John McCain

Your character is not tested on occasions of public scrutiny or acclaim. It is not tested in moments when the object of your actions is the regard of another. Your character is what you are to yourself, not what you pretend to be to yourself or others.

John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is an American politician. A Republican, McCain has been a U.S. Senator from Arizona since 1987, winning re-election in 1992, 1998, and 2004. He was a presidential candidate in the 2000 election, but was defeated in the Republican primaries by then-Texas Governor and now President George W. Bush.

Sourced

1998 - 2000

• Like every other 13-year-old in America, she's in love with Leonardo DiCaprio, who I think is an androgynous wimp. You know what he does throughout the whole movie Titanic? He smokes.
  • On his daughter, in The Washington Post (8 June 1998)

• Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.
  • GOP fund-raiser, Washington D.C., June 1998

• War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.
  • Speech to the American Red Cross "Promise of Humanity" conference, (6 May 1999)

• Glory is not a conceit. It is not a decoration for valor. Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely and who rely on you in return.
  • "Faith of My Fathers" (9 November 1999)

• I spent five and a half years in prison. The worst part was coming home and finding out Green Acres had been cancelled. What the hell was I fighting for?
  • Comedy sketch on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (2000)

• I hate the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live.
  • Statement about his North Vietnamese prison guards, in response to a question asked by reporters aboard his campaign bus. (17 February 2000) He later refused to apologize for using a racial slur, stating: "I was referring to my prison guards, and I will continue to refer to them in language that might offend some people because of the beating and torture of my friends." San Francisco Chronicle (18 February 2000)

• As far as me and the vice presidency is concerned ... I spent a number of years in a North Vietnamese prison camp in the dark and (was) fed scraps, and I don't know why I would want to do that all over again
  • On not wishing to replace VP Dick Cheney, at political rally in San Diego, California (18 July 2004)

• Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right.
  • Address at Bob Jones Univeristy (2000), as quoted at The Washington Post (28 February 2000)

2005

• I am sure that Senator Clinton would make a good President. I happen to be a Republican and would support, obviously, a Republican nominee, but I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good President.
  • Meet the Press (20 February 2005)

• General Myers seems to assume that things have gone well in Iraq. General Myers seems to assume that the American people, the support for our conflict there is not eroding. General Myers seems to assume that everything has gone fine and our declarations of victory, of which there have been many, have not had an impact on American public opinion.
  Things have not gone as we had planned or expected, nor as we were told by you, General Myers. And that's why I'm very worried, because I think we have to win this conflict.
  • Comments made to General Richard Myers in US Senate hearings into the Iraq War (29 September 2005)

• Except for making my kids sing Hail To The Chief I never think of myself as President.
  • The View (November 2005)

• I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.
  • Wall Street Journal interview by Stephen Moore, November 26, 2005 [1]

2007

• Remember the words of Chairman Mao: 'It's always darkest before it's totally black.'. [2]
• While I don’t in any way question your honor, your patriotism or your service to our country, I do question some of the decisions, the judgments you’ve made over the past two and a half years. During that time things have gotten markedly and progressively worse.
  • To General George Casey in his confirmation hearing as the nominee for Army Chief of Staff, before the Senate Armed Services Committee (February 1, 2007) [3]
  • Casey led the Iraq war for the last 2-1/2 years

• We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement -- that's the kindest word I can give you -- of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war. The price is very, very heavy and I regret it enormously. I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history.
  • Associated Press (2007-02-19). "McCain blasts Rumsfeld for Iraq war missteps". MSNBC.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-20. 

• The last time we were on this program, I’m sure you remember everything very clearly that we say, but you asked me if I would come back on this show if I was going to announce. ... I am announcing that I will be a candidate for president of the United States.
  • On the Late Show with David Letterman (February 28, 2007)
  • Associated Press (2007-03-01). "McCain to formally announce bid in April". MSNBC.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-01. 

• Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be. We’ve wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives.
  • Discussing the Iraq War on the Late Show with David Letterman (February 28, 2007)
  • Associated Press (2007-03-01). "McCain to formally announce bid in April". MSNBC.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-01. 

