John McCain's eloquent speech

on Saturday at Liberty University inspired, challenged and criticized. Delivered in his comforting straight-forward and heartfelt style, the speech reinforced what most Americans already realize: the best man for the top job doesn't have it.

He beautifully expressed his faith, but didn't use it to justify a partisan agenda or to demonize the opposition. Indeed, he delivered a complex and nuanced speech marked by moral clarity and patriotic civility.

A sampling of my favorite blurbs:

"War is an awful business. The lives of the nation’s finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer. Commerce is disrupted, economies damaged. Strategic interests shielded by years of statecraft are endangered as the demands of war and diplomacy conflict. Whether the cause was necessary or not, whether it was just or not, we should all shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us. However just or false the cause, how ever proud and noble the service, it is loss -- the loss of friendships, the loss of innocent life, the innocence -- the loss of innocence; and the veteran feels most keenly forever more. Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes war."

"Americans deserve more than tolerance from one another; we deserve each other’s respect, whether we think each other right or wrong in our views, as long as our character and our sincerity merit respect, and as long as we share, for all our differences, for all the noisy debates that enliven our politics, a mutual devotion to the sublime idea that this nation was conceived in -- that freedom is the inalienable right of mankind, and in accord with the laws of nature and nature’s Creator."

“My religion is founded on the love of God and my neighbor; on the hope of pardon for my offenses; upon contrition; upon the duty as well as the necessity of [enduring] with patience the inevitable evils of life; in the duty of doing no wrong, but all the good I can, to the creation of which I am but an infinitesimal part.”

"It is not a clash of civilizations. I believe, as I hope all Americans would believe, that no matter where people live, no matter their history or religious beliefs or the size of their GDP, all people share the desire to be free; to make by their own choices and industry better lives for themselves and their children. Human rights exist above the state and beyond history -- they are God-given. They cannot be rescinded by one government any more than they can be granted by another. They inhabit the human heart, and from there, though they can be abridged, they can never be wrenched."

"But let us remember, we are not enemies. We are compatriots defending ourselves from a real enemy. We have nothing to fear from each other. We are arguing over the means to better secure our freedom, promote the general welfare, and defend our ideals. It should remain an argument among friends; each of us struggling to hear our conscience, and heed its demands; each of us, despite our differences, united in our great cause, and respectful of the goodness in each other. I have not always heeded that injunction myself, and I regret it very much."

OK, so that's almost the whole thing. But it's a great speech and you should read the whole thing. Or, watch it.