RIP Senator John Mccain
 

John McCain, who shed a playboy image in his youth to become a fighter pilot, revered prisoner of war and both an independent voice in the Republican Party and its 2008 presidential nominee, died on Saturday, little more than a year after he was told he had brain cancer. He was 81.

McCain’s office said in a statement "Senator John Sidney McCain III died at 4:28 p.m. on August 25, 2018." He announced on July 19, 2017, that he had been diagnosed with a glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain tumor. Earlier this week his family announced he was discontinuing treatment.

"With the Senator when he passed were his wife Cindy and their family. At his death, he had served the United States of America faithfully for sixty years," McCain's office said in the statement.

In his 36 years in Congress, McCain became one of the country's most respected and influential politicians, challenging his fellow lawmakers to reach across the aisle for the good of the country, and often sparring with reporters with a biting if self-deprecating wit.

On a variety of issues — torture, immigration, campaign finance, the Iraq War — McCain was often known as the moral center of the Senate and of the Republican Party.

Last year, in his last act of defiance, McCain returned to the Capitol less than a week after his cancer was diagnosed to cast his vote on the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act — the biggest legislative achievement of President Barack Obama, the man who defeated him in the 2008 election.

McCain first voted in favor of debating the bill, giving his fellow Republicans hope that their long-sought goal of repealing Obamacare was in sight. McCain then dashed those hopes by casting the decisive vote against repeal.
Image: Senators Debate Health Care Bill On Capitol Hill
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) leaves the the Senate chamber at the U.S. Capitol after voting on the GOP 'Skinny Repeal' health care bill on July 28, 2017 in Washington, DC.Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Before the vote, McCain denounced the rise of partisanship in a heartfelt speech from the Senate floor on July 25, 2017.

"Why don’t we try the old way of legislating in the Senate, the way our rules and customs encourage us to act?" McCain said. "Merely preventing your political opponents from doing what they want isn’t the most inspiring work."
Senator McCain Speaks On Senate Floor Following Health Care Vote
Jul.25.201715:09

But in recent months, the man who had been a mainstay on Capitol Hill for more than three decades was noticeably absent.

He missed a White House ceremony on Dec. 12, 2017, in which President Donald Trump signed the annual defense bill into law — one of McCain's signature achievements.

A statement issued the following day by the senator's office said he was at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland receiving treatment for the "normal side effects of his ongoing cancer therapy" and looked forward to returning to work as soon as possible.

McCain's life was punctuated by wild highs and lows, from the horrific conditions he endured for nearly 2,000 days as a prisoner of war to subsequent professional successes that brought him to the forefront of American politics.

Over the course of his career he rallied against pork-barrel spending and went against his own party's president, George W. Bush, on strategy for the Iraq war. He earned a reputation as a party maverick by advocating campaign finance reform, lending his name to the bipartisan McCain-Feingold Act of 2002, and supporting overhauling the nation's immigration system over the years.

But the pinnacle of his political career came in 2008, when he clinched the Republican nomination for president, only to lose to Obama amid the global financial meltdown and dragged down by Bush's low approval ratings. His contentious choice for a running mate, Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska at the time, was also believed to have contributed to the loss, and is still seen by some as a tarnish on his reputation.

But long before then, McCain was a Navy brat who had little interest in being studious.
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John Sidney McCain III was born on Aug. 29, 1936, to a prominent naval family steeped in patriotism. Both his father and grandfather were four-star admirals, with his father, John McCain Jr., advancing to commander in chief of Pacific forces during the Vietnam War.

While McCain followed in his family's military footsteps, he did so with his own flair: When he graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1958, he was ranked 894th of 899 graduates.

In a speech to midshipmen at his alma mater in October 2017, McCain joked about his abysmal academic performance.

"My superiors didn’t hold me in very high esteem in those days," he said. "To be honest, I wasn’t too thrilled to be here back then, and I was as relieved to graduate — fifth from the bottom of my class — as the Naval Academy was to see me go."

After graduation, McCain volunteered for combat duty in the Vietnam War and, as a lieutenant commander, got orders to ship out in 1967. He narrowly escaped death in July of that year, when, while preparing for a routine bombing mission, an explosion on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal engulfed his plane in flames, killing 134 men on board.

Only three months later, on Oct. 26, 1967, McCain's plane was shot down over North Vietnam. Both of his arms and his knee were broken, and McCain was knocked unconscious and taken as a prisoner of war.

That began a five-and-a-half-year nightmare inside a prison where Vietnamese soldiers, upon learning that McCain was the son of an admiral, set out to use him for propaganda purposes. They tortured and beat him, but McCain refused an early release, denying communist North Vietnam a propaganda victory, and followed a code of conduct that POWs must be released in the order they were captured.

