelve years lapsed between the Revolution’s first shot in 1775 and the last signature on the U.S. Constitution in 1787. As Washington discovered, political pens are slower than military might.

The ultimate victor in 2008 will need nimbleness and flexibility to overcome the slightest slump with a final surge. By November, the winning candidate will have developed an intuitive ear, discerning when to shift strategies and when to stay the course. But more importantly, as the United States battles an evil suicidal enemy, the next president will need Washington ’s commitment and courage to live loudly for liberty—the ultimate sure-fire surge strategy.