Original subtitles

LOGAN ROY: I want a broadcast network.

And I wanna see what other news operations we can sweep up.

Local TV?

Why shouldn't we do all the news?

ROMAN ROY: Well, Kim Jong-Pop,

that's not how things work in this country.

KENDALL ROY: If he's not careful,

he's gonna destroy the company.

Anyway, are you gonna do something?

I think I'm the best option.

Oh, right, 'cause you like playing boss?

This is my vision. I take over. You two, under me.

Take out the old man, in with the new guard.

It's rebellion!

It's my company.

You are a nobody.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

John McCain: I have lived an honorable life,

and I am proud of my life.

I think all of us think about death,

but I think more about life.

There are so many days in my life

that are more than coincidental,

that it has made me believe

that I am here for a reason.

I've been tested on a number of occasions.

I haven't always done the right thing.

And I think I understand,

given my family's history and given my experiences,

the important thing is not to look back and figure out

all the things I should've done, and there's lots of those...

but to look back with gratitude.

You will never talk to anyone that is as fortunate

as John McCain.

♪ ♪

John: You ready or not?

You ready

One, two...

Cindy: Isn't she so great? I love that.

Yeah, just look at her. Yeah.

Come on, honey, come on.

Come on. That's a girl.

John: Come on.

Come on.

Yup. Cindy: Bring the ball.

It's all right. Come on, Burma.

Come on, Burma. Come on, honey.

Jack McCain: I got a phone call from my mom that said,

"Jack, you're gonna see some stuff in the news."

Um, "Your father has brain cancer.

Um...

"I'm with him right now.

"He knows his diagnosis,

and he's the same as he's always been."

He said, "All right, let's push forward."

John: You know, these doctors keep talking to me about people

who if you tell 'em the truth,

then they just give up and die,

that you really want to-- and I... I keep saying to 'em,

"Just tell me. Just tell me.

That's all I want to know." You know?

Some say, "Well, it's not good."

And then they'll say, "Well..." You know, its just bullshit,

and it really drives me crazy.

But then I talk to other doctor friends of mine and say

that most people, that's not what they want to hear.

I-- Why wouldn't they want to hear, you know?

Why wouldn't they want to spend a few more days here, you know?

Yes, honey, I'll throw the ball in a minute.

Meghan McCain: He's better in Arizona, I think, health-wise,

but we sort of collectively made the decision

that if he doesn't work, that he would...

he would probably get sick faster,

because work feeds him and it's so much of a part of who he is,

so I'm very supportive of him being in DC.

John: All right, guys, good morning, good morning.

Good morning, good morning.

Good morning. Good morning.

Hup! Back! Back!

Come on!

Come on!

Good morning. You can-- you can--

Cameraman: Good morning, Senator. John: Good morning.

How are you, my friend from TMZ?

Cameraman: Did you watch the football game last night?

Yes, I did. That's why I'm in such a bad mood this morning.

Well, I hope things get better. John: Thank you.

♪ ♪

How about that catch from Larry Fitzgerald?

Mark Salter: He's authentic. He can't help himself.

Sometimes his authenticity is a political problem,

and other times it's a great advantage.

David Brooks: None of us like to be unpopular in our workplace,

and I've seen McCain be unpopular time and time again,

sometimes for excellent reasons, sometimes for not great reasons.

Lindsey Graham: We don't always agree.

I've got a job to do,

he's got a job to do,

but I never doubt his motivation as to why he's doing it.

John: We're not gonna bet against the United States of America.

You know?

Hillary Clinton: He tries to study an issue,

he tries to come to a conclusion

that's in keeping with his values

but, also, you know, rooted in reality.

Now it's 3,500 troops, all this kind of stuff.

Grant Woods: He knows this is not a straight line in life.

There's gonna be curves and corners,

and that's the way it goes. Nobody's perfect.

You're gonna make mistakes.

The question is: How do you handle those mistakes?

John: What's going on in Syria?

Yes, good morning. How are you? Good morning.

Joe Lieberman: I wouldn't bet against him.

He faces his mortality now

with the same...

kind of fearlessness

that has characterized his life.

We're gonna keep people waiting here.

Man: I'm gonna grab the elevator right over here.

Salter: If you want to really know him,

his favorite book is For Whom the Bell Tolls,

and the protagonist in that, Robert Jordan,

goes to fight in the Spanish civil war.

And he knows that it's a hopeless cause,

and yet he gives his life for it.

Man: Senator McCain? John: Yeah?

Army nominee, secretary, are we gonna get a hearing soon?

Salter: That's a very McCain-esque view of himself in the world.

The harder the cause, even lost, the better the cause.

Man: Senator, on health care-- I gotta go.

When I was 12 years old, I found a four-leaf clover.

I went to my father's library

to put that four-leaf clover in a book.

I started reading that book,

and I was mesmerized,

and I didn't stop reading until I was finished.

It is still the lodestone, the guide that I have,

and it's called For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Robert Jordan is my hero,

then when I was that age,

and Robert Jordan is my hero today.

Nothing is better than a story of someone who sacrifices

for causes greater than themselves,

and Robert Jordan was that.

♪ ♪

I was born on the 29th of August, 1936,

at a naval base in the Panama Canal Zone.

My family goes back militarily all the way to the Revolutionary War.

And my life seemed to be charted out for me.

I did feel pressure, from the time I was very small, to do well.

♪ ♪

As a young man in going to the Naval Academy,

I was following in the footsteps

of my father and my grandfather.

Yes, I was once one of you,

six decades ago, in the age of sail.

I was...

I was an undistinguished member of the class of 1958.

My superiors didn't hold me in very high esteem in those days.

Their disapproval was measured in the hundreds of miles

of extra duty I marched in my time here.

But I realized a little later in life

that I hadn't fully appreciated

all that the academy was trying to teach me.

Lessons about sacrificing for something more important than yourself.

Lessons about courage and humility.

♪ ♪

God only knows how I graduated from the Naval Academy.

I didn't enjoy studying.

I just knew what I had to do to get by.

♪ ♪

There's no doubt that I was a rebel and always breaking the rules.

Everybody knew who my father was,

and so, I'd thumb my nose at 'em.

But at the same time, I didn't want to embarrass my family.

John's father just emanated

power and strength.

One day, his father came down on a Saturday to take us to lunch,

and for some reason they got into a bit of an argument.

John was walking at a fast pace, swinging his left arm,

and I remember his father was walking

the same way, swinging his left arm.

I said, "These guys are so much alike."

They're combatants with a penchant for leadership.

It was just a natural ability.

You can't teach that kind of leadership.

You have to be born with that.

Admiral McCain, what would you say

about the importance of leadership in the Navy?

Leadership is the single most important factor

as far as achievement, success,

and the completion of a job to be done.

And furthermore, you have got to have a tolerance

for the failings of individuals

because all of us have them.

My father was a submarine commander in World War II in the Pacific.

My grandfather was the commander of the aircraft carriers in the Pacific.

But I always knew that I was gonna be a naval aviator.

I was gonna go out there

and fly airplanes and shoot down MiGs.

Newsman: So far in 1967,

the number of US troops killed in Vietnam has nearly doubled.

Airpower is the one thing we most conspicuously have

and the enemy has not.

John: During that period of time,

they decided to escalate the air war over North Vietnam.

♪ ♪

We started striking targets inside Hanoi,

which we had never done before.

I got over the target and rolled in,

and just as I released my bombs,

a missile took the wing off the airplane...

so I ejected.

When I hit the airstream,

it broke my arms and also my leg.

Strangely enough, I landed in a lake

in the center of the city of Hanoi.

Someone took a picture

of the Vietnamese pulling me out of the water...

and they were not happy.

