SWEDEN"S CROWN PRINCESS VICTORIA RECEIVES PRESIDENT
ANOTE TONG RECENTLY IN STOCKHOLM
Friday, 31 August 2018
SWEDEN"S CROWN PRINCESS VICTORIA RECEIVES PRESIDENT ANOTE TONG RECENTLY IN STOCKHOLM
SWEDEN"S CROWN PRINCESS VICTORIA RECEIVES PRESIDENT
ANOTE TONG RECENTLY IN STOCKHOLM
SOLDIERS AND NOT CIVILIANS ARE IN CHARGE IN PAKISTAN
SOLDIERS AND NOT CIVILIANS ARE IN CHARGE IN PAKISTAN
ARMED FORCES WERE FORMED
IN 1947 WHEN PAKISTAN BECAME INDEPENDENT FROM THE BRITISH EMPIRE.[8] SINCE THEN, THE ARMED
FORCES HAVE PLAYED A DECISIVE ROLE IN THE MODERN HISTORY OF PAKISTAN, FIGHTING MAJOR WARS WITH INDIA IN 1947, 1965 AND 1971, AND ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS SEIZING
CONTROL OF THE CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT TO RESTORE ORDER IN THE COUNTRY.[8] THE NEED FOR BORDER
MANAGEMENT LED TO THE CREATION OF PARAMILITARY FORCES TO DEAL WITH CIVIL UNREST
IN THE NORTH-WEST AND SECURITY OF BORDER AREAS IN PUNJAB AND SINDH BY
PARAMILITARY TROOPS. IN 2017, PER IISS, THE MILITARY HAD APPROXIMATELY 653,800
ACTIVE PERSONNEL IN THE ARMED FORCES, INCLUDING 12,000-15,000 PERSONNEL IN THE STRATEGIC PLANS DIVISION FORCES AND 282,000 ACTIVE PERSONNEL IN THE
PARAMILITARY FORCES.[9] THE ARMED FORCES HAVE A
LARGE POOL OF VOLUNTEERS SO CONSCRIPTION HAS NEVER BEEN NEEDED, THOUGH THE
PAKISTANI CONSTITUTION AND SUPPLEMENTARY LEGISLATION ALLOW FOR CONSCRIPTION IN
A STATE OF WAR.[10]
THE PAKISTAN ARMED FORCES ARE THE BEST-ORGANIZED INSTITUTION IN
PAKISTAN, AND ARE HIGHLY RESPECTED IN CIVIL SOCIETY.[11] SINCE THE FOUNDING OF
PAKISTAN, THE MILITARY HAS PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN HOLDING THE STATE TOGETHER,
PROMOTING A FEELING OF NATIONHOOD AND PROVIDING A BASTION OF SELFLESS SERVICE.[12] IN ADDITION, THE
PAKISTAN ARMED FORCES ARE THE LARGEST CONTRIBUTORS TO UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING EFFORTS, WITH MORE THAN
10,000 PERSONNEL DEPLOYED OVERSEAS IN 2007.[13] OTHER FOREIGN
DEPLOYMENTS HAVE CONSISTED OF PAKISTANI MILITARY PERSONNEL SERVING AS MILITARY
ADVISERS IN AFRICAN
AND ARAB COUNTRIES. THE PAKISTANI MILITARY HAS
MAINTAINED COMBAT DIVISIONS AND BRIGADE-STRENGTH PRESENCES IN SOME OF THE ARAB
COUNTRIES DURING THE ARAB–ISRAELI WARS, AIDED THE COALITION FORCES
IN THE FIRST GULF WAR,
AND TOOK PART IN THE SOMALI AND BOSNIAN CONFLICTS.
PAKISTAN:FUNDAMENTALISM CHASE INVESTORS AWAY , NATION NECK DEEP IN DEBT
PAKISTAN:FUNDAMENTALISM CHASE INVESTORS AWAY ,
NATION NECK DEEP IN DEBT
BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU[LAGOS,NIGERIA]
Except the newly sworn in regime of Prime Minister Imran
Khan of Pakistan can somehow find a way
out of dealing with religious strife in Pakistan ,then the current debt
portfolio of his nation might have just started .
Checks at The News office Desk of the E.N.M.Paedia Express
Multimedia Group of Lagos,Nigeria has showed that Pakistan which is just a stone throw from terrorist haven
,Afghanistan has not fared well in the way it has dealt with religious
violence.
A source in her brief response to questions on Pakistan said
that if Mr Imran Khan is able to fix the issue of religious fundamentalism then
she was sure that he will be fixing the problems of the entire nation as a
whole.
The source noted that the way Pakistan was structured right
now and from the time of her independence offers very little for democracy to properly
thrive in the true sense of it and no
thanks to the strategic location of the nation to the Middle East oil fields
and the massive Hindi sub continent of India with its economic potentials and
its military playing a key role in her affairs.
The source also explained that as things presently stands in
the nation it was pretty difficult to understand whether the military or the
soldiers are in charge of the reins of power.
The source listed other democracies with similar strongholds
of the military on their democracy to include Egypt and Myanmar .
It was gathered as at press time that the International Monetary
Fund [I.M.F.]was doing all within its powers to accede to Pakistan's request
for another major loan ,the 15th in a long list of Palliatives in the last
decade or thereabout.
Thursday, 30 August 2018
PAEDIA EXPRESS CELEBRATES JOHN McCAIN IN GLORIOUS DEATH
PAEDIA EXPRESS CELEBRATES JOHN McCAIN IN GLORIOUS DEATH
A FAMILY MEMBER MOURNS OVER THE CASKET OF SENATOR McCAIN AS SHE PAYS HER LAST RESPECT 
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an
American politician and military officer who served as a United States Senator
from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He
previously served two terms in the United
States House of Representatives and was the Republican
nominee for President of the
United States in the 2008
election, which he lost to Barack Obama.
McCain graduated from the United States Naval
Academy in 1958 and was commissioned into the United States Navy.
He became a naval aviator and flew
ground-attack aircraft
from aircraft carriers.
