by Roy Exum
posted May 10, 2008
 Roy Exum |
By the end of the segment, the elder Mrs. McCain could have been elected as the president instead of her son because - as the interview clearly proved - she is one of the most delightful, most lovable women in our nation.
Forget politics for a moment. Here is a woman whose husband drove submarines in World War II, whose son was a prisoner of war in Vietnam and whose biography, if it were ever written, would evermore be a best seller.
A transcript of the interview is now on the CBS website, and allow me the privilege of sharing some of it because, all politics aside, it is such a testament to the marvelous women well celebrate on Sunday. The tone was established early when Katie asked Roberta about eloping down in Mexico.
Katie Couric: Let me start with you, if I could. You eloped, I understand in Tijuana because your family didn't fully support your marriage to Sen. McCain's father.
Roberta McCain: That's right. You know, I see now what they're it took a long time for me to figure it out, but I was so young. And, of course, I was still in school. And, of course, they objected. And my the only thing about them maybe. And I think she had, you know what, a sailor has a girl in every port. I think she heard that.
Couric: Hopefully that wasn't true.
John McCain: You were at the University of Southern California at the time.
Roberta McCain: Yeah, I was
John McCain: Living in a sorority house, is that right?
Roberta McCain: Yes. Over the weekend, before my final exams in January, I took my text books to study that weekend, if you can believe that?
Couric: When you were eloping?
Roberta McCain: Yes. Carried them with me 'cause I never looked at one of them. And went back Monday morning and took those exams. So that whole week
Couric: How'd you do?
Roberta McCain: Oh, I passed.
John McCain: Would you mention the establishment in Tijuana where the marriage took place?
Roberta McCain: Oh. I'm gonna kill him. It was Caesar's bar in Tijuana.
Couric: Classy.
Roberta McCain: Yeah. In fact, it's still going. And that's where they invented Caesar salad.
Couric: Wow.
Roberta McCain: The bartender was a man named Caesar.
Couric: So you were a bit of a maverick. Is that where your son gets his streak?
Roberta McCain: I don't know. I was just young and stupid.
John McCain: Now, now.
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But the better part of last nights interview was when Katie asked Mrs. McCain what it was like as a mother when he son was a prisoner of war. Here is that part of the transcript.
---
Couric: I know, during your son's captivity, Mrs. McCain, you had to believe in your heart that he had died to get through every day.
Roberta McCain: No I only thought he had died the first two days.
Couric: Oh really?
Roberta McCain: The first
Couric: How were you able to get through all those years when your son was in captivity?
Roberta McCain: Well, I do have faith. I have faith in God's will and that's all I ask for. I don't have particular things I ask for. And if I profess that I have faith then I have to do it. And it's like these all these other things, people, they go those things weren't very hard for me.
I just if you can't do something about something, don't waste your time on it. And I couldn't do anything about that. I could maintain my dignity and the things that I'd always claimed that I believed in, God and my country. And I believe in the Vietnam War. And one pretty good proof about the domino theory is (unintelligible), Cambodia and Vietnam what today are communist. And they weren't before the Vietnam War started.
John McCain: Is it true, though, and Katie might be interested, and that one of the things is that with most people you didn't talk about me.
Roberta McCain: Oh no. I never said a word to anybody.
Couric: Wasn't that hard?
Roberta McCain: Well, why bring it up?
Couric: How worried were you, Senator, about your mom and dad and three young children?
John McCain: I was most worried about my family and that they didn't know what was happening to me. And I think that was harder, in some ways, on my father because he was a commander of all the U.S. forces in the Pacific. And, in 1972, he was told to bomb, order the bombing of B-52s in Hanoi. And he knew that I lived in Hanoi.
That my prison camp, one of them, was there. And, of course, he carried out ... those instructions and gave the orders without hesitation. But it's still pretty tough on a father, you know. I think, in some ways, the strain on him was ... in some ways more difficult and of greater.
Roberta McCain: Oh yeah. Every single night he prayed on his knees. And I have a prayer book of his, an Episcopal prayer book where, you know, your hand finally will just be oil, and wear the paper out, those papers are just worn out. They were just
John McCain: So it was tough on him. But he was a very brave person and dedicated to the Navy. And I know it's maybe a little off the subject, but it was a generation that he represented of the pre-World War II Naval officer, military officer.
They all came from the same place. Either West Point or the Naval Academy. And certainly they had their failings and flaws. But there was a certain kind of-- apolitical attitude that most of that generation had of pre-World War II military officers. My mom may dispute with me, but I think Herman Wolk's book - Winds of War is one of - and War and Remembrance is one of those great stories where you kind of get that flavor. I recommend it very - very highly. (Laughter) Don't you think?
Roberta McCain: Yes. When he says that the military was apolitical, it was. On an officer's (unintelligible) report they would put PI, which meant political influence, and they scorned it. And that was a mark against you. I don't ever remember politics being discussed in my whole married life.
Well, there is more to the interview but the very best part of it was at the very end, Katie's very last question.
Couric: It's Mother's Day. What are you going to do for your ma for Mother's Day, Senator?
John McCain: Tell her how beautiful she is.
royexum@aol.com
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