The Bell tolls for McCain

Recently John McCain confessed to a reporter that his favorite book – his guiding light – is Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. A great book, but the insight it provides into McCain’s character ain’t so great.

In a surface reading of the book, it’s easy to assume that Robert Jordan sacrifices himself at the end in a hyper-romantic bid to help his newfound lover Maria escape, and/or from his anti-fascist principles. There is much to admire about Jordan's bravery and commitment to the anti-fascist cause, but it is his sacrifice at the end that is the defining moment and no doubt is what attracts McCain to the book. But there's a darkness in his decision that I'm not sure McCain can see.

Jordan makes a conscious decision to put himself in harm’s way, not to advance the cause or aid Maria, but because he’s just damn dead tired of fighting and wondering why. The fateful decision to cross the road under cannon fire at intervals rather than all together was certain to give the fascists time to zero in on the last rider – Jordan. If they had all gone at once, they would have been away before the tank gunner could get the range.

Hemingway gave us the key to Jordon’s decision in a conversation with the partisan leader Pablo:

"I am tired of being hunted. Here we are all right. Now if you blow a bridge here, we will be hunted. If they know we are here and hunt for us with planes, they will find us. If they send Moors to hunt us out, they will find us and we must go. I am tired of all this. You hear?"

Pablo’s fear and ambivalence ultimately seep into Jordan’s heart and fuel his fateful decision - perhaps the only decision that would make sense to someone who could not live with his romanticism, but didn't know how to give it up.

Personal bravery and a willingness to put the country's cause first are admirable in any case, and we have seen much of that from our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have just suffered through eight years of a romantic commander in chief. I’m ready for some realism an I'm ready for a president who can tell the difference.