During the Vietnam War, he was
almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal
fire. While on a bombing mission during Operation Rolling
Thunder over Hanoi in October 1967, he was
shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973. He experienced
episodes of torture and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer. The wounds that he sustained
during the war left him with lifelong physical disabilities. He retired from
the Navy as a captain
in 1981 and moved to Arizona, where he entered politics. In 1982, he was
elected to the United
States House of Representatives, where he served two terms. He
entered the U.S. Senate in 1987 and easily won reelection five times, the final
time in 2016.
While generally adhering to conservative
principles, McCain also had a media reputation as a "maverick" for
his willingness to disagree with his party on certain issues. After being
investigated and largely exonerated in a political influence scandal of the
1980s as a member of the Keating Five, he made campaign finance reform
one of his signature concerns, which eventually resulted in passage of the McCain–Feingold Act
in 2002. He was also known for his work in the 1990s to restore diplomatic
relations with Vietnam, and for his belief
that the Iraq War should have been fought to a successful
conclusion. He chaired the Senate Commerce
Committee and opposed pork barrel spending. He belonged to the bipartisan
"Gang of 14" which played a key role in
alleviating a crisis over judicial nominations.
McCain entered the race for the Republican nomination for president
in 2000,
but lost a heated
primary season contest to Governor George W. Bush of Texas. He secured the nomination
in 2008 after making a comeback from early reversals, but was
defeated by Democratic
nominee Barack Obama in the
general election, losing by a 365–173 electoral
college margin. He subsequently adopted more orthodox conservative
stances and attitudes and largely opposed actions of the Obama administration,
especially with regard to foreign policy matters. By 2013, he had become a key
figure in the Senate for negotiating deals on certain issues in an otherwise
partisan environment. In 2015, he became Chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee. In 2017, the year before his death at age 81, he
reduced his role in the Senate after a diagnosis of brain cancer.
Early life and military career, 1936–1981
Early life and education
John Sidney McCain III was born on August 29, 1936, at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, to naval officer John S. McCain Jr.
and Roberta (Wright) McCain.
He had an older sister Sandy and a younger brother Joe.[1] At that time, the Panama Canal was under U.S. control.[2]
McCain's family tree includes Scots-Irish and English ancestors.[3] His father and his paternal grandfather,
John S. McCain Sr.,
were also Naval Academy graduates and both became four-star United States Navy
admirals.[4] The McCain family followed his father to
various naval postings in the United States and the Pacific.[1][5]
Altogether, he attended about 20 schools.[6] In 1951, the family settled in Northern Virginia, and McCain attended Episcopal
High School, a private preparatory boarding school in Alexandria.[7][8] He excelled at wrestling and
graduated in 1954.[9][10] He referred to himself as an Episcopalian
as recently as June 2007 after which date he said he came to identify as a
Baptist.[11]
Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, McCain
entered the United States Naval
Academy at Annapolis. He
was a friend and informal leader there for many of his classmates,[12] and sometimes stood up for targets of bullying.[4] He also became a lightweight boxer.[13] McCain did well in academic subjects
that interested him, such as literature and history, but studied only enough to
pass subjects that gave him difficulty, such as mathematics.[4][14] He came into conflict with
higher-ranking personnel and did not always obey the rules, which contributed
to a low class rank (894 of 899), despite a high IQ.[12][15] McCain graduated in 1958.[12]
Naval training, first marriage, and Vietnam War
assignment
McCain
began his early military career when he was commissioned as an ensign and
started two and a half years of training at Pensacola to
become a naval aviator.[16] While there, he earned a reputation as
a man who partied.[6] He completed flight school in 1960 and
became a naval pilot of ground-attack aircraft;
he was assigned to A-1 Skyraider
squadrons[17] aboard the aircraft carriers USS Intrepid
and USS Enterprise[18] in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas.[19] McCain began as a sub-par flier[19] who was at times careless and reckless;[20] during the early to mid-1960s, two of
his flight missions crashed and a third mission collided with power lines, but
he received no major injuries.[20] His aviation skills improved over time,[19] and he was seen as a good pilot, albeit
one who tended to "push the envelope"
in his flying.[20]
At age 28 on July 3, 1965, McCain married Carol Shepp, who was a model from Philadelphia.[21] McCain adopted her two young children
Douglas and Andrew.[18][22] He and Carol then had a daughter named
Sidney.[23][24]
McCain requested a combat assignment[25] and was assigned to the aircraft
carrier USS Forrestal
flying A-4 Skyhawks.[26] His
combat duty began when he was 30 years old in mid-1967, when Forrestal
was assigned to a bombing campaign, Operation Rolling
Thunder, during the Vietnam War.[21][27] Stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin, McCain and his fellow pilots
became frustrated by micromanagement from Washington, and he later wrote,
"In all candor, we thought our civilian commanders were complete idiots
who didn't have the least notion of what it took to win the war."[27][28]
On July 29, 1967, McCain was a lieutenant
commander when he was near the epicenter of the USS Forrestal
fire. He escaped from his burning jet and was trying to help another
pilot escape when a bomb exploded;[29] McCain was struck in the legs and chest
by fragments.[30] The ensuing fire killed
134 sailors and took 24 hours to control.[31][32] With the Forrestal out of
commission, McCain volunteered for assignment with the USS Oriskany,
another aircraft carrier
employed in Operation Rolling
Thunder.[33] There he was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal
and the Bronze Star Medal
for missions flown over North Vietnam.[34]
Prisoner of war
McCain's
capture and subsequent imprisonment occurred on October 26, 1967. He
was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.[35][36] McCain fractured both arms and a leg
when he ejected from the aircraft,[37] and nearly drowned after he parachuted
into Trúc Bạch Lake. Some
North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a
rifle butt and bayoneted him.[35] McCain was then transported to Hanoi's
main Hỏa Lò Prison,
nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton".[36]
Although McCain was seriously wounded and injured, his captors
refused to treat him. They beat and interrogated him to get information, and he
was given medical care only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his
father was an admiral.[38] His status as a prisoner of war (POW) made the front pages of
major American newspapers.[39][40]
McCain spent six weeks in the hospital, where he received marginal
care. He had lost 50 pounds (23 kg), was in a chest cast, and his gray
hair had turned white.[35] McCain was sent to a different camp on
the outskirts of Hanoi.[41] In December 1967, McCain was placed in a
cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live more than a week.[42] In March 1968, McCain was placed into solitary confinement,
where he remained for two years.[43]
In mid-1968, his father John S. McCain Jr.