One of 'em stabbed me with a bayonet

and another one smashed my shoulder.

And then some North Vietnamese Army came

and they took me to the prison camp

that we called the Hanoi Hilton.

♪ ♪

David Brinkley: Yesterday over Hanoi,

three American planes were shot down

and at least two of their pilots captured.

One of them was Lieutenant Commander John McCain III,

the son of the US naval commander in Europe.

Boy: Okay? Boy 2: Go.

Doug McCain: I came in from school one day,

and my mother was sitting at the kitchen table,

crying, and I said, "What's the matter?"

And she said, "Well, your father's been shot down.

"And that's all I know right now,

but I expect to hear more from your granddad pretty soon."

♪ ♪

Carol McCain: When I first found out,

I didn't understand it all myself.

I was dumb and happy.

I didn't really understand what it was all about.

It never occurred to me that anything would happen to him.

He was always kind of invincible in my mind.

Joe McCain: I got a call in the middle of the night,

and my father and mother were both on the phone,

which was very unusual.

Usually one would call me, not the other.

And they told me that John had been shot down.

And I remember pausing, and I said,

"Well, what do we do now?"

And my father said, "We just pray for the boy."

♪ ♪

John: It's hard to describe

the military heritage of my family.

Yes, my dad was worried about me,

but the fact is, he knew that McCains were doing

what McCains were bred to do.

And if it takes you into harm's way,

that is our profession.

♪ ♪

The injuries that I experienced were severe,

and they said, "We'll give you medical help

if you'll give us information." I said, "I can't."

A few hours later, the interrogator came in and said,

"Your father is a big admiral."

And I said, "Yes."

He said, "We're gonna take you to the hospital."

♪ ♪

Carol: I got a letter from a Frenchman

who said he'd been in North Vietnam and he'd seen John.

Interviewer: What is your name?

Lieutenant Commander John McCain.

Carol: He'd made a film about him.

He gave me a copy of it.

John's folks watched it, I watched it.

Interviewer: Who is your father?

Yes, his name is Admiral John McCain.

And his dad kept telling me, "Carol, this could be years."

I didn't believe that, but he kept telling me,

it could be years before he gets home.

I would just like to tell...

my wife...

that I... will get well...

and I love her...

and I hope to see her soon.

And I'd appreciate it if you'd tell her.

One day, the interrogator came in and he said,

"Our doctors tell me that you are not getting well."

They took me into a room with two other Americans.

They wanted me to die there rather than in the hospital,

and those two literally nursed me back to health.

And the love and affection that both of those guys bestowed on me

was something I will never ever forget.

But as soon as the Vietnamese found out I could walk,

the next day, I found myself alone in the cell.

♪ ♪

I was about two and a half years in solitary confinement.

Solitary confinement's great strength is

it makes the person feel alone.

And when you're alone, then you don't have

the encouragement, the camaraderie, the strength.

There's a reason why throughout history

they have used solitary confinement.

And then one day, I was taken up to interrogation.

There was a guy there--

erudite, spoke perfect French, perfect English.

I sat down, and there was cigarettes and there was tea.

And finally he said, "Well, you know,

"everybody wants you to go home

because the doctors say that you can't live."

And I said, "Our code of conduct says

that we go by order of capture."

He said, "Except for sick and injured."

And I said, "But I'm not that sick and injured.

"I'm getting better, I can get around,

"and I know what this is.

I know it's for propaganda."

And he kicked over the chair behind him,

and then he said, "They taught you too well,"

and walked out and slammed the door,

leaving me and one of the interrogators in dead silence

for about two minutes, and he said,

"Things will be very bad for you now, McCain."

♪ ♪

And the fun began.

John Fer: We call it either the bar and strap

or the bar and ropes treatment,

and that has to do with putting my arms,

with my wrists opposed,

behind my back and fastened with handcuffs.

They took the strap and they tied it to the handcuffs.

Each time he laced that strap,

he pulled and pulled and pulled until my arms

are virtually parallel to one other and touching.

♪ ♪

John McCain: They were really, really rough.

I mean, to the point where they re-broke my arm,

they did all kinds of stuff.

It was so bad that I thought I was gonna die,

and so I wrote out a confession,

a war crimes confession,

and I will be ashamed and embarrassed

about that for my whole life.

♪ ♪

I was aware that they were gonna use it

for propaganda purposes,

and I thought about the honor of my family.

Henry Kissinger: I knew his father.

His father was Pacific Fleet commander,

so all the military action we ordered in Vietnam

was carried out by him.

But I never heard Admiral McCain

talk to the president about his son.

It would be against the code of honor of the McCains.

Joe: My dad never talked about John, and he especially never asked

anybody to do anything for him or about it.

♪ ♪

But Dad made a practice every year that he was commander in chief.

On Christmas, he would helicopter to the DMZ,

where the North and South Vietnamese were officially divided,

and he would walk away from those escorting him,

and he would just look across that border,

trying to somehow feel John or send a message to him.

I want you to understand that for those of you--

and there are many in this command--

who will spend this Christmas away from home and your loved ones,

that what you have done and the sacrifices that you have made

in the pursuit of your individual duties

will more than make up for this separation.

♪ ♪

Sidney McCain: I was a year and a month

when he was shot down.

My recollection of him is

next to zero.

It was my mom and my brothers and I for a really long time.

Those memories I have.

John Laurence: Mrs. McCain has received several letters

from her captured husband but none in six months.

Carol: The most recent one I have was written last June.

It says, "Dear Carol, I hope you can still think

"of the really great times we had together.

"It is time for our fifth anniversary this year,

and I am hoping I will see you soon."

Laurence: How does he sound in that letter?

He sounds kind of depressed to me when he says,

"I hope you can still think

of the really good times we had together."

It sounds like he-- you know, he's worried

that I might forget or something,

and that bothers me, it makes me feel very badly.

There isn't any way I could possibly forget.

Carol: You know what? You don't really know but in your heart,

you're like, "Of course he's gonna come back.

He told me he's coming back."

Laurence: Doug, how long do you think

that the Vietnamese are gonna keep your daddy prisoner?

Probably till the war's over.

Laurence: How long will that be?

Probably until summer.

To me, nothing else mattered materially

other than I was told my dad is still alive.

Laurence: Do you think, it'll be over sooner, huh?

We want it to be over sooner.

Laurence: Because?

We just want him back.

♪ ♪

John: After about four years, they changed the treatment

and put us into large rooms with,

say, 20 or 25 in each cell.

The beatings stopped and there was clearly a change

in policy towards the prisoners.

Fer: All of a sudden on the 18th of December,

the whole sky just lit up with explosions,

and from then, round-the-clock bombing.

♪ ♪

Kissinger: The Christmas bombing was the use

of B-52s against tactical targets in Hanoi.

President Nixon decided, and I agreed,

that we had reached a point where only a shocking event...

would show to them that we were absolutely determined

to bring the war to a conclusion.

John McCain: We applauded and we cheered,

and we sang "The Star-Spangled Banner."

And the North Vietnamese were panicked.

They were panicked.

Fer: When that bombing was over,

there was a very strange silence,

and then an announcement on the radio that on the--

they were gonna sign an agreement to end the war.

♪ ♪

John McCain: And a few days later,

all the prisoners were called out,

and the commanding officer of the camp read off

the provisions of the settlement.

And one of the-- part of the settlement is

"Prisoners will be returned by order of capture."

While we were waiting, they said, "McCain, come in, we need to talk to you."

And there was about eight Vietnamese in this room-- officers--

and they had a tape recorder, and they said,

"McCain, you are going to be leaving now,

"and we saved your life, as you know.

