Hidden Depths
The scion of a family of warriors, John McCain seems easy to venerate—or caricature. But he is more complex than you may think.
PHOTO GALLERY
A Maverick's Path
A photographic tour of John McCain's personal and political evolution.
It was the day he buried his father. Early on the morning of Friday, march 27, 1981, Capt. John Sidney McCain III (USN) had risen, put on his dress blue uniform and, by 10 o'clock, was standing in the white sanctuary of the Colonial brick Old Post Chapel at Fort Myer, next to Arlington National Cemetery. Adm. John S. McCain Jr. had died the previous Sunday, on a transatlantic flight. His funeral was full: First Lady Nancy Reagan, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, three chiefs of Naval Operations and so many officers that some had to stand in the side aisles during the service. One of McCain's chief memories of the morning was of Rear Adm. Ike Kidd "sobbing loudly and struggling to regain his composure."
In a eulogy, John's brother, Joe, quoted their father: "Life is run by poker players, not the systems analysts," the admiral would say, and "It's one of the most forgotten, then relearned foreign-policy axioms in history. If you keep backing away because you're afraid of what might happen to you—and you keep backing away and backing away—what you were afraid of in the first place is going to happen to you."
The admiral, Joe recalled, would chomp on his cigar as he recited poetry (Lewis Carroll was a favorite, as was Oscar Wilde's "Ave Imperatrix"). Every night he prayed the daily office, carrying "an old worn Episcopal prayer book into whatever served as his study"; the family sometimes found him "down on his knees reciting a prayer from that old book."
Then it was John III's turn to speak. Standing with his back to the altar, flanked by stained-glass windows, McCain recited some lines from Robert Louis Stevenson's "Requiem":
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Gladly did I live and gladly die
…
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
Afterward, the McCains went to the grave site. As a riderless horse led the caisson from the chapel, the Navy Band played the same Handel march the Royal Navy had used for Nelson's funeral at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
The service over, taps played, the admiral in his grave—John had, he recalled, kept his "eyes fixed straight ahead" during the burial—the mourners adjourned to the elder McCains' grand apartment on Connecticut Avenue, in the Kalorama section of Washington, near Embassy Row. The neighborhood had been home at various times to William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. Amid drinks and old stories beneath a large oil portrait of her father-in-law, the first Adm. John S. McCain, Roberta McCain was a perfect hostess—she "whirled around the apartment," John recalled in a memoir, "seeming to take part in every conversation."
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Member Comments
Posted By: Floridave @ 09/08/2008 12:47:09 PM
Comment: Here's where the republicans are exactly right about family values: If you can't afford kids, don't have them. Poor children? Sad, but the government can't support every child that is getting screwed over by indigent parents. What about family? What about church? What about civic organizations? What about you?
Anyone in America can be a success. You want less poor people? Stop paying them to be poor. Welfare has created a mentality where welfare moms raise welfare children to someday have welfare kids of their own. Restore pride in work and poverty will decrease dramatically. You shouldn't ever be comfortable when you are taking money from the government. You should be embarrassed and working towards independence.
Success is relatively easy in America. Finish school, don't get married until you can afford it. Definitely don't have kids until you can afford them, keep your job until you find a better one, save some money and buy a home. How is any of that so hard? Why can't any healthy person with half a brain follow that formula? Welfare should just be for people with disabilities, both physical and mental. If you are poor and able bodied, you are just lazy. If you are poor, able bodied and have kids, you are not very smart and probably don't deserve the honor of raising children. This is where Sara Palin's kid screwed up but I bet she somehow manages to avoid government subsidy.
We all either create our own paradise or dig our own graves in this life. Expecting the government to take care of you, special exceptions aside, is selling yourself short.
Less government, lower taxes, and incentives for entrepreneurs are what can make America great. I see that more likely coming from the right than the left. I believe in pride in work, self sufficiency, and charity from individuals and organizations, not the government. I am sure you will disagree, and I respect your right to do so. But if everyone followed my formula the country would probably be a better place.
Hope this helps.
Floridave
Posted By: HarleyisHere @ 09/07/2008 4:07:35 PM
Comment: Funny how CherNoise believes anything a vagina says, With the exception of the intro of her family (excluding claiming that trig is "her" son) Everything elase Palin said and or claimed has been proven to be a LIE! Yet CherNoise clings to every word, like it was the Vagina Monologues. It's not about haveing the same "parts" as you Cher, it's about the qualifications, so is Palin more qualified than your Clinton or Olympia Snow? Grow up. STOP Spreading desperate lies and take a MIDOL.
Posted By: Pallisor @ 09/07/2008 1:11:22 PM
Comment: Make sure you leave the same message for Mr. Freeze....
By the way... I've read many of your posts. You may want to heed your own advice.