McCain's Marine son returns from Iraq
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who almost always refuses to speak on the campaign trail about his son serving in the military, got a rousing reception Wednesday when he told a private gathering of House Republican congressman that his son Jimmy — whose Marine unit had been deployed to Iraq — had arrived home safely.
According to three GOP sources present at the closed meeting of the House Republican Conference, the Arizona senator said that when his son first arrived in the country, he reported seeing IEDs everywhere — but when he recently left, some seven months later, Iraq had become so safe he was handing out soccer balls.
According to the sources present, the congressmen greeted the news with standing ovations.
McCain shares grief and fear of war families
THE moment she heard that the Republican candidates in the 2008 presidential election would be holding a debate close to her home in New Hampshire, Erin Flanagan determined to confront them with the reality of the war in Iraq.
Two years earlier, Flanagan’s brother, First Lieutenant Michael Cleary, had been killed by an Iraqi roadside bomb eight days before he was due to return home. Angered by the candidates’ failure to commit themselves to an early withdrawal of US troops, Flanagan carefully compiled an emotional question that she hoped would put them on the spot.
If there was a single moment that marked the turning point in John McCain’s remarkable advance on the Republican presidential nomination, it may have come at that debate last June when Flanagan stood up and asked in a quivering voice how the candidates intended to stop the suffering of families who had lost their loved ones to a badly managed war.
McCain’s response to Flanagan’s anguished question not only earned him glowing reviews that helped to revive a presidential campaign that was then floundering and nearly bankrupt; it also led to a meeting of extraordinary poignancy between two very different American families who found themselves united by their experiences of Iraq.
An Interview with Jack McCain
Jack McCain may be on the sidelines during most of his dad’s quest for the presidency, but he is by no means sitting this race out. In an exclusive interview with GoMids.com, Midshipman McCain spoke about his relationship with his dad, his surprising connection to Chelsea Clinton, his love of Navy football and even who he thinks would make a great vice presidential running mate.
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