John McCain, R.I.P.

Senator John McCain has lost his battle with brain cancer. He died three days shy of his 82nd birthday.

The son and grandson of four star admirals, McCain would earn his stripes as a naval aviator in Vietnam earning the Navy Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star before being captured in October 1967. He would spend the next five and a half years in captivity as a POW where he was subjected to frequent and severe beatings. When offered freedom after his father was named naval commander for the Pacific, McCain refused because other POWs had been in captivity longer than he had. For this valor, McCain was rewarded with broken ribs and arm and knocked out teeth.

After a long recovery, McCain got his first taste of politics in 1977 as the U.S. Navy's liaison to the Senate. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 and the Senate in 1986 succeeding Barry Goldwater. McCain's career Senate nearly ended before it started as he was caught up in the Keating Five scandal regarding the acceptance of illegal campaign contributions from the savings & loans magnate. But McCain would overcome this with hard work and a strong streak of political independence and didn't hesitate to stand up to Presidents Reagan and Bush and other Republicans when necessary earning him a reputation as a maverick. His maverick disposition would nearly make him the political story of 2000 when he sought the GOP nomination putting a scare into George W. Bush's presidential ambitions with straight talk winning the New Hampshire Primary before being stopped by dirty tricks in South Carolina.

Despite his antipathy towards Bush, he was a strong supporter of the War in Iraq and supported a surge of troops when it was not fashionable to do so. McCain would earn the GOP nomination in 2008, but could not overcome the shadow of the Bush years, his decision to name Sarah Palin as his running mate, the economy collapsing and the juggernaut that was Barack Obama.

In recent years, McCain's maverick reputation earned him the enmity of conservatives who thought he wasn't tough enough on Obama, too soft on immigration and disliked his support for campaign finance reform surviving a primary challenge from J.D. Hayworth in the Arizona GOP primary in 2010. This resentment would be at its ugliest five years later when conservatives stuck with Donald Trump even after claiming McCain wasn't a hero and liked people who weren't captured. But McCain would have the last laugh when he wouldn't back the Trump Administration's efforts to repeal Obamacare despite his disagreement with Obamacare shortly after his brain cancer diagnosis a year ago.

John McCain would be the first to tell you he was no saint. But John McCain believed he had a duty to put his country and people ahead of his own self-interest. In this day and age, this is no easy feat but one well worth aspiring towards. R.I.P.