Real, Not Plastic...

Thanks to George P. for passing this along...

One of Rush Limbaugh's callers told a poignant story about McCain and Palin taking time out, privately, to say hello to the caller's family – which includes a chlid with Down's syndrome. In the caller's own words:

So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they're all standing there. We're in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, "May I hold your daughter?" and our daughter Chloe, who's five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I'd love to send you maybe when I'm done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who's nine, he thanked her.

This sort of out-of-the-press, private, no-publicity-intended action speaks volumes about the true nature of an individual. It's like the old maxim that character is behaving well when nobody is watching. McCain and Palin didn't do this because it was advantageous to them – they wanted to do this. Though most people don't know it, George Bush does this same sort of thing all the time. For all three of them, knowing this has the same effect on me: it makes these politicians seem more real, more genuine, more human, more ordinary – and not at all like the disdainful elitist that Obama so typifies amongst the liberal's top tier.

More photos and dialog here.