was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater, and the North
Vietnamese offered McCain early release[44] because they wanted to appear merciful
for propaganda purposes[45] and also to show other POWs that elite
prisoners were willing to be treated preferentially.[44] McCain refused repatriation unless
every man taken in before him was also released. Such early release was
prohibited by the POWs' interpretation of the military Code of Conduct
which states in Article III: "I will accept neither parole nor special
favors from the enemy".[46] To prevent the enemy from using
prisoners for propaganda, officers were to agree to be released in the order in
which they were captured.[35]
Beginning in August 1968, McCain was subjected to a program of
severe torture.[47] He was bound and beaten every two
hours; this punishment occurred at the same time that he was suffering from
heat and dysentery.[35][47] Further injuries brought McCain to
"the point of suicide," but his preparations were interrupted by
guards. Eventually, McCain made an anti-U.S. propaganda "confession".[35] He had always felt that his statement
was dishonorable, but as he later wrote, "I had learned what we all
learned over there: every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."[48][49] Many U.S. POWs were tortured and
maltreated in order to extract "confessions" and propaganda
statements;[50] virtually all of them eventually
yielded something to their captors.[51] McCain received two to three beatings
weekly because of his continued refusal to sign additional statements.[52]
McCain refused to meet various anti-war groups seeking peace in
Hanoi, wanting to give neither them nor the North Vietnamese a propaganda
victory.[53] From late 1969, treatment of McCain and
many of the other POWs became more tolerable,[54] while McCain continued to resist the
camp authorities.[55] McCain and other prisoners cheered the U.S. "Christmas
Bombing" campaign of December 1972, viewing it as a forceful
measure to push North Vietnam to terms.[49][56]
McCain was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half
years until his release on March 14, 1973.[57] His wartime injuries left him
permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head.[58] After the war, McCain returned to the
site with his wife Cindy and family on a few occasions to try to come to terms
with what happened to him there during his capture.[59]
Commanding officer, liaison to Senate and second
marriage
McCain was reunited with his family when he returned
to the United States. His wife Carol had also been crippled, by an automobile
accident in December 1969. As a returned POW, he became a celebrity of sorts.[60]
McCain underwent treatment for his injuries that included months of physical therapy.[61] He attended the National War College
at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. during 1973–1974.[62] He was rehabilitated by late 1974 and
his flight status was reinstated. In 1976, he became Commanding Officer
of a training squadron that was stationed in Florida.[60][63] He improved the unit's flight readiness
and safety records,[64] and won the squadron its first-ever Meritorious Unit
Commendation.[63] During this period in Florida, he had
extramarital affairs and his marriage began to falter, about which he later
stated, "The blame was entirely mine".[65][66]
McCain
served as the Navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate beginning in 1977.[67] In retrospect, he said that this
represented his "real entry into the world of politics and the beginning
of my second career as a public servant."[60] His key behind-the-scenes role gained
congressional financing for a new supercarrier against the wishes of the Carter administration.[61][68]
In April 1979,[61] McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher from Phoenix, Arizona, whose father had founded a large beer distributorship.[66] They began dating, and he urged his
wife Carol to grant him a divorce, which she did in February 1980; the
uncontested divorce took effect in April 1980.[22][61] The settlement included two houses, and
financial support for her ongoing medical treatments due to her 1969 car
accident; they remained on good terms.[66] McCain and Hensley were married on May
17, 1980, with Senators William Cohen and Gary Hart attending as groomsmen.[21][66] McCain's children did not attend, and
several years passed before they reconciled.[24][61] John and Cindy McCain entered into a prenuptial agreement
that kept most of her family's assets under her name; they kept their finances
apart and filed separate income tax returns.[69]
McCain decided to leave the Navy. It was doubtful whether he would
ever be promoted to the rank of full admiral,
as he had poor annual physicals and had not been given a major sea command.[70] His chances of being promoted to rear admiral
were better, but he declined that prospect, as he had already made plans to run
for Congress and said he could "do more good there."[71][72]
McCain retired from the Navy on April 1, 1981,[73] as a captain.[34] He was designated as disabled and
awarded a disability pension.[74] Upon leaving the military, he moved to
Arizona. His numerous military decorations and awards include the Silver Star, two Legion of Merits, Distinguished
Flying Cross, three Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts, two Navy and Marine Corps
Commendation Medals, and the Prisoner of War Medal.[34]
House and Senate elections and career, 1982–2000
U.S. Representative
McCain set his sights on becoming a representative
because he was interested in current events, was ready for a new challenge, and
had developed political ambitions during his time as Senate liaison.[66][75][76] Living in Phoenix, he went to work for Hensley & Co., his new father-in-law Jim Hensley's large Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship.[66] As vice president of public relations
at the distributorship, he gained political support among the local business
community, meeting powerful figures such as banker Charles Keating Jr.,
real estate developer Fife Symington III
(later Governor of Arizona) and newspaper publisher Darrow "Duke"
Tully.[67] In 1982, McCain ran as a Republican for
an open seat in Arizona's
1st congressional district, which was being vacated by 30-year
incumbent Republican John Jacob Rhodes.[77] A newcomer to the state, McCain was hit
with charges of being a carpetbagger.[66] McCain responded to a voter making that
charge with what a Phoenix Gazette
columnist later described as "the most devastating response to a
potentially troublesome political issue I've ever heard":[66]
Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My father was in the
Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a
lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I
wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and
spending my entire life in a nice place like the First District of Arizona, but
I was doing other things. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the
place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi.[66][78]
McCain won a highly contested primary election with the assistance
of local political endorsements, his Washington connections, and money that his
wife lent to his campaign.[67][66] He then easily won the general election
in the heavily Republican district.[66]
In 1983, McCain was elected to lead the incoming group of Republican
representatives,[66] and was assigned to the House Committee on Interior Affairs. Also that
year, he opposed creation of a federal Martin Luther King
Jr. Day, but admitted in 2008: "I was wrong and eventually
realized that, in time to give full support [in 1990] for a state holiday in
Arizona."[79][80]
At this point, McCain's politics were mainly in line with those of
President Ronald Reagan; this
included support for Reaganomics, and he was
active on Indian Affairs bills.[81] He supported most aspects of the foreign
policy of the Reagan administration, including its hardline
stance against the Soviet Union and policy
towards Central American conflicts, such as backing the Contras in Nicaragua.[81] McCain opposed keeping U.S. Marines deployed in
Lebanon, citing unattainable objectives, and subsequently criticized
President Reagan for pulling out the troops too late; in the interim, the 1983 Beirut
barracks bombing killed hundreds.[66][82] McCain won re-election to the House easily
in 1984,[66] and gained a spot on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.[83] In 1985, he made his first return trip
to Vietnam,[84] and also traveled to Chile
where he met with its military junta
ruler, General Augusto Pinochet.[85][86][87]
Growing family
In 1984, McCain and Cindy had their first child together, daughter Meghan, followed two years later by son John
Sidney (Jack) IV, and in 1988 by son James (Jimmy).[88] In 1991, Cindy McCain brought an
abandoned three-month-old girl needing medical treatment to the U.S. from a Bangladeshi orphanage run by Mother Teresa.[89] The McCains decided to adopt her and
named her Bridget.[90]
First two terms in U.S. Senate
McCain's Senate career began in January 1987,
after he defeated his Democratic opponent, former state legislator Richard Kimball, by 20 percentage points in
the 1986 election.[67][91] McCain succeeded longtime American
conservative icon and Arizona fixture Barry Goldwater upon the latter's retirement as U.S.
