Presidential Profile: Iraq War at the Heart of McCain Campaign

By Robynn Tysver, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Oct. 28–SIOUX CITY, Iowa — In 1968, John McCain and his fellow POWs excitedly tapped out messages to one another on their prison walls.

Peace talks were under way in Paris, and the bombing of North Vietnam had stopped. They believed the war was ending and they were going home.

The euphoria in the Hanoi prison, however, was premature.

Five years premature.

“We were positive, and everybody got very exuberant. Then, after a period of time passed — a month and a year or more — some depression had a tendency to set in. I swore then I would never get excited again until I shook hands with an American in uniform,” McCain said.

A decorated former Navy pilot, McCain has experienced the highs and lows of war. Now he’s putting that experience front and center in his Republican presidential bid, trying to convince voters he is the cool-hand warrior with the moxie and military experience to ride out the good and bad days to victory in Iraq.

In campaign stop after campaign stop, McCain delivers the same upper-and-downer message to voters: success is achievable in Iraq, and a loss in that Middle Eastern country would gravely weaken America’s fight against terrorism.

A key weapon in his campaign arsenal is his experience in the Navy and Vietnam.

In his recent “No Surrender” tour across Iowa, McCain traveled with a pack of graying veterans of Vietnam and Korea and gung-ho veterans of Iraq. They exchanged salty military jokes, ribbed the “ugly” Marines among them and regaled voters with stories about McCain’s prisoner of war days.

“If you’re going to get your kitchen fixed, you’re not going to want someone who has never fixed a piece of plumbing before,” said retired Air Force Col. George “Bud” Day, a Medal of Honor winner who shared a POW cell with McCain.

“You’re certainly going to want someone with the most experience, the best background, who can do the best job possible,” said Day, a Sioux City native.

McCain is the only top-tier candidate in this year’s presidential field who has gone to war or had extensive experience in the military. He spent 22 years in the Navy. Upon his return from Vietnam, he served as a training squadron commander and later as the Navy’s liaison to the U.S. Senate.

It is no surprise, then, that Iraq is at the heart of his campaign.

“I understand the bitterness of this debate. I understand the frustration and anger of the American people and the sorrow,” he said in Sioux City with Bud Day.

“All of us here want our troops out, all of us want them home. But we want them home with honor. Return with honor, so that we don’t have to turn around some time from now and send them back.”

This is McCain’s second presidential bid. He lost his first try to George W. Bush in 2000 when his “Straight Talk Express” flamed out in the South Carolina primary.

He came roaring back this time, reaching perceived GOP front-runner status before his campaign seemed to stall. His fundraising was lackluster while his campaign spending was lavish. By July, his campaign coffers were nearly empty, forcing McCain to lay off 50 or more workers.

In the past few weeks, though, McCain’s campaign has enjoyed a bounce. He is getting good reviews for his debate performances and picking up steam in the key primary state of New Hampshire.

Opinion polls in Iowa, however, consistently rank him in fourth or fifth place.

McCain, whose hair appears whiter and thinner atop his red scalp since his 2000 run, appears at ease with reporters and voters.

His puckish humor is on full display on the “No Surrender” tour, and he laughs heartily at his own war stories. At age 71, he still has a glint in his eye that suggests that the tales of his wild days as a young pilot and bachelor are true.

After his aircraft was shot down in 1967 over North Vietnam, McCain was captured with a shattered knee and both arms broken.

He spent more than five years in various prisons around Hanoi. He was regularly beaten and bound in awkward positions with “torture ropes.” In one ferocious beating, his captors re-broke his left arm. During another period, he was beaten every two hours for four days straight.

Today, those POW years remain visibly apparent. McCain’s arms appear stiff as planks of wood. He can’t lift them over his head to comb his hair.

If elected, McCain would be the oldest president to take office, at age 72. It is a concern among some voters. A high school student recently told him that he was too old to run.

McCain has fought back with a “good-gene” argument, talking frequently about his 95-year-old mother, Roberta, who still has the stamina for trips abroad.

The age matter pales, however, next to his uneasy relationship with the conservative GOP base.

Many of them consider McCain too cozy with Democrats, even though his voting record is solidly conservative on such issues as his opposition to abortion, support of free trade and opposition to pork barrel spending.

The parts of McCain’s record that stand out for many Republicans are his siding with Democrats on issues such as campaign finance reform and President Bush’s tax cuts.

McCain argued in 2001 and 2003 that the Bush tax cuts would benefit the affluent more than middle-class Americans and were too costly in a time of war.

“I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans who need tax relief,” he said in 2001.

McCain has ruined many a Sunday morning for Iowa Republicans with his willingness to appear on the TV talk shows and criticize Bush.

“He has not always been the biggest supporter of the president — and Republicans in Iowa are big supporters of the president,” said David Overholtzer , a GOP activist in Council Bluffs who is supporting GOP hopeful Mitt Romney.

Ironically, McCain is running a campaign that aligns closely with Bush on two key issues: Iraq and illegal immigration.

To the consternation of some GOP voters, McCain supported Bush’s controversial illegal immigration plan, which would have offered a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million people living in this country illegally.

The Bush proposal went down amid heavy opposition from those who oppose anything but deportation for illegal immigrants.

After months of defending the bill on the campaign trail, McCain changed course this summer. He now says his first priority as president would be to secure the borders. Only after that is accomplished, he says, would he deal with the problem of what to do with those already living in this country illegally.

“People believe that our borders are broken and that it’s a threat to our security. They want it fixed. I got it. That’s the message. Secure the borders and let’s move on,” McCain said.

He also has, to a degree, distanced himself from Bush on Iraq. Although McCain is one of the war’s strongest supporters in Congress, he takes great pains to explain his early criticism of the Bush administration’s conduct of the war.

McCain believes more troops were needed from the beginning and says he’s been telling the administration that since 2003.

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