"Don't you want to have a parting message of thanks

for the doctors who took such care-- good care of you?"

And I looked at 'em, and I said,

"You want me to thank the doctors?"

They say, "Yeah." "Well, first of all, I'd like to say,

"Where the fuck have you been for the last five years?

Could I say that?"

(Vietnamese officer calling out names indistinctly)

John: Going home was

something that we'd looked forward to for so many years.

I hate to tell you, but it was almost anticlimatic,

been waiting so long for it.

Vietnamese Officer: John Sidney McCain.

John: In some ways, it was almost hard to believe

we were gonna do it.

Nobody cheered until the airplane actually lifted off the ground

and the landing gear was retracted.

Joe: I remember, really clearly,

him stepping off that plane into Clark Airfield.

And I'll tell you, when he appeared in that hatchway...

it was hard.

Newsman: Lieutenant Commander John S. McCain III,

United States Navy.

His wife Carol, sons Douglas and Andrew, and daughter Sidney

live in Orange Park, Florida.

Carol: I just remember he was really skinny.

He was just kind of all bones in his face,

and he was limping quite noticeably.

One of his arms he couldn't lift any higher than about this.

But I just remember the smile was the same,

the humor was the same, there was still a twinkle in his eye.

It was like right out of the movies.

Sidney: I don't think I really understood

what was going on.

I was really like, "Who is this guy?

What is he doing here?"

Did not understand the whole concept

of his return from... from Vietnam.

♪ ♪

Carol: John was not angry.

He was just happy to be home.

He told me every single thing that he could remember, and I wanted him to.

I wanted him to just talk and talk and talk,

to not keep that stuff locked up.

When we came home, I wanted to know what happened during all those years.

Think of yourself going five and a half years

with only information provided to you

by your communist captors.

I wanted to know how the anti-war movement began.

Senator Fulbright: Will the committee come to order?

The committee, continuing its hearings

on proposals relating to the ending

of the war in Southeast Asia.

John and I were on different paths

with respect to the war in Vietnam.

♪ ♪

My war was down in the Delta, mostly,

and seeing the war on a ground level

led me to believe we were on a quixotic errand.

And it weighed on me in a way that made me

a very vocal and determined

anti-war activist after I came back.

Each day to facilitate the process

by which the United States

washes her hands of Vietnam,

someone has to give up his life

so that the United States doesn't have to admit something

that the entire world already knows,

so that we can't say that we've made a mistake.

John: It didn't change my mind,

but what was very revealing

was how mishandled the conflict was

and how there was never a strategy for victory.

Someone has to die so that President Nixon won't be--

and these are his words--

"the first president to lose a war."

The most offensive to me

was that we didn't tell the American people the truth.

John: The American people become disillusioned

when they're being told that victory is just around the corner...

Kerry: And we will not be silent!

...which it was not.

Newsman: Though it hardly seems possible,

it's been more than five years

since the nearly 600 American POWs came home.

280 of them gathered for an anniversary celebration this weekend.

We've been treated very, very well,

and we've been a few times embarrassed

by the attention we've received,

because we don't feel that we did anything

that any other American wouldn't do under the same circumstances.

but as far as our adjustments have been,

all the studies indicate we've done very well.

♪ ♪

John: The period of adjustment was not as hard

as you might think.

I was able to go back to a squadron,

be the commanding officer of a squadron,

which is what I always wanted to do.

Andy: It was important for him to be able to fly again,

so he did very aggressive physical therapy

to get his body back in shape.

Then he went to be the liaison for the Senate,

and I think he got a real bug for politics there.

Joe Biden: I ended up in the United States Senate in 1973,

John came shortly thereafter as the Navy liaison.

When you travel abroad,

you have a military escort with you.

And every time I traveled,

I tried to make sure I had John,

and I think John did the same thing,

and we traveled all over the world together.

♪ ♪

John: I went everywhere.

That's where I really became familiar

with the Senate and how it works.

I learned one heck of a lot.

Andy: As Dad progressed, he was gone a lot.

He was doing a lot of international travel,

and it was putting a little stress on the marriage.

I talked to one shrink since I've come home.

He asked me how my marriage was,

I told him it was fine, and then he told me

about the fact that he was getting a divorce

for a half an hour.

Cindy: I was a teacher of special education

at the time in Arizona,

and it was spring break, and we were invited to a reception

that was being held for a group of United States senators

on their way through Hawaii to China.

He introduced himself to me,

and I just didn't know what to expect,

and what I saw was just this incredible human being

that's a lot of fun to be around.

This is about the time our marriage was falling apart.

He was looking for a way to be young again,

and that was the end of that.

I didn't know anything about it.

I had no idea what was going on.

I was pretty much blindsided, and it broke my heart.

♪ ♪

Sidney: I think it was the last thing that she was expecting.

We were all shocked and heartbroken.

It caused quite a... a rift within the family.

Doug: It left a bad taste in my mouth

because I knew it wasn't what my mother wanted,

but by the same token,

you know that sometimes things

are beyond your control.

I think the divorce rates among the POWs were extraordinarily high.

So, in hindsight, it's probably not unexpected.

♪ ♪

Cindy: I really didn't think that he would propose.

You know, he was older.

I knew he cared very deeply for me, I did know that.

Sidney: Cindy, I think--

she was very young too, and you can't help who you fall in love with.

I truly believe that my dad

is very much in love with Cindy,

and I think she is very much in love with him,

and I think there's something really beautiful about that.

But at the time, it was... really awful.

Carol: I got a telephone call from the Navy.

They wanted to know did I know where John was.

And I said yes, I did know where he was.

He was now remarried.

I had the phone number and I called him.

And he knew by my voice that something was wrong, and he said, "What is it?"

And I said, "Your father has died."

♪ ♪

Cindy: We hadn't even been married a year.

No one ever wants this kind of insight into a family,

but what I observed was a family of great strength,

great honor, great dignity.

The importance of legacy and tradition

was never more apparent to me than that day.

John: It's not a exaggeration when we say "Navy family."

There's a lot to the Navy family.

My grandfather was commander of the carriers in the Pacific during World War II.

The day of the peace signing,

my father and grandfather were together.

My grandfather flew home the next day,

had a heart attack and died.

My father was a very dedicated naval officer.

I never got as close to my father

as perhaps I would've under normal circumstances,

but I was so proud of what he and my grandfather were doing.

Cindy: John had retired from the Navy just during that week,

and so finished the retirement process

during the days of the funeral,

and we left the next day to go home.

That's a lot to absorb.

John: I was unable to maintain flight status.

That puts a ceiling, and I had to make a tough decision,

and I decided that, since I was not gonna be able

to reach all the heights that I wanted to,

that I'd get out of the Navy, and that we'd go to Arizona.

♪ ♪

Cindy: I felt he had some political ambitions,

although he hadn't really outwardly said it to me.

But I knew that he was good at what he does.

He was engaged in Washington. He was a smart thinker.

Woods: I think if he had his choice,

he would have gone on and become an admiral,

and there would have been that symmetry there

with his father and grandfather.

And whether he likes it or not,

that would have been something, okay?

But that wasn't possible.

However, he was going to serve his country in some way.

I'm announcing today my decision

to become a candidate for the Republican nomination...

Cindy: He was running for what had been John Rhodes' seat,

and one of the first things I remember

was a gentleman at a Rotary Club that said,

"Well-- well, you're not from Arizona.

What do you know about Arizona? You're not a native Arizonan."

Woods: He threw a line on them in the first debate

that ended the carpetbagger controversy.

He said, "Well, you know, sorry, but the longest

I've ever lived anywhere in my life is in Hanoi."

