RIP John McCain
John McCain has died of brain cancer.
He was a man who lived many lives, and lived them fully. He started out as the son and grandson of four-star admirals, went to the Naval Academy, and was a rebellious young man who was apparently a lot of fun to be around:
He was a friend and informal leader there for many of his classmates, and sometimes stood up for targets of bullying. He also became a lightweight boxer. McCain did well in academic subjects that interested him, such as literature and history, but studied only enough to pass subjects that gave him difficulty, such as mathematics. He came into conflict with higher-ranking personnel and did not always obey the rules, which contributed to a low class rank (894 of 899), despite a high IQ.
Later he spent torturous years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. You can read the full story in many places, but this is from his Wiki page:
McCain fractured both arms and a leg when he ejected from the aircraft, and nearly drowned after he parachuted into Trúc Bach Lake. Some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him. McCain was then transported to Hanoi’s main Hoa Lò Prison, nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton”.
Although McCain was seriously wounded and injured, his captors refused to treat him. They beat and interrogated him to get information, and he was given medical care only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was an admiral….
Beginning in August 1968, McCain was subjected to a program of severe torture. He was bound and beaten every two hours; this punishment occurred at the same time that he was suffering from dysentery. Further injuries brought McCain to “the point of suicide,” but his preparations were interrupted by guards. Eventually, McCain made an anti-U.S. propaganda “confession”. He had always felt that his statement was dishonorable, but as he later wrote, “I had learned what we all learned over there: every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine.” Many U.S. POWs were tortured and maltreated in order to extract “confessions” and propaganda statements; virtually all of them eventually yielded something to their captors. McCain received two to three beatings weekly because of his continued refusal to sign additional statements
There’s much more to the story, but suffice to say it was a formative experience. When he returned to the states after five and a half years in captivity, he proceeded to become a US congressman, then senator, and then the nominee of the GOP in 2008, losing to Barack Obama.
A lot of people on the right hated McCain for his lack of conservatism, his “reaching across the aisle,” and his loss in 2008. I would have liked him to have been more conservative in his politics, but I always admired him for his courage as a young man, and thought he had a lot of zest for life and a legendary sense of humor. I voted for him in 2008, and was disappointed in his loss.
RIP, John McCain.
He was a multifaceted character and there’s a lot to say about him. Quite a load of material for a biographer.
(In re his general dispositions: the American Conservative Union gave him adequate scores, something not recognized by his detractors; he wasn’t a dissident a la Susan Collins; and when you’ve been the Republican presidential nominee, you define what an authentic Republican is, not some combox clown babbling about ‘RINOs;. What truly rankled were his personality issues, his occasional displays of spite, his occasional perversity, his instances of duplicity, and his instances of grandstanding. Also, he seemed pathologically attached to his office, as do many members of Congress. The right moment to retire would have been about 8 years ago if not earlier).
Despite the old adage de mortuis, one should treat the obituaries of McCain with a considerable degree of skepticism. Only by reading widely in the alternative media (curiously, in this case, both from the independent left and the independent right) will one gradually come to the reluctant conclusion that the image constructed and perpetuated for many years by the MSM bears little relationship to the actual truth of this very flawed man.
I’m waiting to see any comments by fellow POWs. There are some questions about him and the MIA issue. I was a volunteer for him in 2000 but never met him. A friend of mine had an experience with him that suggests that he was a jerk to those who could not do him any favors.
This article is a bit inflammatory but I have heard some of this before. Certainly, to enlist John Kerry in he MIA issue would be obscene but I don’t know if McCain had a role in this.
I just hope Ducey does not appoint Cindy to his seat.
And Schumer is reportedly going to propose to rename the Russell building after McCain. I applaud the left’s discovery of this American as a Saint.
Only by reading widely in the alternative media (curiously, in this case, both from the independent left and the independent right) will one gradually come to the reluctant conclusion that the image constructed and perpetuated for many years by the MSM bears little relationship to the actual truth of this very flawed man.
The Unz crew? Sorry, not buying.
I just hope Ducey does not appoint Cindy to his seat.
What Sam Nunn had to say about the success of his own campaign for the Senate in 1972 applies: “Any time you have an appointed Senator, you have 4 or 5 factions who didn’t get the job”. If I’m not mistaken, the seat will be held by the appointee for 27 months, so it’s advisable to find someone who (a) is prepared for the position but (b) has no intention of holding it long term.
