Much has been said about the contrast between the late John McCain — war veteran, bipartisan statesman, noble truth-teller — and a man who seemed way less likely to become president, Donald Trump. Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of McCain unveiling Sarah Palin, a say-anything, gun-toting political neophyte, as his running mate in the presidential election. It was an act of political desperation that left Washington aghast.
It delivered a short-term boost in the polls. It is a premonition of what many in America and around the world have come to regard as the horror of Trumpism. A quick look:. With the economy in freefall in , McCain issued a plan calling for, among other things, a cut in the corporate tax rate, allowing faster deductions of business equipment and technology to spur investment, and tax credits for research and development.
Sounds great. But these are all things that Obama has been proposing for years. He has been continually stymied by Republican obstructionism. No difference there. In McCain called for a stimulus bill "that would directly help people, create jobs, and provide a jolt to our economy. Economists today acknowledge that the stimulus produced about 2.
It didn't keep unemployment below 8 percent as Obama promised, but the economy was a hell of a lot worse than anyone thought at the time. The bottom line? President McCain would probably have pushed the same sort of stimulus and economic measures that President Obama has pushed — and struggled with similarly frustrating results. One big difference: McCain opposed the auto bailouts of and Even if had been in the White House, would he have denied Detroit's automakers the funds that have helped the U.
McCain supported Obama's Afghan surge, and opposes his withdrawal. He favored wading into Syria's civil war by unleashing U. To be fair, this is a look he often gave reporters, not to mention some fellow senators. The occasional president, too. More: Sen. John McCain, American 'maverick' and political giant, dies at More: John McCain's top quotes through the years.
He ended up winning the primary in New Hampshire, which propelled him to win next big contest, in South Carolina. Eventually, he claimed the Republican nomination, the prize that had eluded him eight years earlier. Not then. Not ever. The larger-than-life figures in Washington tend to be presidents. But there are a handful of others who by dint of character or vision or achievement or personal history become influential beyond the particular job they held, who become iconic.
Ted Kennedy, for one. Another target of his was pork barrel spending by Congress, and he actively supported the Line Item Veto Act of , which gave the president power to veto individual spending items but was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in In the presidential election, McCain was again on the short list of possible vice-presidential picks, this time for Republican nominee Bob Dole.
In , 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.
McCain took on the tobacco industry in , 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.
Supported by the Clinton administration but opposed by the industry and most Republicans, the bill failed to gain cloture. McCain easily won re-election to a third senate term in November , gaining 69 percent of the vote to 27 percent for his Democratic opponent, environmental lawyer Ed Ranger.
Ranger was a motorcycle enthusiast and political novice who had only recently returned from Mexico. McCain carried Democratic stronghold Apache County by 54—42 percent and won Hispanic votes statewide by 52—42 percent. One of Ranger's campaigning points had been that McCain was really more interested in running for president; McCain indeed created a presidential exploratory committee the following month.
McCain had been uncomfortable and largely silent during the Lewinsky scandal, partly because his own personal life had not been without blemishes, and partly because his upcoming presidential nomination run restricted his political options. During the early Impeachment of Bill Clinton, McCain voted to convict the president on both the perjury and obstruction of justice counts. In his remarks on the Senate floor, McCain said: "All of my life, I have been instructed never to swear an oath to my country in vain.
In my former profession, those who violated their sworn oath were punished severely and considered outcasts from our society. I do not hold the President to the same standard that I hold military officers to. I hold him to a higher standard. Although I may admit to failures in my private life, I have at all times, and to the best of my ability, kept faith with every oath I have ever sworn to this country. I have known some men who kept that faith at the cost of their lives.
I cannot — not in deference to public opinion, or for political considerations, or for the sake of comity and friendship — I cannot agree to expect less from the President. During , the McCain-Feingold Act once again came up for consideration, this time with soft money prohibition features in but the issue ads provision out. McConnell challenged McCain to name specific senators who had been corrupted by existing campaign finance practices, but McCain refused.
In the end, the same failure to gain cloture befell the legislation again. During that year, McCain shared the Profile in Courage Award with Feingold for their work in trying to enact this campaign finance reform; McCain was cited for opposing his own party on the bill at a time when he was trying to win the party's presidential nomination.
Indeed, by April aspects of McCain's presidential campaign were underway, and his stance regarding the Kosovo War and other issues would take place in that context. They've been carrying out atrocities since We are at a critical hour. Later in , McCain shared the Profile in Courage Award with Feingold for their work in trying to enact their campaign finance reform, although the bill was still failing repeated attempts to gain cloture. In August , McCain's memoir Faith of My Fathers , co-authored with Mark Salter, was published; a reviewer observed that its appearance "seems to have been timed to the unfolding Presidential campaign.
