John McCain

Born John Sidney McCain III to John S. McCain Jr. and Roberta McCain on August 29th, 1936, was born in the Panama Canal Zone. During his childhood and adolescent years John McCain’s family moved from one American naval base to the other. Fifteen years later, they settled into northern Virginia where McCain attended Episcopal High School. Like his father and grandfather, McCain entered a naval academy and was then trained to be a naval aviator. He was assigned missions and in 1965 married Carol Shepp. Two years later, he was shot down during a combat assignment in Vietnam and was captured by the North Vietnamese. It would be there the Vietnamese would regularly torture and beat him for 5½ years until he was released in early 1973. After returning, he returned to his wife and eventually in 1980 he got a divorce and later married Cindy Hensley, the daughter of a large beer distributer. He later received awards for his service in Vietnam. After working for his father-in-law, John McCain sought to become a U.S. congressman and was elected as a representative for the state. After a successful time in the house, McCain then ran for senate and was elected a senator from Arizona in 1984. However, in 1987 McCain, along with four other senators were accused of receiving contributions from Charles Keating Jr. to help his company. Three of them were convicted but John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of all charges but displayed “poor judgment”. Afterwards, good things were to follow even though McCain was to lead a fruitless 2000 presidential campaign. After being elected to his third term to the senate, McCain then had his bill passed which made sure that campaigns were to increase the use of soft money and also the candidates were to say they approved the message. In 2008, John McCain became the Republican Presidential Nominee.

John S. McCain III has voted with his party a good majority of the time but has been known to not follow traditional Republican stances. Like the Republican Party, he has voted for offshore drilling, keep or even lower the Bush tax cuts, letting our troops stay in Iraq, the states should decide the minimum wage, private social security, reduce pork-barrel spending, and is pro-life. However, he supports stem-cell research and feels there needs to be higher taxes on cigarettes. Also like Barack Obama, he supports environmental protection and for us to be more dependent on our own energy. He is considered a good conservative with some liberal touched here and there.