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Republican frontrunner
30/01/2008 10:20 - (SA)
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| Republican presidential hopeful Senator John McCain, gives two thumbs up at his primary victory celebration in Miami. (Alan Diaz, AP) |
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US Senator John McCain has scored a hard-fought win in Florida's presidential primary, seizing the frontrunner's role in the race to become the
Republican nominee in the November 2008 presidential election.
Here are some facts about the Arizona Republican.
If elected, McCain, now 71, would be the oldest person to
assume the US presidency.
From a celebrated Navy family, McCain is the son and
grandson of four-star admirals and he followed in their
footsteps by attending the US Naval Academy.
On his 23rd combat mission over Vietnam in 1967, he was
shot down. He spent five-and-a-half years in captivity, including two in
solitary confinement along with frequent beatings and torture.
In the Senate, he has been an outspoken critic of waterboarding
and other harsh interrogation techniques.
McCain was seen as a maverick in his campaign for the
2000 Republican presidential nomination when he gave then Texas
Governor George W Bush a scare by winning the first-in-the-nation
primary state of New Hampshire by 18% points. But he
lost to Bush in South Carolina after one of the ugliest state
primary campaigns ever.
McCain has vigorously supported the unpopular Iraq war
at a time when many Americans are weary of the conflict and
eager to return US troops home. McCain has criticised the way
the war was conducted initially, saying the United States
should never go to war without a comprehensive plan for
success.
First elected to the House of Representatives in 1982,
McCain won the first of four terms in the Senate in 1986.
In Congress McCain has been a pro-business conservative,
free-market advocate and abortion foe, but has voted against
the Republican majority on several high-profile bills. He has
made campaign finance reform a signature concern, which led to
the passage of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002.
He was among five senators investigated for taking
contributions from savings and loan financier Charles Keating.
In 1991 the Senate ethics committee cleared McCain of any
wrongdoing, except using poor judgment.
- Reuters
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