McCain, John

▪ 2009

born Aug. 29, 1936, Panama Canal Zone

      U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona was the Republican Party's nominee for president in 2008. On November 4 he was defeated by Barack Obama (q.v.), the Democratic candidate. A self-described conservative “foot soldier in the Reagan revolution,” McCain was known for clashing with his party's right wing on a wide range of issues. He was long a favourite of reporters, who admired what they saw as his directness and helped him gain a reputation as a political maverick.

      The son and grandson of U.S. Navy admirals, John Sidney McCain III graduated (1958) from the U.S. Naval Academy near the bottom of his class. He then served in the navy as a ground-attack pilot. In 1967, during the Vietnam War, his plane was shot down over Hanoi, and, badly injured, he was captured by the North Vietnamese. In captivity he endured torture and years of solitary confinement. Finally released in 1973, he received a hero's welcome home as well as numerous service awards, including the Silver Star and the Legion of Merit.

      McCain retired from the navy in 1981. He relocated to Arizona and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982. After serving two terms, he successfully ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1986; he was reelected in 1992, 1998, and 2004. The war hero senator gained national visibility by delivering a well-received address to the 1988 Republican national convention. In the most spectacular case to arise out of the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s, however, McCain became embroiled as a result of his connections with financier and developer Charles Keating, Jr., who had engaged in fraud. Although cleared by the Senate in 1991 of illegalities, McCain was rebuked for having exercised “poor judgment.” He subsequently became a champion of campaign finance reform.

      In 2000, promising the country “straight talk” and extensive government reform, McCain ran for the Republican presidential nomination, competing against Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Bush prevailed after a strenuous fight, including an especially brutal effort by the Bush campaign in the South Carolina primary. McCain eventually recovered from the defeat, campaigned hard for Bush's reelection as president in 2004, gave unswerving support to the Iraq War, and, after initially opposing Bush's tax cuts, voted against their repeal. In 2007 McCain announced that he would once again seek the Republican presidential nomination. Although his campaign seemed to be in serious trouble as the election year approached, he scored a decisive victory in New Hampshire and went on to secure the nomination with his primary victories on March 4, 2008. By aligning himself with Bush, McCain gained powerful political resources, but he also contradicted his reputation for independence, made himself look inconsistent on key issues (including taxes), and identified himself with a president who in his second term earned the longest sustained period of public disapproval ever. In the general election, McCain and his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (q.v.), lost decisively to Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden (q.v.), who garnered nearly 53% of the vote.

Sean Wilentz

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▪ American politician

in full  John Sidney McCain III 

born Aug. 29, 1936, Panama Canal Zone

 

  U.S. senator who was the Republican Party's nominee for president in 2008. On Nov. 4, 2008, he was defeated by Barack Obama (Obama, Barack), the Democratic candidate. McCain represented Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives (1983–87) before being elected to the U.S. Senate (1987– ). A self-described conservative “foot soldier in the Reagan (Reagan, Ronald W.) revolution,” McCain also clashed with his party's right wing on a wide range of issues. McCain was long a favourite of reporters, who admired what they saw as his directness and helped him gain a reputation as a political maverick

 McCain had strong Southern roots–—his great-great-grandfather, William A. McCain, owned a Mississippi plantation with more than 50 slaves and died fighting for the Confederacy in 1863—but he believed that his heritage lay almost entirely inside the country's military. The son and grandson of U.S. Navy admirals, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy near the bottom of his class in 1958, his low class rank attributed to indifference both to disciplinary rules and to academic subjects he did not enjoy. He then served in the Navy as a ground-attack pilot. In 1967, during the Vietnam War, McCain was nearly killed in a severe accidental fire aboard the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, then on active duty in the Gulf of Tonkin (Tonkin, Gulf of).

 Later that year McCain's plane was shot down over Hanoi, and, badly injured, he was captured by the North Vietnamese. In captivity he endured torture and years of solitary confinement. When his father was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific in 1968, the North Vietnamese, as a propaganda ploy, offered early release to the younger McCain, but he refused unless every American captured before him was also freed. Finally released in 1973, he received a hero's welcome home as well as numerous service awards, including the Silver Star and the Legion of Merit.

 McCain retired from the Navy in 1981, after his life had changed course. In 1977 he became the Navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate, which he later called his “real entry into the world of politics and the beginning of my second career as a public servant.” Three years later his first marriage ended in divorce, which he confessed was due to his own infidelities; soon after, he married Cindy Lou Hensley (McCain, Cindy) of Phoenix, a teacher who was also the only child of Marguerite Smith and Jim Hensley, founder of the third largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship in the country. Having acquired the personal connections and financial resources required to realize his political ambitions, McCain relocated to Arizona and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982. After serving two terms, he successfully ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1986; he was reelected in 1992, 1998, and 2004.