She’s 64 and rich as Croesus. No excuse for putting Mrs. McCain in the seat. I believe Marilyn Quayle has lived with her husband in Arizona for some time. She’d be a more appropriate choice if you wanted a political wife in the job.
Here is a good piece on McCain:
https://www.city-journal.org/html/john-mccain-16133.html
I give him credit for his honor in captivity, but I think he sometimes used this as a way to get out of hard choices. He also didn’t seem to pay much attention to national issues that affect normal citizens. He was a hard liner on foreign issues, but sometimes seemed a bit too confrontational rather than seeking ways to work around them. For instance, did he ever say much about China? Maybe he was too focused on military solutions.
I also wish he could have taken on Obama more on the way he wanted to change America and used race issues.
It’s abominable what’s being said about McCain on many conservative blog comment threads. Yes, he was a controversial man. I think of him in appreciation of his military service and the horrors he and his fellow POWs endured. That is a reason to honor him in spite of his politics.
His political legacy is mixed. He was for a strong military and a muscular foreign policy. He also voted for less deficit spending and smaller government when he could. Had he been elected President the country would probably have not suffered through the eight years of economic malaise that occurred under Obama. On the other hand he tried very hard to work with the Dems and compromise on some issues. Unfortunately, they never reciprocated and he cast some bad votes in trying to “reach across the aisle.” Many people see him as a horrible RINO as a result.
We all have our flaws, we all make mistakes. At the time of his death, I prefer to honor his long service to the country and to send deepest condolences to his family and friends.
RIP, John McCain USN (Retired)
When it became obvious that Obama would be the Democrat candidate, I put my life on hold and went to work for McCain. I wish his political courage and convictions could have matched his personal courage and convictions. The country might have been spared the divisiveness inflicted upon us by Obama, the festering residue of which has put us in peril.
I find the article Mike K links to, to be high persuasive.
Nor was the author a sensationalist; “Sydney Schanberg has been a journalist for nearly 50 years. The 1984 movie “The Killing Fields,” which won several Academy Awards, was based on his book The Death and Life of Dith Pran. In 1975, Schanberg was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting “at great risk.” He is also the recipient of two George Polk awards, two Overseas Press Club awards, and the Sigma Delta Chi prize for distinguished journalism.”
Most Republican candidates in my lifetime would have made decent Presidents. The only one I had real questions about was McCain. He was a self-rightous egomaniac. Certainly better than Obama.
Nor was the author a sensationalist;
No, he had a long history of blaming the Cambodian auto-genocide on Henry Kissinger. Screw him.
McCain’s years after 2008 were a disappointment.
I was a McCain volunteer in 2000. He treated Sarah Palin shamefully in 2008 and was a terrible candidate. I voted for her and the guy on the ticket with her. She was definitely the portent of Trump.
McCain actually had a good health care plan in 2008. Unfortunately, he knew nothing about it. I doubt he took advice well.
I voted for McCain, without doubts and since then, without remorse. He was not as conservative as me, yet had he actually been able to work with Dems on some issues, the US would have fewer problems.
He was a showboat, Dem-beloved critic of other Reps, and this was a serious flaw; worse than W’s drinking (which problem he overcame), not as bad as Clinton was nor as bad as Trump was (both with adultery).
He was 5 away from being last, anchorman, in his class. (I went to but didn’t graduate from the USNA.)
He was mostly pretty honorable. RIP, Senator.
I agree with Neo and with several commenters here. Great respect is due for his courage in captivity. His political career was more checkered, and on several points I think he did real damage — the campaign finance law, and his flying in to defeat the repeal of Obamacare come to mind. I voted for him in 2008, believing he would have been a much better president than Obama. Rest in peace.
I admit to being terribly disappointed in McCain, and I was all out for him too, in 2000 — and furious at GWB for the dirty dealing which gave him the nod over McCain. Yes, he was stubborn and heroic as a POW. But in his conduct as a Senator, and for the heinous way in which he and his staff threw Sarah Palin to the wolves, when she being on the GOP ticket was the only reason that his campaign had any traction at all… words fail. I wonder now, if he had any real intention of winning the presidential race, or was he just going through the motions? Yes, I have become THAT cynical over the last ten or fifteen years.
