McCain Brother Wants Change Of Campaign Course

In an e-mail sent to campaign and RNC officials, John McCain's younger brother Joe McCain blasts the way the race has been run and pleads for a change of course heading into the final days. The e-mail, obtained by the Baltimore Sun, echoes the complaints voiced by some Republicans outside the campaign and asks strategists and decision makers to "let John McCain be John McCain," and to "make ads that show John not as crank and curmudgeon but as a great leader for his time."

You can read the full e-mail here but here's an excerpt:

As a sailor who sees his ship sailing into shoals while the rest of the officers and warrants are poring over plans and maps and high-minded thoughts, I make one last effort to ring the bell and put a light on these shallows I see as we steam toward destiny with but three weeks left in this long voyage.

This portrayal of John McCain as a scrapper, as an alley fighter so far in these debates and these TV ads misses a much higher calling that he has - to a distant hill where he will put behind him the scrap yards and the greed and will lead this land to a higher plane. For of all of John's many qualities - fighter, scholar, communer, reflector - the highest is vision and hope and ethics and a pull to the light, for John McCain knows where we came from, where we stumbled, where we were confused , and where we lit beacons to all other people who dream of sweeter things and a better place.