John McCain: Presidential Candidate Bio

John McCain comes from a Military family that goes back to the beginnings of the 20th Century. With a Grandfather John S. McCain and a father John S. McCain Jr. it was only natural that John S. McCain the third would follow in their footsteps. After graduating from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia in 1954. He was off to the U.S. Naval Academy where he graduated in 1958.

In only a few years he would be flying combat missions over Hanoi and on one of those missions would be shot down and face several years of confinement in North Vietman in a prisoner of war camp. Amazingly he survived as his weight went from 155 to 100 pounds at one time and he faced constant interrogation and beatings. He would stay imprisoned for five and one half years two in solidary confinement before his release. Upon his release McCain returned to school in Washington D.C. at the National War College and after being promoted to Captain retired from the Navy in 1981. A total service of 23 years almost six spent as a prisoner of war.

After retirement in 1982 he was elected to Congress and then in 1986 to the Senate from the state of Arizona. During these early years in office he devoted much time to trying to get all the information he could about American still missing or unaccounted for in Vietnam. Though there have been as many as 250,000 interviews conducted and millions of documents analyzed many Americans were never accounted for and it is unlikely that they ever will be. McCain gave it his best effort using his office as influence in obtaining information and documents.

In 1999 he made his first bid for the Presidency of the United States. It turned out to be a very vicious campaign with the leading candidate leading a crusade of McCain's fitness, slurs of infidelity, cheating on his wife, and even that his wife was a drug addict. His campaign never got off the ground and he as always closed ranks and supported the Republican ticket led by George Bush. After the election McCain continued in the Senate and currently serves with his term ending in 2011.

Here in 2007 John McCain the third has again thrown his hat into the ring for election as the Republican candidate for the Presidency in 2008. He is strongly conservative voting on conservative issues as much as 85 percent of the time. On the issue of abortion McCain believes Roe versus Wade should be overturned and abortions banned except in the case of rape, incest, or threat of the life of the mother. He has promised If elected to only elect Judges to the Supreme Court who do not legislate from the bench. He is a supporter of the death penalty, keeping Under God in the pledge of allegiance, and is against Gay marriage.

With a long history in the military in which he was a prisoner and won many medals. A life in public service both in Congress and the Senate. John McCain comes into the Presidential race both with a distinguished record as well as a shady personal life. He is 70 years old and that is sure to be in question during the campaign. For Republicans he is certainly the man most closely associated with their conservative platfom and now they must decide If he will carry them into the election as their candidate of choice.