CNN reports, an American statesman has passed on:
Whenever America was in a fight during his long lifetime, John McCain was in the thick of it.
McCain, who has died at the age of 81, was a naval bomber pilot, prisoner of war, conservative maverick, giant of the Senate, twice-defeated presidential candidate and an abrasive American hero with a twinkle in his eye…
In recent months, he was not completely quiet, however, blasting President Donald Trump in a series of tweets and statements that showed that while he was ailing he had lost none of his appetite for the political fight.
The Arizona Senator repeatedly made clear that he saw Trump and his America First ideology as a departure from the values and traditions of global leadership that he saw epitomized in the United States.
We’ll miss Sen. John McCain, more than we would have expected. The nation and his party are diminished without him.
I had several interviews with mccain over the years. His courage and integrity during the war personified the motto: Duty, Honor, Country.
For some, the Naval Academy delivers:
Wishing his family and friends comfort in the hard time.
Wishing the rest of us would be able to see other Republican Senators (and perhaps other politicians, too) honor his memory by adopting his respect for truth and his strength in following a sense of truth to its ends.
We can fondly hope that a few of those in our government issuing the eloquent statements about his death can find even a little of the courage he possessed to speak truth to power and act in the best interest of our country.
Godspeed, Senator.
Most McCain encomiums have rung true, but he wasn’t all sugar and spice and everything nice.
True enough. The thing about McCain though, he could admit when he was wrong and try to adjust his rhetoric and policy. That's a skill his fellow Repubs seem to have lost.
Exactly, Mama. He didn't make excuses.
I liked the fivethirtyeight piece on McCain. Instead of just saying "maverick" they tried to quantify how much of a maverick he was in his voting. Answer: somewhat. More breaks with the party than most of the other Republicans, but still voting with them 85.6% of the time over from 1997-2015.