senator from Arizona.[91]
Senator McCain became a member of the Armed Services Committee, with which he had
formerly done his Navy liaison work; he also joined the Commerce Committee and the Indian Affairs Committee.[91] He continued to support the Native
American agenda.[92] As first a House member and then a
senator—and as a lifelong gambler with close ties to the gambling industry[93]—McCain was one of the main authors of
the 1988 Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act,[94][95] which codified rules regarding Native
American gambling enterprises.[96] McCain was also a strong supporter of
the Gramm-Rudman legislation that enforced automatic
spending cuts in the case of budget deficits.[97]
McCain soon gained national visibility. He delivered a well-received
speech at the 1988
Republican National Convention, was mentioned by the press as a short list vice-presidential running mate for
Republican nominee George H. W. Bush,
and was named chairman of Veterans for Bush.[91][98]
McCain became embroiled in a scandal during the
1980s, as one of five United States senators comprising the so-called Keating Five.[99] Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had
received $112,000 in lawful[100] political contributions from Charles Keating Jr.
and his associates at Lincoln
Savings and Loan Association, along with trips on Keating's jets[99] that McCain belatedly repaid, in 1989.[101] In 1987, McCain was one of the five
senators whom Keating contacted in order to prevent the government's seizure of
Lincoln, and McCain met twice with federal regulators to discuss the
government's investigation of Lincoln.[99] In 1999, McCain said: "The
appearance of it was wrong. It's a wrong appearance when a group of senators
appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the
impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to
do."[102] In the end, McCain was cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee
of acting improperly or violating any law or Senate rule, but was mildly
rebuked for exercising "poor judgment".[100][102] In his 1992 re-election bid, the
Keating Five affair was not a major issue,[103] and he won handily, gaining
56 percent of the vote to defeat Democratic community and civil rights activist Claire Sargent and independent
former governor, Evan Mecham.[104]
.jpg)
McCain
with President
George H. W. Bush
in 1990
McCain developed a reputation for independence
during the 1990s.[105] He took pride in challenging party
leadership and establishment forces, becoming difficult to categorize
politically.[105]
.jpg)
The
1992 christening of USS John S.
McCain at Bath Iron Works,
with his mother Roberta, son Jack,
daughter Meghan, and wife Cindy
As a member of the 1991–1993 Senate
Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, chaired by fellow Vietnam War
veteran and Democrat, John Kerry, McCain
investigated the Vietnam War POW/MIA
issue, to determine the fate of U.S. service personnel listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War.[106] The committee's unanimous report
stated there was "no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains
alive in captivity in Southeast Asia."[107] Helped by McCain's efforts, in 1995
the U.S. normalized diplomatic relations with Vietnam.[108] McCain was vilified by some POW/MIA
activists who, despite the committee's unanimous report, believed large numbers
of Americans were still held against their will in Southeast Asia.[108][109][110] From January 1993 until his death,
McCain was Chairman of the International
Republican Institute, an organization partly funded by the U.S.
government that supports the emergence of political democracy worldwide.[111]
In 1993 and 1994, McCain voted to confirm President Clinton's
nominees Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg
whom he considered to be qualified for the U.S. Supreme Court.