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 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. McCain initially planned on announcing his candidacy and beginning active campaigning on April 6, with a four-day roadshow, whose first day would symbolically begin at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, then see early primary states New Hampshire and South Carolina, before concluding in home Phoenix, Arizona.
On March 31 three American soldiers is captured by Yugoslavia. McCain canceled his planned roadshow for the next day, stating that "This is not an appropriate time to launch a political campaign. On April 13 McCain issued a simple statement without fanfare that he would be a candidate: "While now is not the time for the celebratory tour I had planned, I am a candidate for president and I will formally kick off my campaign at a more appropriate time.
McCain formally announced his candidacy for president on September 27, before a thousand people in Greeley Park in Nashua, New Hampshire. In his opening speech he declares that "It is because I owe America more than she has ever owed me that I am a candidate for president to the United States. His main challenger was Texas Governor George W.
Bush, who had the political and financial support of most of the party establishment. McCain speaks to supporters at the Town Center in Sun City, South Carolina, on a day of heavy campaigning across the state the day before its presidential primary, February 18, McCain portrayed himself as a political maverick, capitalizing on a message of political reform and "straight talk" that appealed to moderate Republican and independent voters and to the press.
While Bush had the political and financial support of most of the party establishment, McCain was gaining momentum. A month later, on November 18, polls showed that McCain was continuing his lead over Bush nationally, with 44 percent to 28 percent.
On December 20 McCain's lack of political support by the party establishment is compensated by one major boost. On December 12, John McCain is endorsed by former president and conservative icon Ronald Reagan, a Zogby international poll conducted two days later showed McCain in a much stronger position than before with McCain fielding 37 percent nationally to Governor Bush's 42 percent.
In the Iowa caucuses McCain gained a strong momentum by finishing in a strong third, while focusing on the New Hampshire primary, where his message appealed to independents.
He traveled on a campaign bus called the Straight Talk Express. 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. On February 1, , he won New Hampshire's primary with 59 percent of the vote to Bush's 26 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. The South Carolina primary was exceptionally controversial, in which an anonymous smear campaign began against McCain, delivered by push polls, faxes, e-mails, flyers, and audience plants. 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.
Among the examples were a push poll that used racist innuendo intended to undermine support for McCain: "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child? Incensed, McCain held a press conference where he condemned the allegations made by the smear campaigns as "despicable lies", while prominent Republicans such as Nancy Reagan, Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf publicly criticized the smear campaign.
Instead of focusing on attacking the Bush campaign, McCain focusing on ads promoting his own policies and campaign. Seeing that polls were turning in favour of McCain, there was uncertainty by political commentators as well as withing the campaigns of who would win. At the same time, Bush also went out and publicly criticized the smear campaign against McCain.
McCain pulled an upset by defeating Bush in the South Carolina primary by the razor thin margin of 47 percent to 46 percent. After the South Carolina primaries all candidates except Bush and McCain had either dropped out of the race or suspended their campaigns, and by March all had endorsed one of the two remaining candidates.
After a long series of hard fought contests George W. Bush suspended his campaign on March 4 due to Super Tuesday loses in February. Three days later he endorsed John McCain. Bush would be his running mate. Even though there still was some tension between them following the South Carolina primary, the reason for the choice was that Bush was popular among evangelical voters, who were crucial for a Republican victory.
McCain continued to campaign across the country with the Straight Talk Express, touting his record as Senator, sponsorship of major lobbying and campaign finance reform initiatives and his military service and experience as a POW. McCain also accused Gore of being soft on foreign policy and said that Gore's fiscal policy was filled with taxation.
Gore was slow to respond and thus suffered a slide in the polls. Bush is nominated as the Vice Presidential Nominee. In the first presidential debate at the University of Massachusetts on October 3, , McCain criticized the Clinton administration's handling of foreign policy targeting the failure of the administration in Somalia in and the administrations failure to do anything about the Rwandan genocide, saying his now famous line "there is no way that could happen if I was president".
After a long night of results the fate of the election came down to a close race in the final state of Florida. McCain, widely popular among the majority of U. Again, McCain emphasized om his status as a political maverick, and along with his stand on a strong commitment to the War on Terrorism, capitalized on a continuation of his political reforms in healthcare, energy policy, taxes, government spending and "straight talk", as well as an implementation of a temporary guest-worker program for immigrants, which was criticized by conservatives.
While Dean and other Democrats attacked McCain on the war in Iraq and his warmongering foreign policy, the McCain campaign portrayed Dean as an inexperienced, staunch liberal who would raise taxes and increase the size of government. On November 2, McCain was re-elected, carrying 30 of 50 states for a total of electoral votes. The president's landslide victory also saw him winning an absolute majority of the popular vote John McCain taking the the oath of office during a ceremony at the U.
