McCain's Reputation

One can understand the immediate reason for the adulation of John McCain by those in the traditional media and the political establishment easily.  His death and the observances following  it provided a fine and safe  opportunity for digs at Donald Trump – partially masked in  encomia to bipartisanship, reaching across aisles, careers in public service, what politicians call civility, and eschewing what politicians call divisiveness.

It is more interesting to speculate on  why he became so famous and such a favorite of such people in the first place.  One can accept that he behaved well in captivity in Vietnam. Charges to the contrary from political opponents lack evidence, and men such as Bud Day have vouched for him. However many others did and endured as much or more including some such as Denton, Stockdale, and Sam Johnson  who also went into politics after coming home from Vietnam. Yet McCain was the one who got the spotlight from the media most often. 

Similarly the amount of attention in the media he got while in the senate seems far out of proportion to his skills or accomplishments as a senator. One  reason for that is obvious. He was often very willing to denigrate conservative Republicans and others whose opinions were unacceptable to the left and to jump over the aisle to take the side of Democrats. That alone was enough to make him a “maverick” and a newsworthy guy in the reporting of the traditional media. (There are no maverick Democrats in the senate. They are all expected to go along with the herd.)  Still he was such a favorite that it seems there might be more to it  than that.

His reputation as a saintly patriot of a  politician who stood above  pettiness and  put the good of the country ahead of  all else is also odd,  given his behavior.  For example  he double crossed his colleagues, reneged on his promise to the voters in his state, and went against his stated beliefs when he cast the deciding vote to preserve Obamacare after campaigning to repeal it.  Despite some silly doubletalk about preferring a bipartisan solution, the apparent reason was his hatred of Trump and his unwillingness to give him  a victory.   He certainly had reason to dislike the president. Trump’s statement that the prisoners in the Hanoi Hilton were not heroic was despicable and  naturally probably  particularly offensive to McCain. However many of people  have had despicable things said about them  by ignorant loudmouths and jackasses.  A responsible adult takes them in stride and goes ahead with his life and job. (Ted Cruz has been able to get past Trump’s suggestion that his father may have been involved in shooting President Kennedy at least to the extent of working with the president when his principles and duties call for it.)  A  serious, consistent  patriot does not shirk his responsibility and go back on his word because somebody hurt his feelings.

Fame and reputation are often  funny, and how and by whom they are gotten often  puzzling.