John McCain

U.S. Senator

John McCain has been a U.S. senator from Arizona since 1987, and was the Republican nominee for president in 2008. A 1958 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, McCain had a 22-year military career as a pilot and officer in the Navy. Five of those years (1967-73) were spent in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp after he was shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam War. McCain left the Navy in 1981, was elected to Congress in 1982, and then was elected as U.S. senator from Arizona in 1986. In 2000 he ran for the Republican presidential nomination, but was defeated by George W. Bush. After Bush was reelected in 2004, McCain ran again for the Republican nomination in 2008, this time winning the nomination at the GOP convention. He named Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, but they were defeated by Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Joe Biden. McCain's 1999 book Faith of My Fathers told the story of his family's military history and his own experiences as a POW.

Extra credit: McCain's father and grandfather were both four-star admirals in the U.S. Navy... He had surgery to remove melanomas (skin lesions) in 1993 and 2000 and minor prostate surgery in August of 2001... McCain was married to the former Carol Shepp from 1965-1980. A month after their divorce, he married Cindy Hensley, the daughter of a prominent Arizona liquor distributor. He has seven children: sons Doug Shepp and Andy Shepp (adopted during his marriage to their mother, Carol Shepp), Sydney McCain (his daughter with Carol Shepp), and Meghan McCain, John Sidney McCain IV, James McCain, and Bridget McCain, all with Cindy McCain. Bridget McCain was born in Bangladesh and adopted in 1993 by the McCains.

McCain joins Mitt Romney in our loop on Candidates 2008, and appears with Elizabeth Dole in our loop on Candidates 2000.

Blog posts mentioning John McCain:

• Bristol Palin Gives Birth to a Baby Boy
• Barack Obama Will Be the 44th President of the United States
• Dewey Defeats Truman!
• The Comedy Stylings of John McCain and 'Steve' Obama
• That's a Lot of Words
• The Jeopardy Champion's Hard-Nosed True-Life Are-You-Ready-To-Run-For-President Quiz
• Wait -- Walter Reed Middle School?
• John McCain Accepts GOP Nomination
• What Is the Population of Wasilla, Alaska?
• McCain Chooses Alaskan for Running Mate
• John McCain and Buddy Holly
• McCain's Sweet Ride!
• Now There Are One
• Obama Claims Democratic Nomination
• McCain is the Nominee
• Texas and Ohio
• Obama on a Tear
• A Senator in the White House?
• Romney Stuck at Seven
• McCain, Clinton Win Florida
• New Hampshire Primary Results
• First in the Nation?
• Reinhold Niebuhr, Running Mate?