And... that was the end of that discussion, frankly.

The idea was to get him in front of as many people as you could.

So he, every day, was out knocking on doors,

door to door to door to door to door all summer long.

He would just engage with them. He'd just talk with them.

Now, if someone was rude, John being John, you know,

he'd walk down, turn around, say, "Thank you very much,"

and turn around and go, "What an asshole. Fuck that guy."

I mean, pfft! That--

That happened a hundred times, you know, but that's John.

If he would've had the energy of a regular candidate,

then he would've lost,

but we won so that was-- that was awesome.

♪ ♪

But our goal from day one was for John to be in the Senate,

not to be in the House.

It became known that Barry Goldwater was gonna retire

some two years, three years later.

And so, right then, I started positioning myself

for running for Barry's seat in the Senate,

and I didn't make a lot of bones about it.

I was always looking the next step down the road.

♪ ♪

Biden: When he came to the Senate,

he was already a well-known commodity.

He was already respected.

I don't think John missed a beat coming over to the Senate.

Cindy: When John was first elected

and we started having children,

it was a conscious decision by both of us

to raise our children in Arizona.

John: Hi, this is John. Can I speak to Deb?

Good.

Jimmy, let me see your phone there.

Where did you get that phone, huh?

Hey, how you doing?

Oh, the kids are getting ready to go for their swimming party today

for the last day of school, and one of those parties is here.

Cindy: We knew there was going to be a huge sacrifice,

mainly for him, because, I mean, he's--

he's the one that had to commute.

Hi.

Cindy: The way I portrayed it to the kids is kind of a deployed manner:

He's serving his country, he's away,

he has to be away, but you know you'll see him on the weekends.

With that said, he never missed a weekend.

Yes, it's the first time that I had, uh,

that I had done that, and, um, and I, um...

Cindy: What?

Meghan, leave the cat alone.

John: I promise you, the cat will come out if you leave her alone.

I know that people think it's sort of an unorthodox way to grow up,

having your parents divided, but they made such an attempt

to make sure that we had family time and traveled together

that it just is, when it's your normal,

you don't think of anything different.

Good. Okay, good.

Okay, see you later. All right, hon.

Cindy: Bye, see you later.

Jack: When my dad was in DC, it was mostly my mom.

She has a very kind demeanor, generally,

but when the mom needs to come out, she will.

But depending on how much we had misbehaved,

it was always the threat of, "All right, well I'm gonna call your father."

He has the ability to out-argue or outthink any member of our family,

which is very frustrating when you're young.

♪ ♪

Newsman: This man is a United States senator,

and you are about to hear him say something

that very few senators have ever said before.

It was a very serious mistake on my part.

Safer: John McCain is talking about the role he played

in Charles Keating's attempt in 1987

to secure senatorial protection

against the federal government

taking over his Lincoln Savings and Loan.

John: Charles Keating was a very big builder.

He was probably at that time the biggest in Arizona.

He also was very patriotic,

and he took a liking to me,

and he helped me with my campaigns.

Woods: He was a big Arizona player.

He would support candidates and get behind candidates

and raise a lot of money.

And then he bought some savings and loans,

and that's where it all kind of went south on him.

Newsman: Examiners from the Federal Home Loan Bank

found what they described as a ticking time bomb.

The examiners also uncovered evidence

of improper bookkeeping and possible fraud.

Then the federal examiners were summoned

for an extraordinary meeting with five United States senators.

Each senator had gotten large campaign donations

from Keating, his family, and their associates.

Newsman 2: In the most explosive testimony yet,

Edwin Gray, the former chief regulator of the savings and loan industry,

told Banking Committee Chairman Henry Gonzalez

that four US senators

asked him to ease regulatory pressure

on troubled Lincoln Savings and Loan.

John still tells me when he walked in the door of that meeting

that had been arranged for this,

he knew that this was gonna be a problem.

I'm doing everything that I can to try and set the record straight,

again, admitting that I made mistakes and serious ones,

but I did not abuse my office,

and I think that's the key to this issue here.

You told me this was the political crisis of your life.

Absolutely. Tell me why it is.

Because my reputation is at stake here.

I've never had my ethics or my standards of conduct questioned.

Do you think you'll survive it?

I hope so.

♪ ♪

Newsman: Hearings begin this week

into what is already being called a major congressional scandal.

Newswoman: Never before have five senators been accused

of intervening with federal regulators to help a campaign contributor.

This case raises troubling questions about money,

power, and political influence in Washington.

Man: Proceed.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Once again, I'm glad to have

the opportunity to fully and publicly account

for my relationship with Charles Keating.

The hearings took place day in and day out.

And...

watching my husband being dressed down

by people, in my opinion, that couldn't hold a candle to him killed me.

I mean, it broke my heart.

Senator: Mr. McCain and his family took several flights

on ACC corporate aircraft and chartered aircraft.

Two, prompt reimbursement was made for only one of the flights.

Cindy: He is his own worst critic

and holds himself to a higher standard.

He really does. He tries his hardest to be the best

but do the most honorable thing.

And that was just a... it was a mess.

Senator: To me, that statement does not show an evidence of intent

to reimburse for family members.

Once again, I have nothing to gain personally by--

Cindy: It was not a good time for any of us.

I mean, I became ill. I-- I was medicating myself.

I mean, it was all-- it-- you know, it did a number on both of us.

Senator: Now let's talk a little bit about--

Senator 2: Would it be a proper time we take a recess?

Senator: Yes. Senator 2: Ten minute recess.

Biden: John would come over to my office in the Keating Five,

and we'd sit and talk, and I'd say, "John, look,

"you've just gotta-- you've just gotta--

"everybody's gonna understand and ta--

and just tough it out here, tough it out."

But it killed John.

First and foremost, it was a matter of honor.

The second thing it challenged

was his restlessness and his impatience.

It just dragged on.

He needed to get to a place where he could put it

in his rearview mirror, like he put every bad thing.

Senator: The committee concludes that Senator McCain exercised poor judgment

in intervening with the regulators.

Senator McCain has violated no law of the United States

or a specific rule of the United States Senate.

Therefore, the committee concludes that no further action

is warranted with respect to Senator McCain

on the matters investigated during the preliminary inquiry.

♪ ♪

John: I was found guilty of bad judgment.

That will always be a black mark on my record,

even if it was only using, quote, "bad judgment."

It was wrong.

Until we abolish soft money,

Americans will never have a government

that works as hard for them

as it does for special interests.

That is a sad but undeniable fact of contemporary politics.

♪ ♪

Cindy: I think campaign finance reform

was a result of what happened at the Keating Five.

He saw a system that was really corrupt

and really needed to be reformed.

The process must begin.

Campaign finance reform has contributed

to the level of cynicism that is prevalent

in the American citizens today.

Lieberman: He stepped out, he stepped away

from most members of his party.

He formed a bipartisan coalition

with Russ Feingold and others, and he fought like hell for it.

I think we're doing the right thing

by trying to do this on a bipartisan basis,

because I think it's the only way

that campaign finance reform can occur.

Lieberman: The basic John McCain public image

is the tough guy, the maverick, the fighter,

or if necessary in your face,

maybe occasionally showing temper.

But visions of him as the stubborn,

immovable McCain

don't allow for the reality

that he's had a very productive career

as a US senator because he's not been stubborn and immovable.

Vicki Kennedy: Teddy loved working with John McCain.

He said they could sort of go at it

and then come back and still be friends,

and I think that was the essence of being able to really do a deal.

I think that's why they worked so well together.

They were all moving towards something that was good for the country,

and they might have a different way of getting there,

but if they talked it out, if they worked it out,

they could find that common ground to move things forward.