Capitol on January 20, On January 6, , the joint session of the U. Congress met to certify the votes of the Electoral College for the presidential election. Bush was declared the elected Vice-President of the United States. He promised a thorough review of American policy in Asia and the relations with Cuba, and announced that he would set up a bipartisan commission to study America's options. Upon entering office, he set out to implement a tax cut for the majority of Americans, which would be made up for by reduced government spending.
This stimulated a slowing economy and created instant growth on both Wall Street and Main Street. The economy continued to grow, as the longest uninterrupted economic expansion in U. Improved economic conditions and policies served to encourage investors in the bond market, leading to a decline in long-term interest rates.
The Budget Relief Act of resulted in a continued decline of the budget deficit in the years following it's enactment—in , and the nation's budget surplus continued.
The surplus money was used to pay off the national debt. While military spending was increased due to the War on Terrorism, the decline of the budget deficit continued. Unemployment originally rose from 4. Since entering office, President McCain has undertaken a number of educational priorities. He increased funding for the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health in his first years of office, and created education programs to strengthen the grounding in science and mathematics for American high school students.
One of the administration's major initiatives was the "American Education Advancement Act", which completely changed the American education system by allowing more spending towards mathematics and science, measuring and closing the gap between rich and poor student performance, providing options to parents with students in low-performing schools, and targeting more federal funding to low-income schools.
This landmark education initiative was signed into law by President McCain on April 15, Many contend that the initiative has been successful, as cited by the fact that students in the U. On October 7, , McCain signed into law, which revolutionized the American health care system by substantially lowering costs and by making health care corporations compete for lower prices and higher customer satisfaction. Following Republican efforts to pass the Medicare Act of , McCain vetoed the bill, giving the large costs and the fact that "new and costly entitlement that includes many people who could buy insurance on their own without government help" as his reasons.
He urged Congress to reach a bipartisan agreement. After additional changes to the original bill it passed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives under the name Medicare Act of On February 12, McCain signed the bill. The new law included major changes to the Medicare program by providing beneficiaries with some assistance in paying for prescription drugs, while relying on private insurance for the delivery of benefits.
McCain began his second term by outlining a major initiative to reform Social Security. In his State of the Union Address, McCain discussed the potential impending bankruptcy of the program and outlined a new program, which included partial privatization of the system, personal Social Security accounts, and options to permit Americans to divert a portion of their Social Security tax FICA into secured investments.
However, he emphasized that the plan would not be carried without safeguards if passed, and he remained open to other plans. While Republicans supported the plan, it was opposed by the Democrats.
After months of debate in the U. Congress, an agreement was reached in August , and the same month the Social Security Act of passed both chambers of the U. Congress, and was signed into law on October 10, They were completed on April 19, and the next day President McCain ordered the FBI to begin tracking several Saudi Arabians who were reported to have terrorist connections after reading an intelligence report stating that terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was preparing a possible terrorist attack against the United States.
However, due to time-demanding bureaucracy nothing more was achieved, but surveillance of the remaining suspects continued during the interrogation of the six captured suspects. Upon entering office in , McCain stated his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, an amendment to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change which seeks to impose mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, he cited that "if we could get China and India into it, then the United States should seriously consider on our terms joining with every other nation in the world to try to reduce greenhouse gases.
It's got to be a global effort. During his first term, the progress on climate issues was little, however McCain did, in contrast to the majority of the Republican Party, acknowledge that the climate issue is a serious threat and that increasing domestic pressure to change the course of American climate policy would be needed. McCain became aware of how well suited the Arctic region is to illustrating climate changes that are taking place already, and how they might manifest in other places throughout the world in the future.
The Norwegian authorities of the Arctic Council also registered this and invited McCain and other members of his administration to Svalbard. The effects of climate change on Svalbard was an eye opener as the natural environment at Svalbard stripped its visitors of formalities and create an open atmosphere and lively discussions touched on everything from climate change to other major political concerns.
The visit also sent a strong signal to the international community which praised his visit. On October 14, McCain announced the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Plan, explaining that the climate changes are a serious threat, and that "it is only a question of time before the United States gets back on course and assumes leadership in the international climate cooperation. Without U. McCain's position on greenhouse gas emissions calls for a timetable mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency that gradually reduces greenhouse ceilings.
McCain's stance also includes an emission credit system that regulates each metric ton of greenhouse a company produces. This plan is to be put in to effect in the period , with the following targets:. President McCain has said that the U. He has also said that this dependence "has been 30 years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long term about the future of the country.
