Why He's No. 5

McCain acting resumé also includes a cameo appearance in the popular 2005 farce Wedding Crashers. Like his opponent in the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, McCain participated as an interviewee in the social-awareness documentary Darfur Now (2007).

Back Stage

John Sidney McCain III, the Republican U.S. Senator from Arizona, was born August 29, 1936 in Panama Canal Zone, Panama. Despite being born on foreign soil, McCain's parents (Admiral John S. McCain, Jr. and Roberta Wright McCain) were U.S. citizens, which gave him American status from birth. McCain's father and grandfather were both famous U.S. Navy Admirals, and instilled in him the values of duty, honor and service of country.  They also helped him get admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated in the bottom 5% of his class.

 

McCain was educated in Alexandria, Virginia and then at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. He went on to serve as a naval aviator, attaining the rank of Captain during his 22 years of service. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona's 1st District in 1982 and then to the U.S. Senate in 1986. He is now in his fourth term as senator. He is one of five Vietnam veterans currently serving in the U.S. Senate.

 

McCain survived many near-death experiences during his combat in Vietnam, including a fiery disaster aboard the USS Forrester. During his 23rd bombing mission on October 26, 1967, a missile struck McCain's plane, forcing him to eject. He was knocked unconscious and both arms and a leg were broken in the fall. He was then held as a prisoner of war at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," where he was denied medical treatment and subjected to regular beatings. He was finally released five and a half years later, and his naval flight status was reinstated. In 1976, he became the Navy's liaison to the Senate. McCain retired from the Navy in 1981, after receiving honors including the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

 

When McCain returned from Vietnam he learned that his first wife, Carol McCain, who bore him his three eldest children, had suffered a horrible car accident while he was in prison.  After 23 operations and 6 months of hospitalization  she survived, but in a badly crippled state.  In 1979 McCain began an adulterous affair with 25-year old Cindy Hensley, a blond millionaire heiress 18 years his junior.  In 1980 McCain divorced his first wife Carol and just one month later he married Cindy.

 

Now married to Cindy, he moved to Phoenix, where he went to work for his father-in-law's Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship. It was there he started gaining political support among the local business community. In 1982, McCain ran for and won a seat as a congressman for Arizona's 1st congressional district. In 1986 he ran for Senate, and was elected to succeed Senator Barry Goldwater.

 

In 1993 he was diagnosed and treated for malignant melanoma, a deadly cancer.  He was treated again for recurrences of the deadly melanoma in 2000 and 2002. In 1997, Time named McCain one of the "25 Most Influential People in America". Propelled by his best-selling family memoir, Faith of My Fathers, he ran for president. Despite early success, McCain lost the South Carolina vote to George Bush, and was unable to recover from the loss in subsequent states. He publicly supported Bush in the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

 

McCain announced that he is seeking the 2008 presidential nomination on February 28, 2007, on the Late Show with David Letterman. If McCain were elected in 2008, he would be the oldest person in history to assume the presidency (at the time of initial election to office). He would be 72 years old, surpassing Ronald Regan, who was 69 years old at his inauguration. While widely respected for his suffering in the Vietnam prison and his 26 years of service in Congress, during his 2008 Presidential campaign McCain has reversed many of his previous moderate positions in favor of right-wing Republican orthodoxy.  Examples included dramatic changes in his positions on key abortion, immigration and Social Security issues. McCain has seven children and four grandchildren, and currently lives in Phoenix with his second wife, Cindy.

Forcaste

Unlike his democratic opponents, McCain seemed inherently willing to toy with his own image; in fact, he hosted Saturday Night Live before and during his campaign and participated in a number of SNL sketches -- inevitably recalling Nixon's "sock it to me" contributions to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, decades prior.