Obituary: John McCain

Speaking at a campaign stop in Reno, Nevada, in 2008

Arizona Senator John McCain has passed away today after a battle with the horrible glioblastoma.  He was 81 years old.

He was known as a "maverick" in the Senate and in his own party.  He also couldn't stand Donald Trump, and he continued to speak his mind about the orange menace up until almost his death.

McCain was also known for his temper.  Some political enemies called it "instability."  Whatever.  If people had spent the time he did in the Hanoi Hilton back when McCain was a POW in the late sixties and early seventies, they wouldn't function half as well.

One demerit against McCain was the way he treated his first wife upon release from North Vietnam.  He was shocked to see what she looked like when he arrived back in the U.S.  She had the unmitigated gall to gain weight because of all the stress over whether he would live or die, not to mention she nearly died herself in an auto crash, and McCain just couldn't bear it.*  She was about four inches shorter than before plus had to use crutches or a wheelchair.  She was no longer the young former fashion model he married.  That marriage ended.  A few years later, he met his second wife, a woman from a millionaire family who had a teaching degree in special education, Cindy.  She was around 17 years his junior.  That marriage did last, and her or her family's  money no doubt made it possible for him to embark on a political career.  He first served in the House of Representatives, then taking the Senate seat vacated by retiring fellow maverick GOP senator Barry Goldwater.

McCain also wrote a number of books.

I met McCain three times when he ran for president.  He was the GOP nominee in 2008, running a decent campaign against Obama.  Another demerit against him is who he picked for his running mate, a woman who would forever be the butt of numerous jokes, Sarah Palin.

You can't win them all in this life, I guess.

A man who seemed his truest self when outraged, Sen. McCain reveled in going up against orthodoxy. The word “maverick” practically became a part of his name.

Sen. McCain regularly struck at the canons of his party. He ran against the GOP grain by advocating campaign finance reform, liberalized immigration laws and a ban on the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” — widely condemned as torture — against terrorism suspects.

To win his most recent reelection battle in 2016, for a sixth term, he positioned himself as a more conventional Republican, unsettling many in his political fan base. But in the era of President Trump, he again became an outlier.

The terms of engagement between the two had been defined shortly after Trump became a presidential candidate and Sen. McCain commented that the celebrity real estate magnate had “fired up the crazies.” At a rally in July 2015, Trump — who avoided the Vietnam draft with five deferments — spoke scornfully of Sen. McCain’s military bona fides: “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

It was as good a reason as any for McCain to have absolutely no use for Donald Trump.

New York Times:

Shot down over Hanoi, suffering broken arms and a shattered leg, he was subjected to solitary confinement for two years and beaten frequently. Often he was suspended by ropes lashing his arms behind him. He attempted suicide twice. His weight fell to 105 pounds. He rejected early release to keep his honor and to avoid an enemy propaganda coup or risk demoralizing his fellow prisoners.

He finally cracked under torture and signed a “confession.” No one believed it, although he felt the burden of betraying his country. To millions of Americans, Mr. McCain was the embodiment of courage: a war hero who came home on crutches, psychologically scarred and broken in body, but not in spirit. He underwent long medical treatments and rehabilitation, but was left permanently disabled, unable to raise his arms over his head. Someone had to comb his hair.

His mother, Roberta McCain, Navy all the way, inspired his political career. After retiring from the Navy and settling in Arizona, he won two terms in the House of Representatives, from 1983 to 1987, and six in the Senate. He was a Reagan Republican to start with, but later moved right or left, a maverick who defied his party’s leaders and compromised with Democrats.

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*--I had forgotten about Carol McCain's car crash until later tonight.  She had kept the accident, which as I mentioned nearly cost her her life, secret from her husband feeling he had enough on his plate. Despite the divorce, they remained friends.