He later explained that "under our Constitution, it is the president's
call to make."[112] McCain had also voted to confirm
nominees of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, including Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.[113]
McCain attacked what he saw as the corrupting influence of large
political contributions—from corporations, labor unions, other organizations,
and wealthy individuals—and he made this his signature issue.[114] Starting in 1994, he worked with
Democratic Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold on campaign finance reform;
their McCain–Feingold bill attempted to put limits on "soft money".[114] The efforts of McCain and Feingold
were opposed by some of the moneyed interests targeted, by incumbents in both
parties, by those who felt spending limits impinged on free political speech
and might be unconstitutional as well, and by those who wanted to
counterbalance the power of what they saw as media bias.[114][115] Despite sympathetic coverage in the
media, initial versions of the McCain–Feingold
Act were filibustered
and never came to a vote.[116]
The term "maverick
Republican" became a label frequently applied to McCain, and he also used
it himself.[114][117][118] In 1993, McCain opposed military operations in
Somalia.[119] Another target of his was pork barrel spending by Congress, and he actively
supported the Line Item Veto Act
of 1996, which gave the president power to veto individual spending
items[114] but was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
in 1998.[120]
In the 1996
presidential election, McCain was again on the short list of possible vice-presidential picks,
this time for Republican nominee Bob Dole.[103][121] The following year, Time magazine named McCain as one of the
"25 Most Influential People in America".[122]
In 1997, McCain became chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee;
he was criticized for accepting funds from corporations and businesses under
the committee's purview, but in response said the small contributions he
received were not part of the big-money nature of the campaign finance problem.[114] McCain took on the tobacco industry in 1998, proposing legislation
that would increase cigarette taxes in order to fund anti-smoking campaigns,
discourage teenage smokers, increase money for health research studies, and
help states pay for smoking-related health care costs.[114][123] Supported by the Clinton administration
but opposed by the industry and most Republicans, the bill failed to gain cloture.[123]
Start of third term in the U.S. Senate
In November 1998, McCain won re-election to a third Senate term; he
prevailed in a landslide over his Democratic opponent, environmental lawyer Ed
Ranger.[114] In the February 1999
Senate trial following the impeachment of Bill Clinton, McCain voted
to convict the president on both the perjury and obstruction of justice
counts, saying Clinton had violated his sworn oath of office.[124] In March 1999, McCain voted to approve
the NATO bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, saying that the ongoing genocide of the Kosovo War must be stopped and criticizing past
Clinton administration inaction.[125] Later in 1999, McCain shared the Profile in Courage
Award with Feingold for their work in trying to enact their campaign
finance reform,[126] although the bill was still failing
repeated attempts to gain cloture.[116]
In August 1999, McCain's memoir Faith of My Fathers,
co-authored with Mark Salter, was
published;[127] a reviewer observed that its
appearance "seems to have been timed to the unfolding Presidential
campaign."[128] The most successful of his writings,
it received positive reviews,[129] became a bestseller,[130] and was later made into a TV film.[131] The book traces McCain's family
background and childhood, covers his time at Annapolis and his service before
and during the Vietnam War, concluding with his release from captivity in 1973.
According to one reviewer, it describes "the kind of challenges that most
of us can barely imagine. It's a fascinating history of a remarkable military
family."[132]
2000 presidential campaign
Main
article: John
McCain presidential campaign, 2000
McCain announced his candidacy for president on September 27, 1999,
in Nashua, New Hampshire,
saying he was staging "a fight to take our government back from the power
brokers and special interests, and return it to the people and the noble cause
of freedom it was created to serve".[127][133] The frontrunner for the Republican
nomination was Texas Governor George W. Bush, who had the political and
financial support of most of the party establishment.[134]
McCain focused on the New Hampshire primary,
where his message appealed to independents.[135] He traveled on a campaign bus called the Straight Talk Express.[127] He held many town hall meetings, answering every question
voters asked, in a successful example of "retail politics", and he
used free media to compensate for his lack of funds.[127] One reporter later recounted that,
"McCain talked all day long with reporters on his Straight Talk Express
bus; he talked so much that sometimes he said things that he shouldn't have,
and that's why the media loved him."[136] On February 1, 2000, he won New
Hampshire's primary with 49 percent of the vote to Bush's 30 percent.
The Bush campaign and the Republican establishment feared that a McCain victory
in the crucial South Carolina primary
might give his campaign unstoppable momentum.[127][137]
The Arizona Republic wrote that the
McCain–Bush primary contest in South Carolina "has entered national
political lore as a low-water mark in presidential campaigns", while The New York Times
called it "a painful symbol of the brutality of American politics".[127][139][140] A variety of interest groups, which
McCain had challenged in the past, ran negative ads.[127][141] Bush borrowed McCain's earlier language
of reform,[142] and declined to dissociate himself
from a veterans activist who accused McCain (in Bush's presence) of having
"abandoned the veterans" on POW/MIA and Agent Orange issues.[127][143]
Incensed,[143] McCain ran ads accusing Bush of lying
and comparing the governor to Bill Clinton, which Bush said was "about as
low a blow as you can give in a Republican primary".[127] An anonymous smear campaign began
against McCain, delivered by push polls, faxes,
e-mails, flyers, and audience plants.[127][144] The smears claimed that McCain had
fathered a black child out of wedlock (the McCains' dark-skinned daughter was
adopted from Bangladesh), that his wife Cindy was a drug addict, that he was a
homosexual, and that he was a "Manchurian Candidate"
who was either a traitor or mentally unstable from his North Vietnam POW days.[127][139] The Bush campaign strongly denied any
involvement with the attacks.[139][145]
McCain lost South Carolina on February 19, with 42 percent of
the vote to Bush's 53 percent,[146] in part because Bush mobilized the
state's evangelical voters[127][147] and outspent McCain.[148] The win allowed Bush to regain lost
momentum.[146] McCain said of the rumor spreaders,
"I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like
those."[90] According to one acquaintance, the
South Carolina experience left him in a "very dark place".[139]
McCain's campaign never completely recovered from his South Carolina
defeat, although he did rebound partially by winning in Arizona and Michigan a few days later.[149] He made a speech in Virginia Beach that criticized Christian leaders,
including Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, as divisive conservatives,[139] declaring "... we embrace
the fine members of the religious conservative community. But that does not
mean that we will pander to their self-appointed leaders."[150] McCain lost the Virginia primary on February 29,[151] and on March 7 lost nine of the
thirteen primaries on Super Tuesday to Bush.[152] With little hope of overcoming Bush's
delegate lead, McCain withdrew from the race on March 9, 2000.[153] He endorsed Bush two months later,[154] and made occasional appearances with
the Texas governor during the general election campaign.[127]
Senate career, 2000–2008
Main
article: Senate
career of John McCain, 2001–2014
Remainder of third Senate term
McCain began 2001 by breaking with the new George W. Bush
administration on a number of matters, including HMO
reform, climate change, and gun legislation; McCain–Feingold was
opposed by Bush as well.[116][155] In May 2001, McCain was one of only
two Senate Republicans to vote against the Bush tax cuts.[155][156] Besides the differences with Bush on
ideological grounds, there was considerable antagonism between the two
remaining from the previous year's campaign.[157][158] Later, when a Republican senator, Jim Jeffords, became an Independent, thereby
throwing control of the Senate to the Democrats, McCain defended Jeffords
against "self-appointed enforcers of party loyalty".[155] Indeed, there was speculation at the
time, and in years since, about McCain himself leaving the Republican Party,
but McCain had always adamantly denied that he ever considered doing so.[155][159][160] Beginning in 2001, McCain used political capital gained from his presidential