When the war ended in 1973, McCain finally returned to a hero's welcome.

In 2008, he spoke passionately about the patriotism he maintained while imprisoned in Hanoi.

"I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's," he said in accepting the Republican presidential nomination.

McCain was first elected to office in 1982, when he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona. Four years later he was elected to the Senate, and he was re-elected five times.

He first ran for president in 2000, becoming the main GOP challenger to George W. Bush, who went on to win the nomination and the White House.

In October, he reflected on his life in an interview with GQ Magazine.

"I have had the most fortunate life of anybody you will ever talk to, and I have nothing but gratitude, gratitude and joy, because I've had the most fortunate life that anybody has ever had," he said. "So I spend my time in gratitude and work as hard as I can to get done what I can get done while I can."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ies-81-n790971

Man, just heard he stopped receiving treatment yesterday for his brain cancer.

Yeah, surprising he died so soon since they only just announced that yesterday. :ohwell: Guess he was further gone than they let on.

Sad. May not have agreed with much of his politics, but had to respect that he was one of the few leaders in there still putting country before party in a growing sea of yes men politicians.

From what I've heard, he never came across as someone friendly. Despite this, he was a hero in the military and was respect by so many people across the country. R.I.P.

That was pretty fast after he stopped, but he's at peace now, a lot of commendable accomplishments under his belt, RIP Senator John McCain.

Hmmm didn't know that part about him, honestly I don't really have any strong feelings towards him since I wasn't really that into politics at the time. Still though having an aggressive brain tumor during the final years of your life is beyond sad but at least he lived a very long life.

I recently read that he had discontinued his treatments, but it is a blow on how quickly he passed on afterwards.

Goodbye Maverick. You stood by your guns on the congressional floor and beyond. Rest well.

That is pretty sobering. I mean, damn.

So, apparently Trump had absolutely nothing to say about his passing, even ignoring questions when specifically asked about his thoughts. So disrespectful and petty.

Apparently Trump is just honoring McCain's wishes, really.

How so? He hasn't been invited to the funeral(I don't blame them), and hasn't even offered any respects or prayers to his family. Isn't a president supposed to be better than snubbing the family of a well-respected Senator?

Worse, the White House supposedly drafted a statement, praising McCain, and Trump rejected it being sent out.

Ugh, didn't hear that part. I heard about it when TMZ reported on it.

Not being one to just jump in and defend the president, but....

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...mp%20tweet.png

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/27/polit...ath/index.html

He tweets a copy-paste message, but won't answer any in-person questions about his thoughts or feelings about it? Not sure that's much of a defense. He literally ignored multiple people asking his reaction. ItIt just seems like he has no real emotions. Just pasted on, rote replies to whatever is going on at the moment.

We know what Trump's thoughts and feelings are about McCain. They are well documented. The two of them had a mutual dislike of each other. Do you really want Trump to share his honest opinions of McCain now, right after his death? Do you just want him to lie and pretend that he was a saint to him? He's keeping his mouth shut, which seems the soundest of the three options. Nothing to see here, folks.

Trump keeping his mouth shut? Should have done that all along. About a lot of things. I guess I just can't forgive that idiotic comment during his campaign about preferring vets who weren't taken as POWs. Just- ugh.

Here's one
https://twitter.com/JDiamond1/status...72360620949506

not that i'm one to defend a reality tv star...

but this is one of those cases where the guy can't win... darned if he does, darned if he doesn't. like allegedly coloring a flag wrong in a room full of kids, and people yell 'impeachment'.

Supposedly mcain was not a nice person behind the scenes. and with how rough and tumble politicians can be to each other, I'm assuming they can take a few jabs at each other better than the supporters of said politicians can.

McCain's probably said worse things about trump that never made it out there as publicly...no doubt. trumps response just happened to make it on camera cause the guy has no self image filter.

Which makes it all the more absurd since others in the White House drafted that would be statement, not him.

Yes, he made a tweet, as pointed out by Jester, but it's hardly the same thing and hardly as respectful as the statement others in the White House wanted to release that supposedly actually gave praise of McCain's life and service. They did the work for him. The only job he had then was to just swallow his pride for just a moment and let it be and he couldn't even do that much. :tsad:

It's true. Trump can be a jerk quite a bit.

Well, credit to him I guess, somewhat, as it seems he bent to pressure and spoke up. Hardly really says much about the man himself, but I suppose it's something. At least something more than just a tweeted condolence.


https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/27/polit...ath/index.html



Then what was with the return to full staff today until there was backlash for it...?

Interesting. We never heard anything about it, nor was our flag at work lowered. Even had a customer comment on it, which I found odd at the time, but now I wonder...

From what I heard, Flag Code only requires the day of the death and the following day. Thus, Monday would have been back to full staff, unless the decision was made to go half staff until internment.