I also have often wondered that if Sarah Palin had foreknowledge of how she would be treated when she agreed to the VP slot, would she have still said OK? Or would she have said, ‘Thanks for the honor, sir, but I’ll remain as governor of Alaska.’
Over the years I have seen it said that some of his fellow POWs did not see his actions as a POW as being as heroic as the MSM portrayed them as being.
I realize that being a POW is a horrific experience that can distort reality while you are a POW, and after you are released, and that the physical and mental effects of being a POW burden POWs with damage and deficits that last the remainder of their lives.
Given what is now abundantly clear about the MSM–how it distorts, flat out lies, and deep sixes information that doesn’t fit it’s leftist ideology, narrative, and objectives–I’d like to reserve my judgment about McCain until I see what fellow POWs who were imprisoned with him in the Hanoi Hilton–if they are willing to give their honest evaluations of his actions as a POW now that he has passed–have to say about him.
McCain was not controversial, he was an asshole. The only people who think he served honorably never had to clean up the damage his career caused.
McCain became the face of the POWs in the public eye; overshadowing such heroes as Everett Alvarez, the first and longest serving POW, and Admiral Stockdale, among many others. They are a close knit and closed mouthed group, so we will never know how they felt about him.
I respect him, and every other, who kept the faith through those long, hard years. I have often wondered if I could have done as well.
I never trusted his politics, and that is probably more than I should say at this point.
Watch McCain’s video from his captivity. He rolled over and attacked the U.S. in a way reminiscent of a few American captives during the Korean War. Hard to think of him as a hero after watching that.
In his last years he seemed to put his hatred of Trump ahead of country and appeared to be ready to bring the entire country down just to get even and soothe his bruised ego.
https://heavy.com/news/2018/08/john-mccain-pow-confession-video-tape/
Not a hero. Not a particularly good senator. Not at all a nice man. Kind of like John Kerry, come to think of it.
For me his great and heroic service to his country, including his capture, imprisonment, and torture, is unquestionable and worthy of recognition and great respect and thanks. His time as a politician – a public servant as they all like to call themselves – is unremarkable for its self-serving and general partisan pettiness.
Thank you for your service sir. RIP John McCain.
” In 1975, Schanberg was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting “at great risk.”
Walter Duranty approves of this honor.
I also have often wondered that if Sarah Palin had foreknowledge of how she would be treated when she agreed to the VP slot, would she have still said OK?
The fury with which she was attacked is unique in American politics. It was a preview of how Trump would be treated but with much less justification. Ironically, it was Bill Kristol who initially pushed her candidacy. His Trump hatred is the other side of the coin of his support of Palin. I’ve seen criticism of her since 2008, saying that she has done nothing but enrich herself. She was so savaged that I think she is wise to do what she has done.
McCain was dishonorable on Palin, during and after the campaign. Him choosing her was the best choice he could make, if he wanted to win.
Nothing he could do after the huge 2008 Financial Crisis to win, so his choice mostly didn’t matter for winning. Palin got bigger crowds than McCain did — Palin became, thanks to McCain’s choice, an early Trumpist-America First populist. That was not then, nor ever, McCain’s style.
Nor was McCain willing to align with the very normal conservative Tea Party voters, an elitist GOPe attitude shared with the even more honorable Romney.
Hmm, honorable McCain, even more honorable Romney — both losers to dishonest Obama. After these losses, I prefer a Rep to win, even if less honorable. Sad for Palin’s kids having problems.
He pissed me off and disappointed me plenty but I still voted for the guy and liked him. He would have been an interesting friend to have. I can imagine the stories.
See Robert Stacy McCain (no relation to the candidate) on the Palin candidacy. McCain hired a pair of grifters — Steven Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace — to run his campaign. John McCain did not have impeccable judgment and exhibits A and B would be these two. Sarah Palin saw Wallace for what she was and attempted to avoid her as much as she could manage. John McCain himself has been cordial to Palin until very recently and I suspect Cindy McCain is the ultimate source of those recent jabs.
The fury with which she was attacked is unique in American politics.
