John McCain
Biography:
Born: Aug. 29, 1936
Party: Republican
Family: Married to Cindy McCain, with seven children: Doug, Andy, Sydney, Meghan, John, James and Bridget
History: When a political rival once accused him of being a carpetbagger, John McCain replied: "The longest place I ever lived in was Hanoi."
By now, most Americans know about McCain's time in Hanoi.
A Navy flier shot down in Vietnam, he spent five years in a prisoner of war camp, much of it undergoing torture.
It's a story that he and Davenport native Mark Salter told in the 1999 book "Faith of My Fathers."
The son and grandson of military men, McCain came back from the war a hero.
After a 22-year career in the Navy, he settled in Arizona (his wife's home state; he was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936), and in 1982 decided to run for Congress.
McCain won two terms before moving to the Senate in 1986. Since then, he's built a reputation as a maverick who's been perfectly willing to rail against pork barrel spending, congressional corruption, the country's campaign finance system and, for a time anyway, what he considered the more extreme elements of his own party.
In 2002, his quest to reform the nation's campaign finance laws resulted in a law that banned soft money donations to national party committees and put limits on television advertising.
The bill angered some conservatives, but it fit with McCain's maverick nature.
That said, he's been a bedrock conservative on other issues, such as abortion and, in particular, the country's defense policies.
He's argued for an aggressive approach to wars, pushing for a more aggressive effort in the Balkans during the 1990s -- and in Iraq for the last four years.
McCain launched an unsuccessful bid for president in 2000, scoring a stunning win in New Hampshire but faltered after that.
Biography: Quad-City Times | Photo: AP
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