During the latter stages of the campaign and in his inaugural speech, he pledged to toward diminished reliance on foreign oil by reducing fossil fuel consumption and increasing alternative fuel production. S energy policy by signing a bill funding the Eisenhower Energy Policy Act, a national program that would allow the government and the private sector to work together to cut U.
The components of the program included:. On July 8, , Secretary of Energy T. Boone Pickens announced a major energy policy plan called the Pickens Plan. The plan promotes alternatives to foreign oil, including natural gas, wind, and solar energy. This along with better harnessing of nuclear power, much as Europe has managed to do, and the construction of 45 new nuclear reactors to be built in the United States by The Pickens Plan called for the United States to utilize its wind corridor in the middle of the country stretching from Texas northerly through the Great Plains to the Canadian border.
As a Senator, McCain had been in favor of legislation and eventually the granting of citizenship to the estimated 12—20,, illegal aliens in the United States and the creation of an additional guest worker program with an option for permanent immigration. However, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, , he was under pressure from the American people to put forth strict regulations of immigration across the United States-Mexican border.
In , McCain signed the "United States-Mexican Border Act", which approved for over miles of double-reinforced fence to be built across cities and deserts alike between California and Texas in areas that have been prone to illegal drug trafficking and illegal immigration. It also authorized the installation of more lighting, vehicle barriers, and border checkpoints, while putting in place more advanced equipment like sensors, cameras, satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles in an attempt to watch and control illegal immigration into the United States.
In , going beyond calls from conservatives to secure the border, Bush demanded that Congress allow more than 12,, illegal immigrants to work in the United States with the creation of a "temporary guest-worker program.
The President urged Congress to provide additional funds for border security, and committed to deploying 6, National Guard troops to the Mexico—United States border. He strongly supported the Immigration Reform Act of which was written by a bipartisan group of Senators with the active participation of the McCain administration. The bill envisioned a legalization program for undocumented immigrants, with an eventual path to citizenship; establishing a guest worker program; a series of border and work site enforcement measures; a reform of the green card application process and the introduction of a point-based "merit" system for green cards; elimination of "chain migration" and of the Diversity Immigrant Visa; and other measures.
McCain contended that the proposed bill did not amount to amnesty. A heated public debate followed, which resulted in a substantial rift within the Republican Party, the majority of conservatives opposed it because of it's legalization or amnesty provisions. The bill was eventually passed in the Senate on February 16, , when a cloture motion succeded on a vote. During the presidential campaign, McCain had promised to strengthen the military while removing programs that were ineffective, too expensive or not working.
However, following the events of September 11 and the declaration of the War on Terrorism, the military spending was increased to meet the new requirements. The increase was attributed to the War on Terrorism, the War in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as an extensive modernisation program United States Armed Forces Modernisation Program , whose main focus was to reorganize and re-equip the armed forces, especially the Army and Air Force.
Following , the military spending decreased, mainly due to the progress of the modernisation program, the cancellation of expensive and non-working defense programs and the end of the War in Iraq. During the McCain administration, the Brigade Combat Team concept was fully integrated into the Armed Forces, while new tactics were included into the Armed Forces doctrine concerning urban and counter-insurgency warfare, following experiences from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The new weapon is an improved version of the M4 Carbine with many changes, most notably a new style gas system borrowed from the HK G Following the events of September 11, McCain issued an executive order authorizing the NSA to monitor communications between suspected terrorists outside the U.
The program proved to be somewhat controversial, as critics of the administration, as well as organizations such as the American Bar Association, claimed that the possibility to circumvent the warrant was illegal.
That month, the U. Senate voted 90—9 to support the amendment. The amendment prohibits inhumane treatment of prisoners, including prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, by confining interrogations to the techniques in Army Field Manual , "Intelligence Interrogation".
On December 15, , McCain signed the bill, stating that this would "definitively make it clear to the world that the United States does not support the use of torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad.
He fears that abuse would put American prisoners at risk of torture, summary executions and other atrocities by chipping away at Geneva Conventions. McCain has often insisted that this issue overrides politics. McCain, whose six years of captivity and torture in Vietnam made him a national celebrity, negotiated in September a compromise in the Senate for the Military Commissions Act of , suspending habeas corpus provisions for anyone deemed by the Executive Branch an "unlawful enemy combatant" and barring them from challenging their detentions in court.
Coming on the heels of a Supreme Court decision adverse to the White House, McCain's compromise gave a retroactive, nine-year immunity to U. McCain's compromise permitted the President to establish permissible interrogation techniques and to "interpret the meaning and application" of international Geneva Convention standards, so long as the coercion fell short of "serious" bodily or psychological injury.
Widely dubbed McCain's "torture compromise", the bill was signed into law by George W. Bush on October 17, , shortly before the midterm elections.
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