run, as well as improved legislative skills and relationships with other
members, to become one of the Senate's most influential members.[161]
After the September 11, 2001,
attacks, McCain supported Bush and the U.S.-led war
in Afghanistan.[155][162] He and Democratic senator Joe Lieberman wrote the legislation that created
the 9/11 Commission,[163] while he and Democratic senator Fritz Hollings co-sponsored the Aviation
and Transportation Security Act that federalized airport security.[164]
In March 2002, McCain–Feingold, officially known as the Bipartisan
Campaign Reform Act of 2002, passed in both Houses of Congress and
was signed into law by President Bush.[116][155] Seven years in the making, it was
McCain's greatest legislative achievement.[155][165]
Meanwhile, in discussions over proposed U.S. action against Iraq,
McCain was a strong supporter of the Bush administration's position.[155] He stated that Iraq was "a clear
and present danger to the United States of America", and voted accordingly
for the Iraq War Resolution
in October 2002.[155] He predicted that U.S. forces would be
treated as liberators by a large number of the Iraqi people.[166] In May 2003, McCain voted against the
second round of Bush tax cuts, saying it was unwise at a time of war.[156] By November 2003, after a trip to
Iraq, he was publicly questioning Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, saying that more U.S. troops were
needed; the following year, McCain announced that he had lost confidence in
Rumsfeld.[167][168]
In October 2003, McCain and Lieberman co-sponsored the Climate Stewardship
Act that would have introduced a cap and trade system aimed at returning greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels; the bill
was defeated with 55 votes to 43 in the Senate.[169] They reintroduced modified versions of
the Act two additional times, most recently in January 2007 with the
co-sponsorship of Barack Obama, among
others.[170]
In the 2004
U.S. presidential election campaign, McCain was once again
frequently mentioned for the vice-presidential slot, only this time as part of
the Democratic ticket under nominee John Kerry.[171][172][173] McCain said that Kerry had never
formally offered him the position and that he would not have accepted it if he
had.[172][173][174] At the 2004
Republican National Convention, McCain supported Bush for
re-election, praising Bush's management of the War on Terror since the September 11 attacks.[175] At the same time, he defended Kerry's
Vietnam War record.[176] By August 2004, McCain had the best
favorable-to-unfavorable rating (55 percent to 19 percent) of any
national politician;[175] he campaigned for Bush much more than
he had four years previously, though the two remained situational allies rather
than friends.[157]
McCain was also up for re-election as senator, in 2004. He defeated
little-known Democratic schoolteacher Stuart Starky with his biggest margin of victory,
garnering 77 percent of the vote.[177]
Start of fourth Senate term
In May 2005, McCain led the so-called Gang of 14 in the Senate, which established a
compromise that preserved the ability of senators to filibuster judicial
nominees, but only in "extraordinary circumstances".[178] The compromise took the steam out of
the filibuster movement, but some Republicans remained disappointed that the
compromise did not eliminate filibusters of judicial nominees in all
circumstances.[179] McCain subsequently cast Supreme
Court confirmation votes in favor of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, calling them "two of the finest
justices ever appointed to the United States Supreme Court."[113]
Breaking from his 2001 and 2003 votes, McCain supported the Bush tax cut extension in May 2006, saying not to
do so would amount to a tax increase.[156] Working with Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, McCain was a strong proponent of
comprehensive immigration reform, which would involve legalization, guest
worker programs, and border enforcement components. The Secure
America and Orderly Immigration Act was never voted on in 2005,
while the Comprehensive
Immigration Reform Act of 2006 passed the Senate in May 2006 but
failed in the House.[168] In June 2007, President Bush, McCain,
and others made the strongest push yet for such a bill, the Comprehensive
Immigration Reform Act of 2007, but it aroused intense grassroots
opposition among talk radio listeners and others, some of whom furiously
characterized the proposal as an "amnesty" program,[180] and the bill twice failed to gain
cloture in the Senate.[181]
By the middle of the 2000s (decade), the increased Indian gaming that McCain had helped bring about
was a $23 billion industry.[95] He was twice chairman of the Senate Indian
Affairs Committee, in 1995–1997 and 2005–2007, and his Committee
helped expose the Jack
Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal.[182][183] By 2005 and 2006, McCain was pushing
for amendments to the Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act that would limit creation of off-reservation casinos,[95] as well as limiting the movement of
tribes across state lines to build casinos.[184]
Owing to his time as a POW, McCain was recognized for his
sensitivity to the detention and interrogation of detainees in the War on Terror. An opponent of the Bush
administration's use of torture and detention without trial at Guantánamo Bay,
saying: "some of these guys are terrible, terrible killers and the worst
kind of scum of humanity. But, one, they deserve to have some adjudication of
their cases ... even Adolf Eichmann got a
trial".[185] In October 2005, McCain introduced the
McCain Detainee
Amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill for 2005, and the
Senate voted 90–9 to support the amendment.[186] It prohibits inhumane treatment of
prisoners, including prisoners at Guantánamo, by confining military
interrogations to the techniques in the U.S. Army
Field Manual on Interrogation. Although Bush had threatened to veto
the bill if McCain's amendment was included,[187] the President announced in December
2005 that he accepted McCain's terms and would "make it clear to the world
that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international
convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad".[188] This stance, among others, led to
McCain being named by Time magazine in
2006 as one of America's 10 Best Senators.[189] McCain voted in February 2008 against
a bill containing a ban on waterboarding,[190] which provision was later narrowly
passed and vetoed by Bush. However, the bill in question contained other
provisions to which McCain objected, and his spokesman stated: "This
wasn't a vote on waterboarding. This was a vote on applying the standards of
the [Army] field manual to CIA personnel."[190]
Meanwhile, McCain continued questioning the progress of the war in
Iraq. In September 2005, he remarked upon Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers' optimistic outlook on the war's
progress: "Things have not gone as well as we had planned or expected, nor
as we were told by you, General Myers."[191] In August 2006, he criticized the
administration for continually understating the effectiveness of the
insurgency: "We [have] not told the American people how tough and
difficult this could be."[168] From the beginning, McCain strongly
supported the Iraq troop surge of
2007.[192] The strategy's opponents labeled it
"McCain's plan"[193] and University of Virginia
political science professor Larry Sabato said,
"McCain owns Iraq just as much as Bush does now."[168] The surge and the war were unpopular
during most of the year, even within the Republican Party,[194] as McCain's presidential campaign was
underway; faced with the consequences, McCain frequently responded, "I
would much rather lose a campaign than a war."[195] In March 2008, McCain credited the
surge strategy with reducing violence in Iraq, as he made his eighth trip to
that country since the war began.[196]
2008 presidential campaign
McCain formally announced his intention to run for President of the
United States on April 25, 2007, in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire.[197] He stated that: "I'm not running
for president to be somebody, but to do something; to do the hard but necessary
things, not the easy and needless things."[198]
McCain's oft-cited strengths as a presidential candidate for 2008
included national name recognition, sponsorship of major lobbying and campaign
finance reform initiatives, his ability to reach across the aisle, his
well-known military service and experience as a POW, his experience from the
2000 presidential campaign, and an expectation that he would capture Bush's top
fundraisers.[199] During the 2006 election cycle, McCain
had attended 346 events[58] and helped raise more than
$10.5 million on behalf of Republican candidates. McCain also became more
willing to ask business and industry for campaign contributions, while
maintaining that such contributions would not affect any official decisions he
would make.[200] Despite being considered the
front-runner for the nomination by pundits as 2007 began,[201] McCain was in second place behind
former Mayor of New York City
Rudy Giuliani in national Republican polls as the year progressed.