Biden: Around the mid-'90s, John and I used to sit

on the floor together when there's a debate.

I'd go over and sit next to John at his desk,

and he'd come over and sit next to me.

And some senator said, "Why are you sitting with McCain?"

I said, "He's my friend."

"Well, it doesn't look good."

I mean, my God.

He was always open to doing something that people didn't expect him to do,

like support campaign finance reform.

And McCain, I think, both for noble motives

and out of practical experience,

was always willing to break the mold he was in

if it was clearly the right thing to do...

and that's an invaluable commodity.

Brooks: Campaign finance reform made him very unpopular

in the conservative movement,

but I really don't think he cared.

He was driven by a sense

that something dishonorable was going on.

♪ ♪

He was really a missile that aimed itself at anything dishonorable,

and wherever he saw a stain,

he was driven to go after it.

Richard Nixon: Within 60 days, all Americans held prisoners of war will be released.

There will be the fullest possible accounting

for all of those who are missing in action.

I would like to say a word to the families

of our prisoners of war and the missing in action.

Nothing means more to me at this moment

than the fact that your long vigil

is coming to an end.

We're here because almost 19 years

after the formal termination of the war in Vietnam,

the POW-MIA issue still haunts America.

The task of this committee, therefore,

over the next year is clear.

It is to prove to all concerned that we will leave no stone unturned,

no question unasked, no effort unexplored

in order to try to resolve this issue.

Some might ask what will make--

John: John Kerry and I were in strong disagreement

concerning his activities against the war,

but I also respect the fact that John Kerry served.

♪ ♪

Kerry: John, in his spirit of trying to reach out

and put history in its proper place,

became friendly with a lot of people

who had opposed the war.

And we began a conversation, which ultimately led the two of us

to the same conclusion, which was,

the war still raged in too many hearts in our country,

we were not at peace with ourselves,

and both of us saw a strategic value

in trying to move to a different place

with respect to the relationship with Vietnam.

We agreed to work to get a full accounting

of those who were missing in action

and normalize relations between our two countries.

Kerry: There are too many families who,

for whatever reasons, are not getting the answers

that they deserve to have, not being treated the way

that they deserve to be treated, and that has to change.

Kerry: John and I understood that whatever strategic interests

we might have had in moving to a different relationship with Vietnam

would never be possible unless those questions were put to rest.

Newsman: Tonight, the US government has new information from Vietnam

that could help determine what became of many of these Americans.

Mr. Minister.

Newsman: The promise to come clean was made over the weekend in Hanoi

to retired General John Vessey and Senator John McCain.

Vessey and McCain returned from Hanoi last night

carrying an inventory of documents and photos

hidden away in the Vietnamese archives.

The Vietnamese provided us with a lot of photographs.

They were kind enough to give me several that, uh,

that I had not seen before, which I'd like to show you.

I'm much better-looking in those days than I am today.

And I want to stress what General Vessey said just again,

this is a beginning, a beginning.

There was this theory that the Vietnamese were holding

thousands of Americans still prisoner,

which McCain intellectually understood,

informed by experience, was highly implausible.

May I say, Mr. Chairman, that Mrs. Alfond's remarks

in her written statement are far stronger than what she just alleged.

Quote: "The recent four thousand, eight hundred photograph fiasco

is yet another example of committee duplicity."

I'd like you to tell that to some of the families

who have finally had this nightmare ended, Mrs. Alfond.

I've been speaking to them, sir. I've been speaking to them.

John: No, I've been talking to them, and they are grateful

and they are happy, and this is a-- this is a--

in the view of most experts, a significant breakthrough.

Kerry: What we did was put together

the single most exhaustive,

most transparent accounting for missing in war

ever performed by any country in the world.

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!

Newsman: Is there any evidence that there are any more alive missing?

There's still no evidence that would prove that there's Americans alive.

We're getting down to not a whole lot of cases

that are still unresolved, and we're continuing

to get cooperation from the Vietnamese.

Senator Kerry and I are gonna meet

with the president next week,

and we'll give him a report,

and he'll have to make up his mind from there.

Newsman: Senator. Senator, come over and talk to us.

Salter: In the last meeting

about the normalization of relations with Vietnam,

they still hadn't convinced Clinton to do it.

Kerry made the informed, logical, compelling case for it,

and then Clinton turned to McCain--

and I'll always remember it--

he just said, "Mr. President,

"I am tired of looking back at Vietnam,

"and I am tired of my country looking back.

"It's time to move forward,

"and if you normalize relations,

I will defend you every step of the way."

Today, I am announcing

the normalization of diplomatic relationships with Vietnam.

Bill Clinton: I realized, because I hadn't served in the military

and because I had openly opposed the Vietnam War,

I had to have the support of American veterans.

If McCain hadn't been there and been willing to step up,

I don't think any of it would've happened.

Let this moment, in the words of the Scripture,

be a time to heal and a time to build.

Thank you all, and God bless America.

♪ ♪

Sidney: My dad called me and told me,

"I'm gonna run for president,

and I wanted to give you the heads-up,"

and I was like, "Great,"

and inside, I'm like, "Oh no."

It's just...

I was very happy for him, and I think you could kind of see it coming

that that was gonna be his calling.

America doesn't owe me anything.

I am the son and grandsons of Navy admirals

and I was born into America's service.

It wasn't until I was deprived of her company

that I fell in love with America,

and it has been my honor to serve her

and her great cause, freedom.

It is because I owe America more than she has ever owed me

that I am a candidate for president of the United States.

♪ ♪

Rick Davis: In the run-up to the 2000 campaign,

there were lots of candidates.

And, of course, the one person

that sort of stood overtop

of that entire field,

you know, was George W. Bush.

John: We started out a decided underdog.

We thought that the best way to campaign

was to have total access to the media.

That's what the Straight Talk Express was all about.

♪ ♪

Davis: He wanted to do politics a different way.

We had modeled the campaign on being completely transparent,

and every day, 18 hours a day,

John McCain would be surrounded by the press corps

that was covering him, in the back of that bus,

holding forth on every issue that was on the table.

John: I'm against gun registration, and so--

Newswoman: Why? Because I don't think it's necessary in America,

but I-- obviously we would-- as I've said before,

we would be glad to examine proposals but--

So the bus was this freewheeling exercise in public discourse.

Let's do a lightning round. Okay.

Your favorite book.

"For Whom the Bell Tolls."

Favorite movie? "Viva Zapata!"

Charlton Heston? Marlon Brando.

Close enough.

Senator, how do you reconcile the fact

that you were one of the most vocal critics of pork barrel politics,

and yet while you were chairman of the Commerce Committee,

that committee set a record for unauthorized appropriations?

I'm just kidding!

I just-- no, I don't even know what that means.

The 2000 presidential campaign was the most fun

I've ever had as a political journalist.

Everything was transparent,

so we got to see absolutely everything.

All right, now-- now, America, what's--

what's secret plan number Z27?

Brooks: In those rides, the way to get McCain talking

was to find somebody he didn't like and just remind him of it.

And so you'd get in at like 6:00 in the morning and say,

"Senator, did you see what Rick Santorum said?"

And he'd go, "Ah, fucking asshole."

And then he'd go off, and his tooth--

his mouth would just go, and he'd talk and talk and talk,

and who he didn't like, who he did like, and it was great.

♪ ♪

Reporter: Yes, he says the odds are long,

but to someone who survived years of torture

and solitary confinement, nothing seems impossible.

Some people have asked why I'm running for President of the United States.

My wife says it's because I received

several sharp blows to the head while I was in prison.

Reporter 2: Is there a whispering campaign against John McCain?

