Each of us have defining moments in our lives. Those moments are the times when choices can be difficult and possibly life altering. Make choice 1 and it might benefit you and open the door to financial gain or popularity. Select choice 2 which we know is the right choice and we might feel better morally because we did the right thing but what have we sacrificed? Yes we've all been there or somewhere close by. Our defining moments are usually private matters that have little or no effect on anyone other than ourselves. So we make them and go on with our lives. Whether it's fate, karma or his choice, John McCain's defining moments have all seemed to be played out in public on the biggest international stages. Amazingly, the senator from Arizona seems to usually make the right choice even when it's not to his benefit.
As a POW during the Vietnam War, McCain's captors offered him the opportunity to be released before his fellow POWs. Despite severe injuries and living in deplorable and inhumane conditions, his injuries left untreated and being continually beaten, McCain refused to accept release until all those captured before him and all enlisted men were freed. On July 4, 1968 the North Vietnamese offered McCain a virtual "get out of POW camp" card. It was the same day McCain's father became U.S. Commander in the Pacific. McCain, seeing that a propaganda tool for his captors, turned it down. Despite having several opportunities to be released, McCain would spend more than 5 1/2 years as a POW, including 2 years in solitary confinement.
During the brutally contested presidential election of 2008 against Barack Hussein Obama, many supporters of Senator McCain believed that Senator Obama was a Muslim. A candidate's religion should not be of any consequence, well at least in theoretical America. That was not the case in 2008 where it was common to hear racial epithets and other slurs directed at the Democratic nominee that posed a real threat of becoming America's first black president. While some candidate's in a close race would seize on such raw emotion to get a few more votes, John McCain's action less than one month before the election would demonstrate once again that he puts country first. During a campaign event in Minnesota, an elderly woman seized the microphone and insisted that Senator Obama was an Arab. Instead of agreeing with her or remaining silent, McCain rescued the microphone from the woman and said" No ma'am, No ma'am. He is a decent family man, a citizen who I just happen to have serious differences with on fundamental questions." In that key moment, John McCain might have lost some votes but he gained the respect of millions of people, many of whom had fundamental differences with his political views.
May 28th 2017 U.S. Senate floor
Life seems to be unpredictable and random yet everything we do seems to push us on the road to our destiny. It's rather strange really.
McCain was one of the most high profile critics of the Affordable Care Act or as some prefer to call it Obama Care. It is the signature legislative accomplishment of his 2008 presidential opponent, President Barack Obama.
McCain, like most Republicans used the war cry, repeal and replace to win a closely contested Senate race in 2016. The GOP controls the House, Senate and the White House so repealing such an "unpopular law would be a walk in the park. After 7 years of promising their hardcore supporters that Obama Care would be repealed the GOP and President Trump fell short. After being diagnosed with brain cancer about one week ago, Senator McCain triumphantly staged a return to the Senate and admonished his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work in a bipartisan fashion to get things done.
With the new Republican president's legislative agenda going nowhere, the vote on repealing parts of Obama Care could be a game changer for Trump and the GOP. When the roll call vote began at around 2 A.M.EDT, the tension was palatable. Vice President Pence was dispatched to the Senate floor by Trump to persuade McCain to vote for the bill. After all the fate of the bill was in McCain's hands. Despite the tension, the names and votes flew by quickly and predictably. Democrats voted no, Republicans voted yes except for Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine and a harsh critic of what the GOP was offering to replace Obama Care. Her vote was a solid no as was Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican representing Alaska. Yes it would all hinge on the senator form Arizona. But let's step back for a moment and see how seemingly random events got McCain to this point.
McCain's journey to the Senate vote for this crucial vote can be traced to when he was a severely injured POW denied effective medical care by his captors. A man that nearly 50 years later candidate Trump, in order to score political points, said was not really a hero and when pressed by an interviewer reluctantly said McCain was "only a hero because he got captured."
The journey to this night continued when presidential candidate McCain rebuked the elderly woman in Minnesota for saying that his opponent was an Arab. Meanwhile the new president built his entire campaign by promoting the ridiculous and debunked notion that the same man was not a US citizen.
The final part of McCain's journey to this defining moment began when he underwent surgery and was diagnosed with brain cancer. The same type of brain cancer that killed his colleague, Senator Edward Kennedy, who was coincidentally an ardent supporter of McCain's 2008 presidential opponent and a champion of the health care bill that McCain could repeal. Seemingly unrelated and random events. What must he have been thinking as he awaited his name to be called? Was he reflecting on those torturous 5 1/2 years as a POW? Perhaps the 2008 election, his mortality, getting revenge on Trump?
KLOBUCHAR-NO,LANKFORD, YES, LEAHY,NO, LEE, YES, MANCHIN, NO
Each of us have defining moments in our lives. Those moments are the times when choices can be difficult and possibly life altering. Make choice 1 and it might benefit you and open the door to financial gain or popularity. Select choice 2 which you know is the right choice and you might feel better morally because you did the right thing but what have you sacrificed? Yes we've all been there or somewhere close by. Our defining moments are usually private matters that have little or no effect on anyone other than ourselves. So we make them and go on with our lives. Whether it's fate, karma or his choice, John McCain's defining moments have all seemed to be played out in public on the biggest international stages. Amazingly, the senator from Arizona seems to usually make the right choice even when it's not to his benefit.
McCain-NO!
It was done and the bill was defeated. When asked by a reporter why he voted against the bill. McCain's response, "It was the right thing to do."
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