I see. Verterans groups or whatnot supposedly wanted it to remain lowered and got on him about it, so at least they relented and have chosen to leave it lowered for longer.



For someone who supposedly doesn't like the amount of criticizing news coverage given to him (Trump), and you'd think he'd be grateful anytime something happens to divert attention away... tell me he is not jealous of the dead guy.

http://www.ipodder.org/blog/wp-conte...el-Bay-why.jpg

:lol:

But if he weren't, he would not be the petty, immature 5-yr-old in a man's body we've all come to know. Jealousy is his trademark.

Probably right. Fortunately, he doesn't need to be our bestie or be a guidance counselor... he needs to run the country. So far so good on that -- unemployment is at record lows, the stock market is at historic highs beyond ever before, companies are coming back to the states, our trade deals with other countries are being renegotiated to ensure fairness. I don't know or really care what's "in his heart" as a person as long as he is getting results.

That said, I wish he'd pull his head of his ass on education and the environment and his FAKE devotion to the church. The rest? Sounds good.

I think we have different opinions on "good", but I'll leave that one alone for now. Especially with what I've been hearing on the news lately about his so-called "fair" trade agreements. Or the fact that the market bubble may be about to burst because of it, among other reasons. Or how so many allies are now sort of sliding away like the US is that weird guy who sits next to you on the bus and starts mumbling crazy s**t.

I think the two go hand in hand. If he is emotionally bankrupt, how can we trust his moral or ethical compass? His business practices have always been shady- and that is really just an extention of how he views and interacts with others. As objects there to please HIM. He's a narcissist.

There's been quite a bit of "ANY DAY NOW, disaster/cataclysm/the fall of the nation!" for some time now about varying things that Trump has done, might do, or has said.

Nothing ever happens. Not a thing. It's all noise.

Ever the optimist, eh? No, I don't think he's the Antichrist or anything quite so Biblically catastrophic, but to run this country's progress from the last 50 years to a grinding halt, or even backward? Yes, I fully believe he's capable- and well on the way- do doing exactly that. His "new" trade agreement won't do us a darn bit of good if the other nations involved simply- don't want to trade with us anymore. It might look good on paper, but there would have to be actual trade for it to benefit antone, and sadly, he seems determined to make us the schoolyard pariah.

The realist, I would imagine. We're over halfway into the second year of his presidency and nothing bad has happened, only the contrary. When exactly does the catastrophe strike? Is it year 3? All the way in 4? What date, so I can write it down and remember to come back and tell you, "You were wrong"?

It's already happening though. Tried to repeal ACA, only failed because McCain (bless the man!) cast a decisive vote against it. The market wobbles every time he makes a new announcement regarding foriegn policy. It did again yesterday when he announced his trade agreement plan. And don't even get me started on all the left/right polarization since he started his campaign. You can say it started with Obama, but when has this country EVER been this divided save during the Civil War or Civil Rights movement? He's toxic to everything this country actually stands for.

And for all that, he's not leaving the White House until 2020 at the earliest. More likely 2024.

When you strip away the personality and Twitter, Trump's really not that much more divisive than George W Bush or Clinton or Obama. We'll survive. The USA won't be well-liked outside our borders, but when were we ever this century?

He managed to take out the mandatory/penalty aspect of the ACA. Which greatly benefits a ton of people I know.

Wobbles... and then goes up. Wobbles... and then goes up. Over and over again.

Is that really him, though? Sure he poked the bear and may have served as a sort of catalyst and loves to "stir the pot" but at the same time it's seemed to me he also sort of inadvertently shined a light on certain groups of people's lunacy. It's true, I've never seen so many people sooo mad, so much, even getting to points of derangement over what is essentially nothing burger.

But that's kind of the culture we're in now. If everything is a 10, nothing can ever be a 1.

Is it ALL him? No, but as you said, he likes to stir the pot and poke bears- both of which are behaviors unbecoming and unworthy of someone sitting in the highest office in the country. It's dangerous and intentionally provocative to friend and foe alike. And I think his s**t-stirring is a big part of why it has gotten so bad. He has a talent for knowing exactly which buttons to push for the biggest reactions, and he wants to be the center of attention at all times. Like the ultimate troll....

That's a big component of him. But like a smart troll... and one that still gets results.

I've been saying since the beginning I thought for sure that when he announced he was running he was just trolling the nation hard and that he had zero intention of winning. But then he did.

I think the plan was to lose and then write a book about how badly rigged the system is. Maybe finagle another reality show out of it.

I'm fairly certain none of this was supposed to happen.

Well he'll get another shot at it next time and probably have an even better book than he would have before with additional chapters about rigged things. :tlol:

edit: Although for entertainment value he should absolutely have to white it himself, not hire someone else.