"Absolutely not," say the senators accused of spreading rumors

that the Arizona senator returned from captivity in Vietnam

too unstable to be trusted with the presidency.

But McCain's friend, Democrat John Kerry,

says he's heard the whispers.

Tacky, tawdry, petty.

It was very important for us to stand up for the truth,

for the reality of what was being done here.

I picked up the phone and called him.

I said, "John, where do you want me?

"Where do you want me? I will testify to your character

before anyone in the country. You just tell me, pal."

And he started laughing, he said,

"Well, you'd hurt me more than you'd help, Joe, by testifying."

John: It was a failing of mine that I was short-tempered.

Part of it is, I am in some ways a perfectionist,

and I want people around me to be that way,

and so when they're not, I get angry about it.

Why would you say something that stupid?

Why would you ask something that dumb?

Meghan: I remember one time going to his office

and walking in, and he was screaming at someone,

And I was like, "Oh my God, Dad talks like that?"

♪ ♪

Graham: He can be an asshole one minute

and your dearest friend the next,

but the thing about him is that you know he loves you.

Reporter: McCain thinks the release of his medical records

has put to rest speculation that his years in prison camp made him unstable.

In fact, some voters like hearing about his explosive temper.

I'd rather have a man as the commander-in-chief

with a little bit of temper than a wuss in office.

Bush! Bush!

I was kind of the presumptive heir

to the-- to the nomination.

George Bush! George Bush!

George W. Bush: I never ran scared I was gonna lose,

but I knew John would be a tough competitor.

Nobody was supposed beat George W. Bush,

but if you could actually beat him in a primary,

it could create enormous momentum.

So the whole idea was, just win in New Hampshire

and start the campaign basically from there.

♪ ♪

Salter: We had these town halls everywhere

where he took any questions, and they let him go

for as long as people wanted to ask him questions.

I will do as we have been doing all over the state of New Hampshire,

and that is to respond to your questions, comments,

and occasional insults that you might have.

New Hampshire's all about retail politics.

They want to see you, not just once but two or three times.

They want to touch you, they want to ask you questions,

and John's really good at that. And he likes it, he loves it.

I'd like to introduce our four children,

Meghan, Jack, Jimmy, and Bridgett McCain, who are here--

Meghan: I was a freshman in high school,

and I just remember that all of a sudden he was super famous.

Salter: Well, we were getting a lot of coverage,

and that was drawing crowds to the town halls,

and they were getting bigger and bigger and bigger spilling out into the streets,

and you could just sense something was happening.

Salter: The last event we did was in Bedford, New Hampshire,

and I went upstairs to give him the exit polls,

and he was in the bedroom rehearsing his speech.

I said, "I got the exit polls."

And he said, "What are they?"

And I said, "You're gonna win."

"Oh yeah, how much?" he goes.

"You're gonna clobber."

"Well, that has implications."

I said, "Yeah, like you could be President.

It has that implication."

Look at this.

I remember just that hotel going crazy--

just people everywhere crying and screaming on this elation,

'cause he-- you know, he whooped George Bush's ass.

My friends, in the weeks and months ahead,

I may say things you want to hear,

and I may say things you don't want to hear...

Man: Yeah! ...but you will always--

you will always hear the truth from me,

no matter what.

George W. Bush: Well, first of all, I was surprised.

I thought I was gonna whip him.

Of course, he thought he was gonna whip me.

It was a turning point for me,

because he outworked me,

and he had a better message for New Hampshire.

And so I told my team, "Look, let's view this as a blessing,

not a defeat." And for that I'm thankful,

because I needed to show people I could get off the mat.

John: Michael, wait a minute-- Michael, I would be glad to--

I would be glad to examine that-- that proposal but I'd also--

Davis: Everybody knew in the Bush campaign and the McCain campaign

that whoever came out of South Carolina was likely to be the nominee of the party.

I'm glad to be back down here.

I want you to know, loud and clear, we're going into battle.

New Hampshire's campaign was basically void of a lot of negative campaigning.

By the time we got to South Carolina, it was bare-knuckle politics.

Announcer: This is George Bush's ad promising America

he'd run a positive campaign.

Davis: We were running negative ads against George Bush.

George Bush was running negative ads

against John McCain.

Announcer 2: ...tax plan isn't true,

and McCain knows it.

It was the fight of the century.

Reporter: The war of words between George W. Bush and John McCain

is heating up even further as they battle for votes in South Carolina.

McCain is accusing the Bush campaign

of making misleading phone calls to voters.

Reporter 2: Governor George W. Bush still denies

that anyone in his campaign is making negative phone calls.

But McCain's supporters are now pointing to a conversation videotaped on Saturday

between Governor Bush and a supporter in South Carolina.

They claim it shows the Governor promising

more negative attacks on McCain.

Hey, y'all haven't even hit his soft spots.

I know. We're going to.

Mmm. Well, they need to be. Somebody does.

Exposed.

The phone calls went out all over South Carolina,

"Do you know the McCains have a black baby?"

Salter: John and Cindy had adopted

from one of Mother Teresa's orphanages in Bangladesh,

a baby daughter, a person of color.

And people were getting calls, saying

that she was his illegitimate daughter

from a relationship with an African-American prostitute.

♪ ♪

Meghan: I just remember it getting really dark really fast.

It was like-- the last time I was truly innocent

in politics was before that happened.

Reporter: In South Carolina, proof that negative campaigning works.

McCain support here has dropped 10 points in less than two weeks.

At a McCain town hall meeting Thursday,

Donna Duran described how her son idolized

the former Navy pilot and POW until the 14-year-old Boy Scout

answered a phone call allegedly from a Bush pollster.

But he was so upset when he came up the stairs and he said,

"Mom, someone told me that Senator McCain is a cheat

and a liar and a fraud." And he was almost in tears.

Are you saying that Governor Bush was responsible for that call?

I don't know who was responsible for it,

but I know that the attacks go on.

He accused me of dirty campaigning, and I pulled out

some flier that said, "Paid for by John McCain."

This is a-- this is an attack piece.

That is not by my campaign.

Well, it says, "Paid for by John McCain."

That is not by my campaign.

McCain confirmed, John. That is not by my campaign.

Well, then somebody's putting stuff out.

Davis: It was getting bad. And he says,

"Look, I want to take off all the negative campaign ads.

I want to go positive." I said, "Well, what do you mean,

"take off negative campaign ads?

"We're in a slugfest of our lives.

This is, you know, you know, a battle to the death."

And he said, "Nope."

He said, "I want to run a campaign

"that my daughter would be proud of.

"I'd rather lose an honorable campaign

than win a dishonorable one."

Reporter: Senator McCain and Governor Bush are running neck and neck

in South Carolina with the primary there now only eight days away.

On the most divisive issue in South Carolina,

the Confederate flag atop the state capitol,

both candidates have staked out a position of calculated ambiguity.

♪ ♪

Davis: When you roll into a state like South Carolina,

you're gonna get asked every single day by state reporters,

"What do you think about the issue

of taking down the Confederate flag?"

And so we worked out some wording.

We said, "Well, it's a state issue.

It's not what we want to get into."

You know, "It was a symbol of heritage."

When we sat down and talked to John McCain about it,

he's like, you know, "That's bullshit."

He argued with it, was angry about it,

had crumpled it up at one point and stuffed it in his pocket.

Reporter: Senator, can you clarify one thing? Your position

on the Confederate flag flying over the South.

I've already done that. I've already done that.

Can you clarify that position? I've already done it.

Can you tell me what that is?

Yes, I'll give you the piece of paper.

Reporter 2: Senator, one moment. Could I get you--

oh, excuse me. Let's stop right here.

"I understand both sides.