Absolutely. Larry Sabato referred to the era since 1973 as the era of the “Junkyard Dog press”. I had occasion to review the subsequent history of quondam vice presidential candidates (some of whom had continued to be working politicians) and located three who had been raked over the coals after the campaign was over: Geraldine Ferraro, John Edwards, and Sarah Palin.
1. Two first degree relations of Geraldine Ferraro have faced criminal charges (one was convicted of a serious charge while one was convicted of a minor charge and acquitted of serious charges) It came to light after her campaign concluded (and in some measure while it was underway) that their social and business circles were shot through with gangsters, that her biography rather glossed over the reality that her father had been a front man for the mafia (ran a nightclub and numbers racket for them), and that her upbringing had been moderately affluent before he’d died. It also glossed over the reality that her husband’s father and uncle had run one dirty real estate business. She left the impression that a job offer for a position as a prosecutor in New York County had been withdrawn when she revealed she was getting married. What she didn’t mention in her PR was that the Manhattan DA had prosecuted P. Zacarro & Co. in 1959 for taking kickbacks on the city contracts they’d won.
2. John Edwards you will recall was cheating on his cancer stricken wife and sired a child with his mistress. He was also put on trial, though the charges were humbug.
Sarah Palin’s offenses have consisted of the embarrassing antics of her daughter Bristol. Yet, she’s been subject to legal harassment and vicious public attacks by journalists.
John McCain’s shocking concession on the Iraq War: it was a “mistake”
Previously, the Arizona senator John McCain admitted that he was a ‘war criminal’ and that was he pardoned by President Nixon for his crimes are not true.
I wish that when John McCain returned home from captivity, a grateful nation had recognized his service and sacrifice with an annual pension twice as large as the money he’s made while in the Senate, on the condition that he stayed home and did not run for office.
Art Deco, interesting quote from Larry Sabato who was in the forefront of the despicable attacks on George Allen. In private, and please keep my secret, I have since referred to him as Larry Liebato the Prince of Macaca.
The egregious ad hominem attacks on a distinguished former Governor, respected Senator, and potential future Presidential candidate were a portent of things to come–although I suppose that Barry Goldwater would claim precedence when it comes to being the target of sleazy, dishonest attacks.
Art Deco, interesting quote from Larry Sabato who was in the forefront of the despicable attacks on George Allen.
I didn’t complete the thought. I was referring to candidates who had lived into the era of the ‘junkyard dog press’. Sabato was of the opinion ca. 1991 that the media behaved in ways not consistent with the public interest, acting as an extension of political establishments from about 1941 to about 1966 (“lapdog press”) and as peddlers of ill-substantiated scandal after 1973. Nicholas von Hoffman was also of the opinion that there had been a dramatic decline in political reporting of standards of proof after 1973. Didn’t know Sabato was involved in any skullduggery contra George Allen. The great thing about the Trump era is the capacity of the media to manufacture pseudo-scandals is (one might wager and hope) at an end.
that he stayed home and did not run for office.
I don’t think there was anything grossly wrong with McCain in context. Like many members of Congress, he overstayed his welcome. He should have retired in 2004 or 2010.
Caught a little of the news. They furiously were trumpeting McCain’s “great service” to the United States. Which I suppose, was meant to include more than his being a skilled jet jockey and having been held captive and tortured in a POW camp; and to include his later exercises in publicly displayed ego gratification as well.
The fact that he rolled like a dog in the praise of a press which respected his Royal Maverickness mostly insofar as his actions redounded negatively on the political party to which he formally belonged, was just a bonus.
In any event, we are informed that as humility itself, he prepared every detail of his obsequies, which will be capped by that famous Christian hymn, “MY Way”, as rendered by Frank Sinatra.
How “fortunate” for a nation that he found in his replacement wife someone whose fortune allowed him to chew it up and spit it out, his way.
Too bad it could not have been some other nation than this one. His role in attempting to salvage Obamacare is to my mind ideological treason to the founding principles of this republic, if not to an Imperial Rome which probably would have been more to his taste.
Yes, John McCain did suffer grievous bodily harm while serving in the United States military. I suppose one must grant that that, if nothing else, is what would have made it morally wrong to have shoved him down a steep and very long flight of stairs.
Snow on Pine:
It’s easy to find out what his fellow POWs thought of him. There will always be some dissenters, of course, but I would go by this, this, and this.