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Senator John McCain of Arizona has only been defeated in one race in his political life, in a heated contest against George W. Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. Now as he runs for president again, his candidacy has become closely tied to the increasingly unpopular war that his rival began.

Mr. McCain, who was elected to the House in 1982 and the Senate in 1986, has emerged as the Republican field's strongest proponent of an aggressive approach to the Iraq war and of Mr. Bush's decision in January to deploy more soldiers, primarily in Baghdad. While other Republican candidates, including Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney, are resisting Democratic calls for disengagement, no one else in the race is as closely associated as Mr. McCain is with the idea of adding troops. Mr. McCain's chief criticism of Mr. Bush's so-called surge is that it is likely too small to have the necessary impact.

Mr. McCain's political career has been based in large measure on his role in another unpopular war. A Navy pilot who was shot down over Hanoi in 1967, he returned from Vietnam in 1973 as a much-decorated prisoner of war. Not only had he had endured torture and neglect in prison camps, but he had turned down a North Vietnamese offer to release him ahead of longer-held prisoners because of his status as the son and grandson of four-star admirals. Mr. McCain later wrote of his ordeals in "Faith of Our Fathers," which was made into a television movie in 2005.

In the Senate, Mr. McCain's engaging personality and willingness to buck his party on occasion earned him a reputation as something of a maverick. Read More

Biography

Full Name: John Sidney McCain III
Party: Republican
Political Office: U.S. Senator from Arizona, elected 1986; reelected 1992, 1998, 2004; U.S. Representative from AZ, 1983-1987
Military Service: Pilot, U.S. Navy 1958-1981, retiring as captain; POW in Vietnam, 1967-1973
Date of Birth: August 29, 1936
Place of Birth: Panama Canal Zone
Education: B.S., United States Naval Academy, 1958; grad., the National War College, 1974
Spouse: married (2d) Cindy Hensley, 1980
Children: adopted sons Douglas and Andrew of first wife, Carol (m. 1965; div. 1980); daughter Sidney (with wife Carol), born 1980; daughters Meghan and Bridget (born and adopted, 1991); sons John IV and James
Religion: Episcopalian
Home: Phoenix, AZ
Campaign Web Site: www.johnmccain.com

Books

By John McCain: Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them [summer 2007]; Character is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember [2005]; Why Courage Matters: the Way to a Braver Life [2004]; Worth the Fighting For [2002]; Faith of my Fathers [1999]

About: Man of the People: The Life of John McCain, by Paul Alexander [2002]; Citizen McCain, by Elizabeth Drew [2002]; John McCain: An American Odyssey, by Robert Timberg [1999] (updated from Timberg�s 1995 book, The Nightingale�s Song)