"Some view it as a symbol of slavery,

"others view it as a symbol of heritage.

Personally, I see the battle flag as a symbol of heritage."

Davis: It was one of the very few instances

where we didn't follow our instincts

rather than following the polling data.

The only bad period of the campaign

is when we did something out of political expediency

rather than just telling the truth and-- and we lost.

Anne Thompson: John McCain, the maverick

who rocked the Republican establishment

with dramatic wins in New Hampshire and Michigan,

today chose an equally dramatic setting to halt his campaign.

I am no longer an active candidate

for my party's nomination for President.

Thompson: McCain says he will now go back to the Senate,

his presidential bus ride over,

but he vows his crusade will go on.

♪ ♪

I would say he's one of the few politicians I've ever covered

who has an authentic inner voice.

Even when he does things that are not great...

embracing the Confederate flag while running for-- in South Carolina,

he knows he's not doing something great.

Most politicians I cover,

they rationalize it to themselves,

and so there's no honest interior voice there.

McCain has never been able to lie to himself very well.

And so even when he compromises for political reasons,

he knows he's compromising some piece of himself,

and I think there's some piece of himself that feels pretty bad about it.

♪ ♪

John: I promised to tell the truth always

about my intentions and my beliefs.

I fell short of that standard in South Carolina.

And I want to tell the people of South Carolina

and all Americans that I sincerely regret

breaking my promise to always tell you the truth.

I was asked during the course of my campaign

how I personally felt about the Confederate battle flag

that flies above your state capitol.

I answered that it was an issue

that the people of South Carolina could decide for themselves.

I did not answer the question I was asked,

"How did I personally feel about the flag?"

My ancestors fought for the Confederacy,

and I'm sure that many, maybe all of them,

fought with courage and with faith

that they were serving a cause greater than themselves.

But I don't believe their service, however distinguished,

needs to be commemorated in a way that offends,

that deeply hurts people whose ancestors

were once denied their freedom by my ancestors.

That, my friends, is how I personally feel

about the Confederate battle flag.

I should have done this earlier.

I did not do so for one reason alone:

I feared that if I answered honestly,

I could not win the South Carolina primary.

So I chose to compromise my principles.

I broke my promise to always tell the truth.

I am not so naive to believe that politics

must never involve compromise,

but I was raised to know

that I should never sacrifice a principle for personal ambition.

Brooks: He grew up with a moral code,

and it was a code that preached honor, glory,

sacrifice for country.

We all have the one virtue we aspire to most.

For McCain, it's courage,

and courage comes in many forms:

the kind he displayed in Vietnam,

but also intellectual courage

and moral courage in politics.

Davis: Even though we lost in 2000,

he was able to go back to the United States Senate

a much more powerful individual

than when he started that campaign.

The best cure for losing is get to work, get busy.

Man: McCain.

John: That's the only way to get over this.

Yeah, we had some fun.

Yeah, how you doing?

So I redoubled my efforts and my energies.

Reporter: The battle over campaign finance reform

is poised to play out on the Senate floor this week,

but it's also shaping up to be a fight between George Bush

and his formal rival, Senator John McCain.

Chances are better than they've ever been before.

Two years ago, no one gave this a chance.

Every special interest in this town that uses money

in order to buy access and influence

is apoplectic about the prospect of losing that influence.

Tom Brokaw: And a major victory tonight for Senator John McCain

in his crusade to clean up campaign financing.

On this vote, the yeas are 59,

the nays are 41, and the bill as amended is passed.

The fact that--

When you work on a senate staff and you've had a big accomplishment

or something-- say McCain-Feingold passes,

the next day it's done.

You know, "What else? What else?" is what he's always saying to you.

"What else? What else can-- what do you-- tell me-- tell me something else."

He's wired differently from other people that way.

Hillary Clinton: He is the perpetual-motion machine,

and traveling with him requires you to keep up with him.

When he said, "I want to go and study climate change,

I want to see for myself what I'm reading about,"

I jumped on board.

And when we were on these trips together, he really zeroed in.

"Well, how did this happen? Tell me a specific story.

What did that mean to you?" And he'd listen to people.

You read in the paper, "500 protesters killed in Blank-stan."

John says, "Let's go."

And we met with dissidents and John spoke up on their behalf,

and thank God we got out of there.

He believes that human rights are the birthright of all,

and-- and we ought to speak up for people that are being deprived them.

♪ ♪

I have a daughter in the Peace Corps in Cambodia,

and a Cambodian said, "We need more influence from the United States.

You know, John McCain, he'll try to help us."

There's just some-- some random guy...

some random guy in a rural province in a third world country...

that know-- knows who he is...

knows he'll fight for him.

John: Okay, guys, here we go.

Reporter: US Senator John McCain has returned

to the infamous prison known as the "Hanoi Hilton."

I think a light bulb had hung down

and a loudspeaker in every cell.

Reporter: McCain was accompanied by his son Jack.

He was diplomatic about what he'd seen.

It hasn't upset me because my dad's never said

anything negative towards this thing.

It's just... where he was kept.

Reporter 2: Do-- do you think you could've stay-- stayed there like he did?

Uh... I don't think so.

He's a lot stronger of a person than I am.

Cindy: Oh, that's good, okay.

Jack: If you ask him about his experiences, he will tell you

but it's a short, frank-- "Okay, well, what was it like?"

"Well, it wasn't great." "What did they feed you?"

"Well, they fed me cabbage soup."

Oh, it's nice to be back.

I've-- I've been here, again, on many occasions,

and it's always nice to check on the condition of my statue.

It's the only one I got.

Cindy: It was important for John

to show Jack what had happened,

'cause there are several lessons in that,

not just what happened to him...

...but what happened as a result of this occasionally mismanaged war.

♪ ♪

Not everything I base my views on is about Vietnam,

but one heck of a lot of it is.

With the experience of Vietnam,

I always have a template which to judge

whether we have a strategy for success.

Slow down! Regroup!

John: In both Iraq and Afghanistan,

the strategy was, "Don't lose."

If the strategy is "Don't lose,"

then you don't win.

♪ ♪

Salter: He is a passionate believer

in an exceptional America

that embodies its ideals,

protects them at home, and advances them abroad.

That, he thinks, is the greatest cause anyone can serve.

♪ ♪

Barack Obama: American leadership in the world John, I think, recognizes

is not just a matter of us having the biggest Air Force,

the mightiest ships, or the latest weaponry,

it has to do with people thinking

we're more likely than not to do the right thing.

♪ ♪

Reporter: This is a picture of an Iraqi prisoner of war,

and according to the US Army, Americans did this to him.

The Army confiscated some 60 pictures

of Iraqi prisoners being mistreated.

I'm gravely concerned that many Americans will have

the same impulses I did when I saw this picture,

and that's to turn away from 'em.

And we risk losing public support for this conflict.

As Americans turned away from the Vietnam War,

they may turn away from this one

unless this issue is quickly resolved

with full disclosure,

so that we can be assured and comforted

that something that we never believed could happen

will never happen again.

Biden: The Bush administration's judgment

about what constituted "appropriate treatment"

of a prisoner of war drove John over the edge.

What were the instructions to the guards?

That is what the... investigation...

that I've indicated has been undertaken is determining.

But, Mr. Secretary, that's a very simple,

straightforward question.

Well, the-- the--

as Chief of Staff of the Army can tell you, the guards are--

Biden: The thing John understands better than anyone else,

it's not only wrong, it also is damaging.

It goes to the essence of what it is to be an American.

We are a product of our values.

Hillary Clinton: He was just beside himself

with anger and frustration

and with the excuses being given

by military and civilian leaders.