McCain had fundraising problems in the first half of 2007, due in
part to his support for the Comprehensive
Immigration Reform Act of 2007, which was unpopular among the
Republican base electorate.[202][203] Large-scale campaign staff downsizing
took place in early July, but McCain said that he was not considering dropping
out of the race.[203] Later that month, the candidate's
campaign manager and campaign chief strategist both departed.[204] McCain slumped badly in national
polls, often running third or fourth with 15 percent or less
support.
The Arizona senator subsequently resumed his familiar position as a
political underdog,[205] riding the Straight Talk Express and
taking advantage of free media such as debates and sponsored events.[206] By December 2007, the Republican race
was unsettled, with none of the top-tier candidates dominating the race and all
of them possessing major vulnerabilities with different elements of the
Republican base electorate.[207] McCain was showing a resurgence, in
particular with renewed strength in New Hampshire—the scene of his 2000
triumph—and was bolstered further by the endorsements of The Boston Globe, the New Hampshire Union
Leader, and almost two dozen other state newspapers,[208] as well as from Senator Lieberman (now
an Independent Democrat).[209][210] McCain decided not to campaign significantly
in the January 3, 2008, Iowa caucuses,
which saw a win by former Governor of Arkansas
Mike Huckabee.
McCain's comeback plan paid off when he won the New
Hampshire primary on January 8, defeating former Governor of
Massachusetts Mitt Romney in a close
contest, to once again become one of the front-runners in the race.[211] In mid-January, McCain placed first in
the South
Carolina primary, narrowly defeating Mike Huckabee.[212] Pundits credited the third-place
finisher, Tennessee's former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson, with drawing votes from Huckabee in
South Carolina, thereby giving a narrow win to McCain.[213] A week later, McCain won the Florida
primary,[214] beating Romney again in a close
contest; Giuliani then dropped out and endorsed McCain.[215]
On February 5, McCain won both the majority of states and delegates in the Super Tuesday Republican primaries, giving him a commanding lead
toward the Republican nomination. Romney departed from the race on February 7.[216] McCain's wins in the March 4 primaries
clinched a majority of the delegates, and he became the presumptive Republican
nominee.[217]
McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone. Had he been elected, he
would have become the first president who was born outside the contiguous
forty-eight states. This raised a potential legal issue, since the United States
Constitution requires the president to be a natural-born citizen
of the United States. A bipartisan legal review,[218] and a unanimous but non-binding Senate
resolution,[219] both concluded that he was a
natural-born citizen. If inaugurated in 2009 at the age of 72 years and
144 days, he would have been the oldest
person to become president.[220]
McCain addressed concerns about his age and past health issues,
stating in 2005 that his health was "excellent".[221] He had been treated for a type of skin cancer called melanoma, and an operation in 2000 for that
condition left a noticeable mark on the left side of his face.[222] McCain's prognosis appeared favorable,
according to independent experts, especially because he had already survived
without a recurrence for more than seven years.[222] In May 2008, McCain's campaign briefly
let the press review his medical records, and he was described as appearing
cancer-free, having a strong heart, and in general being in good health.[223]
McCain clinched enough delegates for the nomination and his focus
shifted toward the general election, while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fought a prolonged battle for the Democratic nomination.[224] McCain introduced various policy
proposals, and sought to improve his fundraising.[225][226] Cindy McCain, who accounts for most of
the couple's wealth with an estimated net worth of $100 million,[69] made part of her tax returns public in
May.[227] After facing criticism about lobbyists on staff, the McCain campaign issued new
rules in May 2008 to avoid conflicts of interest,
causing five top aides to leave.[228][229]
When Obama became the Democrats' presumptive nominee
in early June, McCain proposed joint town hall meetings,
but Obama instead requested more traditional debates for the fall.[230] In July, a staff shake-up put Steve Schmidt in full operational control of the
McCain campaign.[231] Rick Davis
remained as campaign manager but with a reduced role. Davis had also managed
McCain's 2000 presidential campaign; in 2005 and 2006, U.S.
intelligence warned McCain's Senate staff about Davis's Russian
links but gave no further warnings.[232][233][234][235]
Throughout the summer of 2008, Obama typically led McCain in
national polls by single-digit margins,[236] and also led in several key swing
states.[237] McCain reprised his familiar underdog
role, which was due at least in part to the overall challenges Republicans
faced in the election year.[205][237] McCain accepted public
financing for the general election campaign, and the restrictions
that go with it, while criticizing his Democratic opponent for becoming the first
major party candidate to opt out of such financing for the general election
since the system was implemented in 1976.[238][239] The Republican's broad campaign theme
focused on his experience and ability to lead, compared to Obama's.[240]
The
Palins and McCains campaign in Fairfax, Virginia, following the 2008
Republican National Convention on September 10.
