I don't know how to get the accent in manqué--Oh, it got there!--and now that I have checked the derivation I want to acknowledge its period of meaning lame-handed. I did not want to make fun of the brutal history of his captivity and the enduring aftereffects. At his best, he was straight and honest, but it needs to be said that whatever happened under that mesquite tree in Arizona during the campaign was one of the worst things that ever happened to this country. Out there, he offered Sarah Palin the chance to run for Vice President. That "under the mesquite tree" moment led to the shamefully named Tea Party (what an insult to the men of 1773!), to the exciting of racist Evangelicals, and, quite directly, to Donald Trump. No hesitation later on, no mumblings and grousings about where other Republicans were headed, nothing could alter that decision to make that offer to so incompetent and erratic and hate-filled a woman. He legitimized ignorance and hatred--and greed. No one should have to suffer as he did in North Viet Nam. I am older than he was, and hope against hope that I never suffer more than the TB I had for 2 years in the 1950s. No one should suffer the way he did in his last years. He was a hero, but not a real maverick. A real maverick makes the right stands and keeps making the right stands. He was a hero, yes.
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