Such ordinary, every-day qualities include the will and the power to work, to fight at need, and to have plenty of healthy children. The need that the average man shall work is so obvious as hardly to warrant insistence. There are a few people in every country so born that they can lead lives of leisure. These fill a useful function if they make it evident that leisure does not mean idleness; for some of the most valuable work needed by civilization is essentially non-remunerative in its character, and of course the people who do this work should in large part be drawn from those to whom remuneration is an object of indifference. But the average man must earn his own livelihood. He should be trained to do so, and he should be trained to feel that he occupies a contemptible position if he does not do so; that he is not an object of envy if he is idle, at whichever end of the social scale he stands, but an object of contempt, an object of derision.

In the next place, the good man should be both a strong and a brave man; that is, he should be able to fight, he should be able to serve his country as a soldier, if the need arises. There are well-meaning philosophers who declaim against the unrighteousness of war. They are right only if they lay all their emphasis upon the unrighteousness. War is a dreadful thing, and unjust war is a crime against humanity. But it is such a crime because it is unjust, not because it is a war. The choice must ever be in favor of righteousness, and this is whether the alternative be peace or whether the alternative be war. The question must not be merely, Is there to be peace or war? The question must be, Is it right to prevail? Are the great laws of righteousness once more to be fulfilled? And the answer from a strong and virile people must be “Yes,” whatever the cost. Every honorable effort should always be made to avoid war, just as every honorable effort should always be made by the individual in private life to keep out of a brawl, to keep out of trouble; but no self-respecting individual, no self-respecting nation, can or ought to submit to wrong.

http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/research/speech%20arena.htm

Palin gets it. McCain gets it. Obama most certainly DOES NOT GET IT.

funky chicken on October 4, 2008 at 12:57 PM

TR, interestingly enough, understood “men” like Obama quite well. From the same speech:

Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as a cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. There are many men who feel a kind of twister pride in cynicism; there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt. There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities – all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness.

http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/research/speech%20arena.htm

Theodore Roosevelt is John McCain’s political hero. Are people her at hotair ready to join with McCain and Palin to fight like hell to keep Obama out of the White House?

Or are most of the commenters here just going to go the easy route, and sit back and snipe at McCain and feel superior … and thus help put an absolute horror in the Oval Office?

funky chicken on October 4, 2008 at 1:02 PM

But Obama can say this about the troops and NO ONE but the ‘cuda and a few right wing bloggers and radio personalities get upset?

HondaV65 on October 4, 2008 at 1:01 PM

It puts Obama right in line with Jack Murtha and Dick Durbin. Trust me, a hell of a lot of military people are extremely upset. And if the American people elect Obama as their Commander in Chief after he joins the Jack Murtha-Dick Durbin crowd, a lot of those people will likely decide that the American people aren’t worth fighting for. You will see reinlistment rates fall through the floor. I can only hope that part of Obama’s attempt to gut the military will involve offers of early retirement so my family won’t have to deal with a couple of years of life with Obama as commander in chief.

funky chicken on October 4, 2008 at 1:07 PM

Mark1971, Theodore Roosevelt has some words for you:

There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities – all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness.

funky chicken on October 4, 2008 at 1:10 PM

There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities – all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness.

Mark1971, your type will never be happy. First you griped that they weren’t going to OC. Now they are going to OC, and you find something else to attack.

funky chicken on October 4, 2008 at 1:21 PM

If Obarfo had taken the time to see just how many times a mission has been scrubbed or our soldiers killed because they were careful and cautious about harming civilians, he might know better.

Bishop on October 4, 2008 at 1:33 PM

He might have learned something about that at Landstul too…

funky chicken on October 4, 2008 at 1:45 PM

There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities – all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part painfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affection of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves in their own weakness. The rôle is easy; there is none easier, save only the rôle of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and performance.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face in marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/research/speech%20arena.htm

funky chicken on October 4, 2008 at 1:48 PM