Today, TCP is kicking off a new semi-regular feature. In exactly 1000 days, we'll be electing a new president. Thanks to the 22nd Amendment (many, many great and heartfelt thanks, I might add), this president will be Anybody But Bush (hence the A.B.B).
I have no idea what this feature will consist of. I'm doing it mainly because a) I have nothing else to write about, since I won't be repeating last year's hideous experiment of Phillies blogging, and b) it makes me feel good. To see those numbers count down, day by day, will do more to warm my frigid little heart than anything I can imagine.
I guess we can start with a profile of one of the contenders for the 2008 race, Senator John McCain, R-AZ. (Don't let the fact that his is the first profile be an indication of my sympathies...the election is still a long way away.)
Senator John Sidney McCain III was born on August 29th, 1936 in the U.S.-controlled (at the time) Panama Canal Zone. If he were to be elected, he would be the first president ever born outside the United States. Look for the right-wing nut jobs to bring that up during the primaries. A son and grandson of Navy admirals, McCain joined the US Naval Academy in 1954 after attending Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA. In 1958, McCain graduated from the Naval Academy 894th out of 899 students (maybe Bush isn't so dumb after all).
After graduation, McCain became a naval aviator, and served in Vietnam on the USS Forrestal and the Oriskany. He was shot down on October 26th, 1967 and held as a prisoner of war in Hanoi. He remained imprisoned for five-and-a-half years, finally being released in 1973. He received the Silver Star, a Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, the Purple Heart, and a Distinguished Flying Cross for his Vietnam service. Can you say "Hanoi Hilton Survivors for Truth"?
After retirement from the Navy in 1981, McCain ran for and won the seat for the First Congressional district of Arizona in 1982. In 1986, McCain won the Arizona Senate seat that Barry Goldwater had vacated when he retired. McCain has since been re-elected to the Senate three more times, the most recent in 2004.
Early in his tenure in the Senate, McCain was tabbed as one of the notorious "Keating Five", a group of Senators who received cash and favors from savings & loan operator Charles Keating. McCain was eventually exonerated for his role, and ever since has spent a great deal of time on campaign finance reform, culminating in the passing of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, also known as the McCain-Feingold Act. Among other provisions, this act prohibits "soft money" (unlimited money raised for the parties and not any specific candidate), and bans "issue ads" (ads produced by corporations or labor unions that refer to candidates but do not expressly advocate their election of defeat) in the 60 days prior to a general election of the 30 days prior to a primary election. The results of the act have been generally weak. Both parties have used a loophole in the act that allows for the raising of unlimited money by what are called 527 organizations, such as MoveOn.org and the ironically named "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth", both of which played a significant role in the 2004 presidential election.
McCain ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2000. Prior to the South Carolina primary, campaign workers for George W. Bush called South Carolina voters and asked then if they knew that McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child and that he and his wife were raising the child in their home. The Bush workers were referring to McCain's adopted Bangladeshi daughter, Bridget, whom McCain and his wife Cindy had found in an orphanage run by Mother Teresa. Nice. Due to this and many other questionable campaign tactics by the Bush team, McCain's early lead in the primaries was wiped out, and George W. Bush vaulted into the nomination.
Personally, McCain has been married twice, first to model Carol Shepp, whom he divorced in 1980, and then to his current wife, beer distributorship heiress Cindy Hensley McCain. McCain has fathered five children, one with Carol, and four with Cindy. In addition to Bridget, he also adopted Carol's two sons from a previous marriage.
The divorce and remarriage will likely be a significant story in the 2008 campaign. Shepp was involved in an auto accident while McCain was being held prisoner which left her on crutches and with a significant weight gain. McCain admits to engaging in extramarital affairs between the time he arrived home in 1973 and his divorce in 1980, and was likely having an affair with Cindy before the divorce was finalized.
Cindy herself has had some personal setbacks, including an admitted addiction to painkillers, and a recent stroke.
McCain has had a few other notable gaffes in his career. In 1998, he joked at a Republican fundraiser, "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno." In 2000, he told reporters on his "Straight Talk Express" campaign bus that "I hate the gooks.... I will hate them as long as I live". He was forced to apologize for both remarks.
McCain has appeared in several films and TV shows, befitting his apparent love of pop culture. His resume includes cameos in "The Wedding Crashers" and "24", frequent guest stints on "The Daily Show" and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien", and hosting "Saturday Night Live".
I'd have to say at this point, McCain would be the front runner for the Republican nomination if there weren't such pesky things as primaries and convention delegates. Unfortunately for McCain, these institutions are controlled by evangelical Christian conservatives in many parts of the country, and they do not necessarily take kindly to McCain's moderate voting history, his desire for campaign finance and other reforms, and the seeming embrace of him by many high-profile left-wing and moderate celebrities. McCain made a concerted effort during the 2004 campaign to assuage some of the fears of the Christian right, aligning himself strongly with President Bush and the war in Iraq. The recent revelations about the Bush administration possibly engaging in torture and illegal domestic surveillance and McCain's sharp opposition to both programs, however, have helped distance McCain from the President and could deeply hurt his chances in 2008. Another factor is McCain's age. He will be 72 in 2008, which is three years older than the oldest elected president, Ronald Reagan, was in 1980.
Many thanks to Wikipedia, from which most of this was brazenly lifted.
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