 The war hero senator gained national visibility by delivering a well-received address to the 1988 Republican National Convention. But McCain also became embroiled in the most spectacular case to arise out of the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s, as a result of his connections with Charles Keating, Jr., the head of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., who had engaged in fraud. Although cleared by the Senate in 1991 of illegalities in his dealings on Keating's behalf, McCain was mildly rebuked for exercising “poor judgment.” Duly embarrassed, McCain became a champion of campaign finance reform; he collaborated with the liberal Democratic senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, and, after a seven-year battle, the pair saw the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act signed into law in 2002. The legislation, which restricted the political parties' use of funds not subject to federal limits, was McCain's signal achievement on Capitol Hill.

  On most issues—including military spending, labour legislation, abortion, and gun regulation—McCain's record in the Senate was basically conservative. Yet quite apart from campaign reform, McCain took stands on specific issues that distanced him from the conservative Republican mainstream in Washington. Despite his years in captivity in Vietnam, McCain strongly advocated restoring diplomatic relations with that country, finally achieved in 1995. He led unsuccessful efforts to enact a new federal tax on tobacco products that would fund antismoking campaigns and help the states pay for smoking-related health costs. On immigration reform, health care, restriction of so-called greenhouse gas emissions (a primary cause of global warming), reduction of pork-barrel government spending, regressive tax cuts, and the political power of religious conservatives, McCain stood out. His critics claimed that his contrarian stance was calculated and mostly for show and that the favourable impression it made inside the news media far outweighed the political risks. Still, with congressional Republicans increasingly marching in lock step during the 1990s, McCain's dissent made him look like a genuinely unconventional conservative.

 In 2000, promising the country “straight talk” and extensive government reform, McCain ran for the Republican presidential nomination, competing against Texas Gov. George W. Bush (Bush, George W.). Bush prevailed after a strenuous fight, including an especially brutal effort by the Bush campaign in the South Carolina primary. McCain eventually recovered from his devastating defeat, campaigned hard for Bush's reelection in 2004, gave unswerving support to the Iraq War, and, after initially opposing Bush's tax cuts, voted against their repeal.

      In 2007 McCain announced that he would once again seek the Republican presidential nomination. Despite his rapprochement with the Bush family, his campaign seemed to be in serious trouble as the election year approached, lacking money and a clear political base. But after a decisive victory in New Hampshire and a strong showing on Super Tuesday, McCain took a commanding lead, and he secured the nomination with his victories on March 4, 2008. In late August he chose Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, (Palin, Sarah Heath) as his vice-presidential running mate.

  McCain faced a challenging political climate in the general election. After 40 years of conservative dominance, the public seemed eager to start anew. By aligning himself with President Bush, McCain gained powerful political resources, but it remained to be seen how much Bush's hard-core supporters, especially among religious conservatives, would rally to McCain's cause, despite his efforts to court them. By sidling up to Bush, McCain also contradicted his reputation for independence, made himself look inconsistent on key issues (including taxes), and identified himself with a president who in his second term earned the longest sustained period of public disapproval ever. McCain remained far more popular with the public than his party did, but, as he took on Democrat Barack Obama (Obama, Barack), he faced the humbling irony that, having been defeated by George W. Bush in 2000, he might find himself defeated by the legacy of Bush's presidency in 2008.

 Indeed, in the event, McCain lost to Obama. Trailing in the initial opinion polls, McCain appeared to rebound following the Republican national convention in early September. His choice of Palin, a social conservative, as his running mate—the first female ever nominated to a Republican national ticket—initially stirred great excitement, particularly within the party's social conservative base. But Palin soon received harsh criticism from many commentators, including conservatives, who claimed her lack of experience raised doubts about McCain's judgment. The outcome became almost inevitable when, later in September, the failure of some major investment houses and banks signaled the start of what became widely described as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. McCain strangely suspended his campaign, just prior to the first scheduled presidential debate, in order to work on a congressional bailout of the financial industry. He then just as suddenly decided to participate in the debate, which made him look erratic—and when House Republicans rejected the proposed bailout bill, he looked ineffectual as well. Obama wound up winning nearly 53 percent of the popular vote—a decisive margin, but no landslide—yet also captured not only all of those states that had gone for John Kerry (Kerry, John) in 2004 but also a number of historically Republican states won by Bush in the 2000 and 2004 elections, including Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, and Virginia.

      McCain coauthored several books on his experiences and values. They include Faith of My Fathers (1999), Worth the Fighting For: A Memoir (2002), Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life (2004), and Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them (2007).

Sean Wilentz

Additional Reading

The best biography of McCain is Robert Timberg, John McCain: An American Odyssey (1999). In Elizabeth Drew, Citizen McCain (2002, reissued with a new introduction, 2008), a veteran political reporter focuses on the fight for campaign reform and offers a close look at McCain as a working senator. David Brock and Paul Waldman, Free Ride: John McCain and the Media (2008), presents a baleful view of McCain's reputation as a maverick. McCain's own sense of himself, his background, and the values he most admires comes across in his own coauthored volumes: John McCain and Mark Salter, Faith of My Fathers (1999), Worth the Fighting For: A Memoir (2002), and Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them (2007); and John McCain and Marshall Salter, Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life (2004).Sean Wilentz

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