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Opinion: In one mutual moment of peace, John McCain and Barack Obama mark 9/11

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Since we’re quick to chronicle the strife in our world of politics, we probably ought to also stop here this evening to note the peaceful pause that erupted today between the campaign camps of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama.

A welcome respite as both marked, with the nation, those decisively unpeaceful moments of 9/11 that sure don’t seem like seven whole years ago -- 84 whole months without another such awful surprise in the homeland.

McCain and Obama took a slow afternoon walk down a long ramp, descending side-by-side into the yawning pit that remains at ground zero, footprint of the felled Twin Towers in lower Manhattan.

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New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and McCain’s wife Cindy followed them into the pit, where the presidential nominees of the Republican and Democratic parties met with the families of 9/11 victims and some of the first-responders who lost their comrades in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

One firefighter handed McCain his lapel pin.

The two candidates placed long-stemmed roses -- Obama’s pink, McCain’s yellow -- on the floral memorial at the center of the pit. And they paused there for silent prayer.

In their long walk back up the ramp, lined by the flags of nations that lost their sons and daughters on the day that 2,751 died there, McCain walked with his wife Cindy, with Obama and the New York mayor alongside them.

Earlier, McCain laid a wreath at the temporary memorial at the rural crash site of United 93 in Shanksville, Pa.

Michelle Obama, the Democratic nominee’s wife, was busy back home in Chicago. Our colleague Mark Silva has some more details over here at the Swamp.

--Andrew Malcolm

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