John McCain

JOHN MCCAIN

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John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona, and a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the 2008 presidential election.

Both McCain's grandfather and father were Admirals in the United States Navy. McCain attended the United States Naval Academy. He became a naval aviator, flying attack aircraft from carriers. During the Vietnam War in 1967, he narrowly escaped death in the Forrestal fire. On his twenty-third bombing mission over North Vietnam later in 1967, he was shot down and badly injured. He then endured five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture, before he was released following the Paris Peace Accords in 1973.

Retiring from the Navy in 1981 and moving to Arizona, McCain entered politics. In 1982 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 1st congressional district. After serving two terms there, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Arizona in 1986. He was re-elected Senator in 1992, 1998, and 2004. While generally adhering to American conservatism, McCain established a reputation as a political maverick for his willingness to defy Republican orthodoxy on several issues. Surviving the Keating Five scandal of the 1980s, he made campaign finance reform one of his signature concerns, which eventually led to the passing of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002.

McCain was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2000 presidential election, but was defeated by George W. Bush after closely contested battles in several early primary states. In the 2008 presidential election cycle, McCain was the Republican front-runner as the cycle began, but suffered a near-collapse of his campaign in mid-2007 due to financial issues, and due to his support for comprehensive immigration reform. In late 2007 he staged a comeback, won several key primaries during January 2008, and by the end of that month was the Republican front-runner once again — a status solidified by his Super Tuesday gains in early February and the subsequent withdrawal of his closest competitor, Mitt Romney.

Source: Wikipedia

Interests

Most Recent Idea

Policy & Politics

Re: Is the American govenment too secretive?

12/14/2007

Description: McCain says we have to track down the people who want to destroy America.

Transcript: I think that 9/11 probably, for a few good reasons, made the government more secretive so that we wouldn’t betray some of our sources and methods to the enemy. But I do believe that on the signing statement issue where the president has basically made a statement when he signs a bill into law saying that he either will not obey it, or will not implement it, or will only partially implement it, it’s a terrible turn of events. I think it’s a fundamental assault on the balance of powers. I will never as President of the United States issue a signing statement that has anything to do other than how I will implement the law to its fullest degree. On the other aspect of the issue about sources, and methods, and phone records and all that kind of stuff, that’s another manifestation of the gridlock we hear . . . we have here. Why shouldn’t the relevant committees, the intelligence committees and the Executive branch sit down and work out the best way to track down people who want to destroy America, and at the same time preserve individual liberties? And all of that is complicated by the dramatic changes in telecommunications capabilities as we see almost on a daily basis. But we should be able to adjust to that, and in a balanced and bipartisan fashion. Unfortunately we’re not. I’d call over the intelligence committee members, and I’d sit down with them and I’d say, “What’s your problem?” I would try to point out to them what our national security interests are. And I also would tell them that I respect their role. There is a role for Congress in the formulation of these policies, and I will respect it. And I will appeal to their angels . . . better angels of their nature because this is an issue of national security. It should not spill over into national partisanship.

Recorded on: 11/20/07