• Know that old Beach Boys song Bomb Iran? Bomb, bomb bomb...
  • To the tune of Barbara Ann, at a campaign stop, answering a question about what to do with Iran. Video on YouTube.com (April 18, 2007)

• [On presidential candidates not condemning the MoveOn.org controversial ad in The New York Times.] If you're not tough enough to repudiate a scurrilous, outrageous attack such as that, then I don't know how you're tough enough to be president of the United States.
  • Quoted in The Boston Globe, September 16, 2007. [4]

• No. I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally I prefer someone who I know has a solid grounding in my faith. But that doesn't mean that I'm sure that someone who's Muslim wouldn't make a good president. I don't say that we would rule out under any circumstances someone of a different faith.
  • in an interview with beliefnet.org, answering the question if there could ever be a Muslim U.S. president

• I would vote for a Muslim if he or she was the best candidate able to lead the country and defend our political values.
  • upon calling the reporter after said interview, to clarify his position

• I'm glad whenever they cut interest rates, I wish interest rates were zero.
  • The Republican presidential debate, October 9, 2007. [5]

• I just want to also say that Congressman Paul, I've heard him now in many debates talk about bringing our troops home, and about the war in Iraq and how it's failed. And I want to tell you that that kind of isolationism, sir, is what caused World War II. We allowed... We allowed -- we allowed Hitler to come to power with that kind of attitude of isolationism and appeasement.
  • The CNN/YouTube Republican presidential debate [6]

• The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should. I’ve got Greenspan’s book.
  • December 18, 2007 [7] [8] [9]

2008

• I was in a conference in Germany over the weekend and President Putin of Germany gave one of the old Cold War style speeches...
  • January 19, 2008 [10]

Speech at Ohio Wesleyan University (1996)

Address at Ohio Wesleyan University (11 May 1996)

• The times we live in are alternately derided for their failings and romanticized for their emerging opportunities. It sometimes seems that we now live amid greater violence, greater uncertainty; that the world suffers more conflicts and tragedies; that the poor are poorer and greater in number; that race, ethnicity and nationalism divide us more intractably than ever before.
  But that is not so. Human beings are still capable of violence and cruelty. We all succumb to sin. But look back at any preceding century or even just a few decades, and you will see cruelty, violence and misery on a scale that is, with few exceptions, unknown today.

• Mankind has advanced. Human progress is ceaseless. We can look at Bosnia or Zaire or Rwanda and conclude that building just societies is a fool's errand. We are always, despite our advances, only one sin away from slipping into the abyss of terror and ignorance.
  But that is not so. Generations upon generations have driven the human race farther and farther from darkness. Past episodes of abominable human cruelty are kept vivid in the memories of succeeding generations. "Never again," is the admonition passed from the survivors of the Holocaust to their descendants and to us all. And although such an important reminder will not always prevent the occurrence of cruelty and violence even at levels approaching genocide, the civilized world is more inclined to organize opposition to such tragedies if not as early as we should, at least sooner than we once would have.

• No one of good character leaves behind a wasted life — whether they die in obscurity or renown. "Character," wrote the 19th Century evangelist, Dwight Moody, "is what you are in the dark." Your character is not tested on occasions of public scrutiny or acclaim. It is not tested in moments when the object of your actions is the regard of another. Your character is what you are to yourself, not what you pretend to be to yourself or others. Although human beings often attempt self-delusion, we cannot forever hide the truth about ourselves from ourselves. It will make itself known to us by means of our conscience despite our most strenuous effort to suppress it.

• Like most people of my age, I feel a longing for what is lost and cannot be restored. But if the happy pursuits and casual beauty of youth prove ephemeral, something better can endure, and endure until our last moment on earth. And that is the honor we earn and the love we give if at a moment in our lives we sacrifice for something greater than self-interest.
  We cannot choose the moments. They arrive unbidden by us. We can choose to let the moments pass, and avoid the difficulties they entail. But the loss we would incur by that choice is much dearer than the tribute we once paid to vanity and pleasure.

• You have at hand many examples of good character from whom you will have learned the lessons by which you can live your own lives. You are blessed. Make the most of it.

RNC Speeech (2004)

Speech at the Republican National Convention (30 August 2004)

• The awful events of September 11, 2001 declared a war we were vaguely aware of, but hadn't really comprehended how near the threat was, and how terrible were the plans of our enemies.
  It's a big thing, this war.
  It's a fight between a just regard for human dignity and a malevolent force that defiles an honorable religion by disputing God's love for every soul on earth. It's a fight between right and wrong, good and evil.
  And should our enemies acquire for their arsenal the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons they seek, this war will become a much bigger thing.
  So it is, whether we wished it or not, that we have come to the test of our generation, to our rendezvous with destiny.
  And much is expected of us.
  We are engaged in a hard struggle against a cruel and determined adversary.
  Our enemies have made clear the danger they pose to our security and to the very essence of our culture ...liberty.
  Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war.
  Like all wars, this one will have its ups and downs.
  But we must fight. We must.

