MCCAIN: Oh, yes. She's a partner and a soul-mate. She's a reformer. I don't particularly enjoy the label "maverick," but when somebody takes on the old bulls in her own party, runs against an incumbent governor of her own party, stands up against the oil and gas interests, I mean, they really are so vital to the economy of her — of the state of Alaska. I mean, it's remarkable. It's a remarkable person.

And I've watched her record, and I've watched her for many, many years as she — as she implemented ethics and lobbying reforms. And I mean, she led on it. She didn't just vote for it. She led it. I've seen her take on her own party.

MCCAIN: We had breakfast.

WALLACE: ... in February.

MCCAIN: Yes.

WALLACE: You talked to her on the phone last Sunday. And you met with her face to face — face to face for the first time to discuss the vice presidential ticket Thursday morning, and then you offered her the job. Must have been a heck of a meeting?

MCCAIN: Well, the fact is, I've been watching her.

WALLACE: Did you want to get her approval?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.: Oh, yes. Very necessary.

WALLACE: And you gave her the thumbs up?

C. MCCAIN: I did.

But, you know, it just — it wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster. So, we're monitoring it from day to day, and I'm saying a few prayers, too.

...many people still assume that nonviolent struggle is contrary to "human nature". It is often claimed that its widespread practice would require either a fundamental change in human beings or the acceptance of a powerful new religious or ideological belief system. Those views are not supported by the reality of past conflicts that have been waged by use of this technique.

In fact, the practice of this type of struggle is not based on the belief in "turning the other cheek" or loving one's enemies. Instead, the widespread practice of this technique is more often based on the undeniable capacity of human beings to be stubborn, and to do what they want to do or to refuse to do what they are ordered, whatever their beliefs about the use or nonuse of violence. Massive stubbornness can have powerful political consequences.

*How Serbian students brought dictator down without a shot fired
By Peter Ackerman
National Catholic Reporter, April 26, 2002

link

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Dictators require two conditions to stay in power: the fear and acquiescence of the people they rule, and the willingness of police or security forces to follow orders and crack down on opposition. But the strategic use of nonviolent resistance can detach any dictator, however, ruthless, from both of those components of his power.

In Serbia, young people who were angry about the stagnant, hopeless society produced by Milosevic started Otpor (resistance, in Serbian). They ridiculed the president with sidewalk birthday parties, showing a cake representing Yugoslavia being carved up during Milosevic’s reign. They plastered flat surfaces all over the country with stickers that stated, “He’s finished.” Every Serb knew whom that meant -- and the belief that Milosevic could not be opposed was dissolved.

Otpor mobilized thousands of civilians in scores of Serbian cities. “Citizens finally realized that they are not objects, but subjects of politics,” said activist Stanko Lazendic. They discovered within themselves the ability and willingness to stop being submissive. And when the leaders of the movement were arrested, friends and family members went down to the police stations and stood silently outside and showed the men in uniform that the opposition had deep roots, that it wasn’t just disaffected students but whole communities that stood against the dictator.

Yet Milosevic’s foes did not assail the police or treat them as the enemy. “We couldn’t use force on someone who had three times more weapons than we did,” said Lazendic. “We knew what had happened in China, in Tiananmen.” Instead Milosevic’s foes “got under” the officers’ “skins and under their uniforms and tried to reach them somewhere deep to say, ‘Come on guys, we are together. This is our country,’ ” said Srdja Popovic, an Otpor leader.
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