Well, in a rather surprising move, the campaigns of both John McCain and Barack Obama have announced that the two candidates will suspend any and all politicking on September 11, and instead will make a joint appearance at the site where the World Trade Center towers once stood.
I don’t know why this comes across as surprising. Both men have shown that they can, on occasion, be very classy and put principle ahead of politics.
But as great as an idea as it is, there is no idea that can not be made even a little better.
While Obama and McCain are in New York, what will their running mates be doing?
I’d like to see former small town mayor Sarah Palin attend the ceremonies in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the passengers of Flight 93 turned on their hijackers and brought the plane down hundreds of miles from its intended target, saving who knows how many lives on the ground.
And I’d like to see career Washington insider Joe Biden speak at the Pentagon, where the symbol of American power was attacked.
(OK, that last one’s a bit of a stretch, in an ideal world, I’d have Obama at Ground Zero, McCain at the Pentagon, Palin in Pennsylvania, and Biden on the Mall, between Capitol Hill and the White House, the presumptive targets of Flight 93, but since we’re already locked into McCain and Obama in New York, one makes do with what one has.to work with what one has.)
It would be a great day for all four candidates to set aside partisanship and unite (albeit in three different places) for the common national good.
Even without my adaptation, I think that this idea says a great deal about us as a nation. And I think it says a good thing.