• As we've been a good friend to other countries in moments of shared perils, so we have good reason to expect their solidarity with us in this struggle. That is what the President believes.
  And, thanks to his efforts we have received valuable assistance from many good friends around the globe, even if we have, at times, been disappointed with the reactions of some. I don't doubt the sincerity of my Democratic friends. And they should not doubt ours.

• What our enemies have sought to destroy is beyond their reach. It cannot be taken from us. It can only be surrendered.
  My friends, we are again met on the field of political competition with our fellow countrymen. It is more than appropriate, it is necessary that even in times of crisis we have these contests, and engage in spirited disagreement over the shape and course of our government.
  We have nothing to fear from each other. We are arguing over the means to better secure our freedom, and promote the general welfare. But it should remain an argument among friends who share an unshaken belief in our great cause, and in the goodness of each other.
  We are Americans first, Americans last, Americans always. Let us argue our differences. But remember we are not enemies, but comrades in a war against a real enemy, and take courage from the knowledge that our military superiority is matched only by the superiority of our ideals, and our unconquerable love for them.
  Our adversaries are weaker than us in arms and men, but weaker still in causes. They fight to express a hatred for all that is good in humanity.
  We fight for love of freedom and justice, a love that is invincible. Keep that faith. Keep your courage. Stick together. Stay strong.
  Do not yield. Do not flinch. Stand up. Stand up with our President and fight.
  We're Americans.
  We're Americans, and we'll never surrender.
  They will.

Speech in Manchester, New Hampshire (18 November 2004)

(PDF file)

• But please know, whether you believe campaign contributions are speech or property, that I learned to love very dearly the right of free expression when I lived without that freedom for a while a long time ago.

• Because the people of New Hampshire take their responsibilities as citizens of the Republic seriously, they keep it interesting for candidates who, believe it or not, can get a little tired of the mannered, predictable, and unimaginative qualities that typically afflict modern political campaigns.

• Our political differences, no matter how sharply they are debated, are really quite narrow in comparison to the remarkably durable national consensus on our founding convictions.

• The core political values of our free society are so deeply embedded in our collective consciousness that only a few malcontents, lunatics generally, ever dare to threaten them.

Unsourced

• As a governor and senator, John Chafee set the standard for honesty and decency that the rest of us on our best days could only dream to emulate.

• I am a Republican. I'm loyal to the party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. And I believe that my party, in some ways, has strayed from those principles, particularly on the issue of fiscal discipline.

• I would not only re-appoint Alan Greenspan, if he would happen to die, God forbid, I would do like they did in the movie Weekend at Bernies. I would prop him up and put a pair of dark glasses on him.

• I'm as frustrated with the French, I think, as anyone, but look, there's going to be other challenges and there are going to be other issues. As long as there's a war on terrorism going on, we're all going to have to work together.

• It is perhaps my greatest hope, Mr. President, that some day we'll consider tax and spending measures with no one else in mind but future generations of American taxpayers. We're tying a millstone of debt around their necks, and it is a grave mistake.

• Our armed forces will fight for peace in Iraq, a peace built on more secure foundations than are found today in the Middle East. Even more important, they will fight for two human conditions of even greater value than peace: liberty and justice.

• Thank God for our form of government. The media won't let there be any cover-up.

• The furthest thing from a whore in the senate today.

• The vice president has only two obligations: Inquire daily into the health of the president, and attend the funerals of Third World dictators.

Misattributed

• Presidential ambition is a disease that can only be cured by embalming fluid.
  • Quoting Mo Udall, who was quoting Estes Kefauver

Quotations about McCain

• There is a strutting self-righteousness about McCain that goes hand-in-hand with a nitroglycerin temper. He flatters himself that his colleagues in the Senate dislike him because he stands up for principle, while they sell their souls for pork. Not exactly. He is disliked because on many, many occasions he has been disrespectful, belligerent, and vulgar to those who differ with him.
  • Mona Charen, "Why some Republicans won't vote for the senator", National Review Online, February 8, 2008

• Luckily, I agree with my party more than Senator McCain agrees with his party.
  • Hillary Clinton, Politico, February 11, 2008. [11]

External links

• Official site
• Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) discusses his 2008 presidential bid