Barack Obama eulogy for John McCain
Former President Barack Obama’s eulogy followed Mr. Bush in offering a tribute to McCain.
“We come to celebrate an extraordinary man: a warrior, a statesman, a patriot,” Mr. Obama said.
He referred to his former competition against McCain during the presidential election of 2008.
“He made us better presidents, just as he made the Senate better, just as he made the country better,” Mr. Obama said.
Mr. Obama talked about how he was surprised but honored to be invited by McCain to speak at his funeral, saying it showed his contrarian and mischievous streak and his “largeness of spirit.
“After all, what better way to get a last laugh than to get George and I say nice things about him to a national audience,” Mr. Obama joked, to laughter. “But for all our differences, for all the time we sparred, I never tried to hide – and I think John came to understand – the longstanding admiration that I had for him.”
Mr. Obama discussed McCain’s commitment to service, and how that inspired others to be better.
“He did understand that some principles transcend politics, that some values transcend party,” Mr. Obama said. Mr. Obama also gave an implicit rebuke to Mr. Trump, who has been criticized for his breaking of political norms, saying that McCain understood that “those institutions, those rules, those norms are what bind us together.”
Mr. Obama said McCain held the belief that citizenship was “based not on our bloodline, not what we look like or what our last names are, or where our parents and grandparents came from, or how recently they arrived.” He also referred to when McCain defended him during the 2008 campaign. “He saw himself as defending America’s character, not just mine,” Mr. Obama said.
He discussed unpublicized private meetings he and McCain would occasionally have at the White House during Mr. Obama’s presidency.
“Our disagreements didn’t go away during these private conversations. Those were real and they were often deep. But we enjoyed the time we shared away from the bright lights, and we laughed with each other, and we learned from each other,” Mr. Obama said. “We never doubted we were on the same team.”
Mr. Obama compared McCain to Teddy Roosevelt’s “man in the arena” speech, describing a man who always fought to be and do better.
“So much of life, our public life, our public discourse, can seem small, and mean, and petty,” Mr. Obama said in another veiled criticism of the Trump administration. “It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born in fear. John called on us to be bigger than that.”
“May God bless John McCain. May God bless this country he served so well,” Mr. Obama said at the close of his speech. Like Mr. Bush, he was embraced by Cindy McCain at the end of his tribute.
