For McCain, character comes through

The US senator has responded to his diagnosis of brain cancer with typical grit and humour

en years ago this month, as he entered the sweltering second floor of an American Legion hall in Claremont, New Hampshire, Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, was at the lowest point of his quest for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. His campaign was broke, many on his staff were deserting him, and he was sliding in the polls. He was the longest of long shots.

That day he was doing what he always did in New Hampshire: taking questions from the public and offering responses that ranged from the humorous to the direct to the barbed. A man raised his hand, and McCain pointed to him. The man said he had voted for McCain in the state’s 2000 presidential primary. “You are an American hero,” he said.

Then the questioner adopted a less friendly tone. At a time when the Iraq War was deeply unpopular, he wanted to know whether McCain had become too close to his 2000 rival, President George W. Bush, and too supportive of Bush’s controversial troop surge — a policy McCain had advocated. And, the man asked, were all the commentators correct that weekend in calling McCain’s campaign a lost cause? McCain removed his blazer and began with a customary quip. “I should have called on your wife,” he said with a chuckle that softened the audience. Then he turned serious, addressing the question of the future of his candidacy. “I’ve had tough times in my life,” he said. “This is a day at the beach compared to some others.”

Like the quip, that comment was also typical McCain: resolute in the face of adversity while putting into proper context the hard knocks and setbacks of a political campaign as compared with the torture and injuries he endured for almost six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

It was with that same combination of grit and humour that McCain responded last week to the news that he has an aggressive form of brain cancer. He tweeted, “I greatly appreciate the outpouring of support — unfortunately for my sparring partners in Congress, I’ll be back soon, so stand by.”

His experience as a PoW is what first defined McCain’s life. It was not just that he survived the torture and multiple injuries after his plane was shot down in Vietnam in 1967. It was also the pride and defiance he showed in rejecting an early release proffered because his father was the commander of US forces in the Pacific at the time. The decision left him in a prison camp from where he knew he might never emerge alive.

Straight talker

McCain has been widely praised for his independence and willingness to take on presidents of his own party, including President Donald Trump. He has been praised, too, for being known as a straight talker, and it was his Straight Talk Express bus tour in 1999 and early 2000 that made him a runaway winner over Bush in the New Hampshire primary. In the summer of 2007, McCain was honest with himself about his chances of winning but persevered nonetheless after a trip to Iraq just as his campaign was about to implode. McCain travelled to the country with his colleague and friend Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina. There he presided over a naturalisation ceremony for soldiers who were immigrants. McCain was buoyed by the example of the young soldier-immigrants.

“He had left [the] US thinking he would drop out of the race, but decided if those guys could keep fighting so would he,” said Mark Salter, the co-author of McCain’s books and one of McCain’s closest confidants for many years. Just after Labor Day, he launched what he called the No Surrender tour. It was an allout effort to defend the still-unpopular troop surge and to resurrect his candidacy. Neither seemed to come with good odds.

Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager and longtime adviser, said at the time, “I think there’s already been a stabilisation. The question now is can we get a tick back up in these states?”

McCain not only ticked back up. He out-campaigned all his rivals and won the nomination. Today the odds may look long to others, but McCain has accepted his new diagnosis with that same indomitable spirit that has marked his life, the spirit encompassed in the words, “No Surrender.” The Washington Post .Heis New York Times best-sellers: Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America and, with co-author Haynes Johnson, The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election.

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