On August 29, 2008, McCain revealed Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his surprise choice for running
mate.[241] McCain was only the second U.S.
major-party presidential nominee (after Walter Mondale) to select a woman for his running
mate and the first Republican to do so. On September 3, 2008, McCain and Palin
became the Republican Party's presidential and vice presidential nominees,
respectively, at the 2008
Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
McCain surged ahead of Obama in national polls following the convention, as the
Palin pick energized core Republican voters who had previously been wary of
him.[242] However, by the campaign's own later
admission, the rollout of Palin to the national media went poorly,[243] and voter reactions to Palin grew
increasingly negative, especially among independents and other voters concerned
about her qualifications.[244]
McCain's decision to choose Sarah Palin as his running mate was
criticised; New York Times
journalist David Brooks
says that "he took a disease that was running through the Republican party
– anti-intellectualism, disrespect for facts – and he put it right at the
centre of the party".[245] Laura McGann in Vox says that McCain gave the "reality TV
politics" and Tea Party movement
more political legitimacy, as well as solidifying "the Republican Party's
comfort with a candidate who would say absurdities ... unleashing a political
style and a values system that animated the Tea Party movement and laid the
groundwork for a Trump presidency."[246] Although McCain said later in life
that he expressed regret for not choosing the independent Senator Joe Lieberman as his VP candidate instead, he has
consistently defended Palin's performances at his events.[247]
On September 24, McCain said he was temporarily suspending his
campaign activities, called on Obama to join him, and proposed delaying the
first of the general election debates with Obama, in order to
work on the proposed U.S. financial system bailout before
Congress, which was targeted at addressing the subprime mortgage crisis
and liquidity
crisis.[248][249] McCain's intervention helped to give
dissatisfied House Republicans an opportunity to propose changes to the plan
that was otherwise close to agreement.[250][251] After Obama declined McCain's
suspension suggestion, McCain went ahead with the debate on September 26.[252] On October 1, McCain voted in favor of
a revised $700 billion rescue plan.[253] Another debate was held on October 7;
like the first one, polls afterward suggested that Obama had won it.[254] A final presidential debate occurred
on October 15.[255] Down the stretch, McCain was outspent
by Obama by a four-to-one margin.[256]
During and after the final debate, McCain compared Obama's proposed
policies to socialism and often invoked "Joe the Plumber" as a symbol of American
small business dreams that would be thwarted by an Obama presidency.[257][258] He barred using the Jeremiah Wright
controversy in ads against Obama,[259] but the campaign did frequently
criticize Obama regarding his
purported relationship with Bill Ayers.[260] His rallies became increasingly
vitriolic,[261] with attendees denigrating Obama and
displaying a growing anti-Muslim and anti-African-American sentiment.[262] During a campaign rally in Minnesota,
Gayle Quinnell, a McCain supporter, told him she did not trust Obama because
"he's an Arab".[263] He replied, "No ma'am. He's a
decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on
fundamental issues."[262] McCain's response was considered one
of the finer moments of the campaign and was still being viewed several years
later as a marker for civility in American politics.[261][264] Meghan McCain said that she cannot
"go a day without someone bringing up (that) moment," and noted that
at the time "there were a lot of people really trying to get my dad to go
(against Obama) with ... you're a Muslim, you're not an American aspect of
that," but that her father had refused. "I can remember thinking that
it was a morally amazing and beautiful moment, but that maybe there would be
people in the Republican Party that would be quite angry," she said.[265]
Results
of the presidential election
The election took place on November 4, and Barack Obama was
projected the winner at about 11:00 pm Eastern Standard Time; McCain delivered
his concession speech in Phoenix, Arizona about twenty minutes later.[266] In it, he noted the historic and
special significance of Obama being elected the nation's first African American
president.[266] In the end, McCain won 173 electoral college votes
to Obama's 365;[267] McCain failed to win most of the battleground states
and lost some traditionally Republican ones.[268] McCain gained 46 percent of the
nationwide popular vote, compared to Obama's 53 percent.[268]
Senate career after 2008
Remainder of fourth Senate term
Following
his defeat, McCain returned to the Senate amid varying views about
what role he might play there.[269] In mid-November 2008 he met with
President-elect Obama, and the two discussed issues they had commonality on.[270] Around the same time, McCain indicated
that he intended to run for
re-election to his Senate seat in 2010.[271] As the inauguration neared, Obama
consulted with McCain on a variety of matters, to an extent rarely seen between
a president-elect and his defeated rival,[272] and President Obama's inauguration
speech contained an allusion to McCain's theme of finding a purpose greater
than oneself.[273]
Nevertheless, McCain emerged as a leader of the Republican
opposition to the Obama
economic stimulus package of 2009, saying it had too much spending
for too little stimulative effect.[274] McCain also voted against Obama's
Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor—saying that while undeniably
qualified, "I do not believe that she shares my belief in judicial
restraint"[275]—and by August 2009 was siding more
often with his Republican Party on closely divided votes than ever before in his
senatorial career.[276] McCain reasserted that the War in
Afghanistan was winnable[277] and criticized Obama for a slow
process in deciding whether to send additional U.S. troops there.[278]
McCain also harshly criticized Obama for scrapping construction of
the U.S.
missile defense complex in Poland, declined to enter negotiations
over climate change legislation similar to what he had proposed in the past,
and strongly opposed the Obama health care plan.[278][279] McCain led a successful filibuster
of a measure that would allow repeal of the military's "Don't ask, don't tell"
policy towards gays.[280] Factors involved in McCain's new
direction included Senate staffers leaving, a renewed concern over national
debt levels and the scope of federal government, a possible Republican primary
challenge from conservatives in 2010, and McCain's campaign edge being slow to
wear off.[278][279] As one longtime McCain advisor said,
"A lot of people, including me, thought he might be the Republican building
bridges to the Obama Administration. But he's been more like the guy blowing up
the bridges."[278]
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