Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Sunday August 26 2018, @07:35AM   Printer-friendly
from the RIP dept.

Chicago Tribune:

Sen. John McCain, who faced down his captors in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp with jut-jawed defiance and later turned his rebellious streak into a 35-year political career that took him to Congress and the Republican presidential nomination, died Saturday after battling brain cancer for more than a year. He was 81.

McCain, with his irascible grin and fighter-pilot moxie, was a fearless and outspoken voice on policy and politics to the end, unswerving in his defense of democratic values and unflinching in his criticism of his fellow Republican, President Donald Trump. He was elected to the Senate from Arizona six times but twice thwarted in seeking the presidency.

An upstart presidential bid in 2000 didn't last long. Eight years later, he fought back from the brink of defeat to win the GOP nomination, only to be overpowered by Democrat Barack Obama. McCain chose a little-known Alaska governor as his running mate in that race, and turned Sarah Palin into a national political figure.

After losing to Obama in an electoral landslide, McCain returned to the Senate determined not to be defined by a failed presidential campaign in which his reputation as a maverick had faded. In the politics of the moment and in national political debate over the decades, McCain energetically advanced his ideas and punched back hard at critics — Trump not least among them.

The scion of a decorated military family, McCain embraced his role as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, pushing for aggressive U.S. military intervention overseas and eager to contribute to "defeating the forces of radical Islam that want to destroy America."

Asked how he wanted to be remembered, McCain said simply: "That I made a major contribution to the defense of the nation."

Also at The New York Timesand c|net.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @03:05PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @03:05PM (#726928)

    the first to put an idiot into the White House.

    Do you mean Reagan, Clinton, Dubya or Obama?

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday August 27 2018, @04:42PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Monday August 27 2018, @04:42PM (#726983)

    Reagan: Primary credit there goes to a group of guys with guns in Iran.
    Clinton: Primary credit there should go to Ross Perot.
    Dubya: Primary credit there should go to his daddy and Carlyle Group, with some help from William Rehnquist (who was willing to enshrine in law that Americans don't have a right to vote for president, and that Americans who vote don't have the right to have their vote counted, just so that their guy could win). Dubya could also very reasonably be accused of being installed and propped up by Saudi Arabia.
    Obama: He was president thanks to Citigroup. He never forgot that.

    However, the first idiot president was probably William Henry Harrison, who was so stupid he didn't wear a coat when it was cold out during his inauguration, caught pneumonia, and died before he could do much of anything else.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.