John McCain

<< Back

Edit Mode: John McCain

Email *

If we need to contact you, we will contact you on this email.

Full Name *

Your name please so that we can credit your work.

Main Text *

John McCain was born on August 29, 1936. His full name is <a href="/biography/john-mccain">John Sidney McCain III</a>. McCain is a <a href="/biography/john-mccain">politician</a> in the United States serving as the senior Senator from Arizona from 1987 until the present. He ran for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States">President of the United States</a> as a Republican candidate in the 2008 election, which he lost to <a href="/biography/barack-obama">Barack Obama</a>.

Training and military career

John McCain was trained at the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1958. He entered the United States Navy,  following the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who were both four-star admirals in the US Navy. John McCain was a naval <a href="/biography/john-mccain">aviator</a>, flying ground-attack planes from aircraft carriers. John McCain served in the Vietnam War, during which he narrowly survived the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. During a bombing mission over Hanoi in October of 1967, McCain’s aircraft was shot down. McCain sustained grave injuries, and was captured by North Vietnamese forces. He was held as a prisoner of war from 1967 to 1973.  During this time, McCain experienced episodes of torture. He was offered out-of-sequence repatriation by his captors but refused. The injuries that he sustained during the Vietnam war have left him with long-term physical disabilities. John McCain retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981 and moved to Arizona.

Political Career

On moving to Arizona, John McCain entered the political arena. John McCain was elected in 1982 to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served two terms. In 1986, John McCain was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, and subsequently won re-election five times, most recently in 2016.

John McCain, as a member of the Republican party, is generally known as a conservative Republican and he has been seen as guided by conservative principles in general. However, McCain has on many occasions gained a media reputation as a "maverick" for his readiness to disagree with the Republican party on selected issues. McCain was investigated and for the most part exonerated in a scandal of the 1980s involving political influence as a member of the Keating Five. Following this, he made campaign finance reform one of his key issues of concern. This eventually resulted in passage of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipartisan_Campaign_Reform_Act">McCain–Feingold Act</a> in 2002, focusing on campaign finance reform. John McCain is also known for his work in the 1990s to re-establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam. McCain is also known for his argument that the Iraq War should have been fought to a successful conclusion. John McCain has chaired the Senate Commerce Committee, where he made clear his opposition to pork barrel spending. John McCain was a <a href="/biography/john-mccain">member</a> of the bi-partisan group known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_14">Gang of 14</a>, playing a crucial role in dealing with a crisis over judicial nominations.

[page-break]

Presidential Candidacy

In 2000, John McCain entered the contest for the Republican nomination for President, but he lost a heated primary season race to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush">Governor</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush">George W. Bush</a> of Texas. In 2008, John McCain secured the nomination to be the Republican presidential candidate, after coming back from early reversals.  However, in the presidential election, John McCain lost to the Democratic candidate <a href="/biography/barack-obama">Barack Obama</a>, losing by a 365–173 electoral college margin. Following this election, John McCain became less of a maverick and tended to adopt more orthodox conservative positions and beliefs. For the most part, John McCain showed clear opposition to the actions of the <a href="/biography/barack-obama">Obama</a> administration, especially with regard to foreign policy issues. By 2013, however, he had become a central player in the Senate for negotiating deals on key issues in an otherwise highly party-polarized environment. McCain became chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2008. In July 2017, John McCain was faced with a diagnosis of brain cancer. Ever since the cancer diagnosis, John McCain has played a diminished role in the Senate.

References

1.    <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-25/mccain-calls-brain-cancer-prognosis-very-poor">"McCain Says His Brain Cancer Prognosis Is 'Very Poor'"</a>. Bloomberg News. Associated Press. September 25, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2018.

2.    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Timberg">Timberg</a>, Robert. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/t/timberg-mccain.html">Chapter One, John McCain, An American Odyssey</a> in The New York Times on the Web. Retrieved August 4, 2015.

3.    Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War(Naval Institute Press, 2007), p. 119.

4.    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Boyd_Roberts">Roberts</a>, Gary. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080915022255/http:/www.newenglandancestors.org/research/services/56_ancestry_john_mccain.asp">"On the Ancestry, Royal Descent, and English and American Notable Kin of <a href="/biography/john-mccain">Senator</a> <a href="/biography/john-mccain">John Sidney McCain IV</a>"</a>, New England Historic Genealogical Society(April 1, 2008). Retrieved May 19, 2008.

5.   Nowicki, Dan and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Muller"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Muller">Muller</a>, Bill</a>. <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/mccain/articles/0301mccainbio-chapter2.html">"John McCain Report: At the Naval Academy"</a>, The Arizona Republic (March 1, 2007); retrieved November 10, 2007; <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/mccain/articles/0301mccainbio-postscript.html">"How the biography was put together"</a>, The Arizona Republic (March 1, 2007). Retrieved June 18, 2008. ("McCain's grades [at the Naval Academy] were good in the subjects he enjoyed, such as literature and history. Gamboa said McCain would rather read a history book than do his math homework. He did just enough to pass the classes he didn't find stimulating. 'He stood low in his class,' Gamboa said. 'But that was by choice, not design.'")

6.    Alexander, Man of the People, p. 19.

7.   Woodward, Calvin. <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2007-11-03-998821539_x.htm">"McCain's WMD Is A Mouth That Won't Quit"</a>. Associated Press. USA Today (November 4, 2007). Retrieved November 10, 2007.

8.    Alexander, Man of the People, p. 22.

Source *

Source you received the information from. eg. personal experiences, acquaintances, web-links, etc

Comment *

Briefly describe the changes you made.

Warning! All fields are required. Empty fields won't allow the form to be submitted and your changes will be lost.
Once the changes are submitted they cannot be edited again until your submission is reviewed.