He wants names, and he wants people to be held accountable,

because he wants to send a signal

this is not only unacceptable for what happened in Iraq,

this is always unacceptable.

And he was not shy about linking

that kind of outrageous, dehumanizing behavior

with the collapse and the repudiation of American values.

My friends, we face formidable challenges.

I'm not afraid of 'em. I'm prepared for them.

I'm not the youngest candidate,

but I am the most experienced!

I know how to fight, and I know how to make peace.

I know who I am and what I want to do.

Davis: He was, I think, legitimately the right man at the right time

to lead a nation in a post-9/11 environment.

9/11 had a profound impact not only on the country

and security and the subsequent wars

in Afghanistan and Iraq, but, also, on the American electorate.

Now, that was a wonderful opportunity for Senator McCain,

who had always been steeped in national security, foreign policy,

and I think the early polling demonstrated that.

He was significantly in the lead.

And of course at this time,

it was John McCain and Hillary Clinton,

that was the narrative of the 2008 campaign.

Little did we know, that narrative would be turned upside down.

Obama: I think John had great appeal among independents.

John obviously had the extraordinary biography.

He looked the part and had the experience

of not just 18 years in the Senate

but having run for President before.

Because you decided that change must come to Washington,

because you believe

that this year must be different than all the rest.

Because--

Obama: But we weren't really running against John McCain.

We were running for... a new direction for the country.

It's been my honor to welcome my friend...

John McCain as the nominee of the Republican Party.

I wish you all the best. Thank you.

I'm proud to be your friend. Thank you, sir.

John McCain's running for President,

the Iraq war's about as popular as a toothache,

and John says, "No, we can't leave. We've got to win."

And he stood behind President Bush,

the surge, adding more troops

at a time when everybody wanted to get out.

♪ ♪

Davis: If the 2000 campaign was known as freewheeling,

easy access to the media,

the 2008 campaign was completely the opposite.

Okay, pal. Okay, guys. We're having fun now.

John: I wanted to bring the media back on the bus.

I wanted them to be there and have the same dialogue we had before.

But they'd get on the bus,

and then it would be-- the challenge is:

Who can ask the worst "gotcha" question?

I remember I got on the bus one time

and one of the questions was,

"What do you think about the economy?"

And I said, "Well, you know, I'm working hard on the economy,

"because that hasn't always been my top priority,

armed services," et cetera, et cetera.

The next day in the "New York Times,"

"McCain said he's not familiar with the economy."

Reporter: What was the-- I'm-- So-- you know it.

You know it, so I don't know-- even know why you ask.

Well, I ask 'cause I just-- No, you do know it.

You do know it. No, I just read in the "Times" that in May of '04--

I don't know what you me-- read or heard of

and I don't know the circumstances.

Our coverage was annoying, 'cause we're trying to tell the truth as we see it.

it's never quite the truth as the candidate and the campaign sees it,

so it's just always gonna be annoying.

And I think if you react to it at-- with hostility,

you end up making it worse.

Reporter: Can you recall-- I don't know,

but it's well known that I had the conversation.

It was absolutely well known by everyone,

so do you have a question on another issue?

John: I think in 2008,

the environment was much more toxic

than it was in 2000.

♪ ♪

Salter: We were out there doing everything we could to sort of show,

"Hey, this is a different kind of Republican."

But... it was a change election,

the country was deeply unhappy,

and Barack Obama was the biggest change on offer...

on the face of it, on the face of it.

Kerry: I have known and been friends

with John McCain for almost 22 years.

To those who still believe in the myth

of a maverick instead of the reality of a politician,

I say let's compare

Senator McCain to candidate McCain.

Candidate McCain says that he would vote

against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote.

Are you kidding me, folks?

The stakes could not be higher,

because we do know what a Bush--

what a McCain administration would look like.

There's a slip.

♪ ♪

Davis: George Bush was the single least popular sitting president in history.

His approval rating was 25%,

and we were the third term of the Bush administration.

Obama: Just this morning,

Senator McCain said that, actually,

he and President Bush share a common philosophy.

That's right, Colorado.

I guess that was John McCain finally giving us

a little straight talk.

If Senator Obama wants to run against George Bush,

he should have run for President four years ago.

Davis: One of the things that was the key to us

was to be able to regain the mantle of "the maverick"...

and one of the most critical decisions that John McCain had to make

was who was going to be his running mate,

and we had a lot of good options-- at least we thought we did.

♪ ♪

When Rick Davis called me

and said John wanted to put me on the shortlist for VP,

honestly, my reaction was, "Are you kidding?"

Lieberman: I think John felt there would be a big message in this,

which is, this was gonna be a bipartisan ticket. Unprecedented.

You may ask, "What's a Democrat doing here

supporting a Republican for President?"

Bill McInturff: John wanted to pick Joe Lieberman.

If you're just sitting around the abstract,

that's sort of interesting, but I said, "Okay, here's--

"like, time-out. Time-out.

"Has anyone in this room actually read the Republican National Convention rules?

We're gonna have a blood bath on the convention floor just to nominate him."

He was unhappy with that point of view,

and resisted it, argued against it, and kept maintaining it,

but, hey, you can't start off the general campaign

with a convention that rejects your vice-presidential choice.

How are you gonna win in November?

♪ ♪

John: I should've said, "Look, we've got a hell of a campaign anyway.

Joe Lieberman is my best friend, we should take him."

But I was persuaded by my political advisors

that it would be harmful, and that was another mistake that I made.

My friends and fellow Americans,

I am very pleased and very privileged

to introduce to you the next Vice President of the United States...

...Governor Sarah Palin of the great state of Alaska.

Salter: She was not chosen

because of her position on any particular issue.

She had gotten into politics as a reformer.

It was rightly noted in Denver this week

that Hillary left 18 million cracks

in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America...

...but it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet,

and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.

♪ ♪

Meghan: I understand the choice.

It was a gamble, my dad is a gambler,

and he always rolls the dice.

I think they understood

that they had to fight change with change.

Davis: That Friday we had erased a 20-point margin

and for two weeks we had a campaign

that was winning the presidential election.

Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough

to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country?

Brooks: Politics is about serving,

and you can't serve if you don't win.

And he was behind.

It was a long shot, so he could justify the pick by saying,

"I had to Hail Mary pass. I had to try something."

And I don't think he could have known this at the time,

but in picking Sarah Palin, he basically took a disease

that was running through the Republican party--

not Palin herself, she's a normal human being--

but a disease that I'll call anti-intellectualism,

disrespect for facts,

and he put it right at the center of the party,

and so she was a chapter

in the rise of a cheap kind of populism.

Woman: Okay. I gotta ask you a question.

I do not believe in--

I can't trust Obama.

I got you. I have read about him,

and he's not-- he's not-- he's a...

He's an Arab. He is not--

No, ma'am. No, ma'am. No?

No, ma'am. No, ma'am. No, ma'am.

He's a-- he's a-- he's a decent family man, citizen,

that I just happen to have disagreements with-- on-- on fundamental issues,

and that's what this campaign is all about.

He's not. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir?

Obama: In an environment in which he was already having an uphill battle,

where the energy of the party

was being captured by his vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin,

and it was a much more red meat, populist, angry tone.

For John, in the middle of that, to say, "You know, hold on a second.

"We don't demonize each other.

We're all Americans, we're all on the same team,"

I thought was an indication of-- of who John fundamentally was.

First of all, I want to be President of the United States,

and obviously I do not want Senator Obama to be.

But I have to tell you-- I have to tell you,

he is a decent person

and a person that you do not have to be scared

as President of the United States.

Now, I-- I just-- now I just-- now look,

I-- I-- if I didn't think I wouldn't be one heck of a lot better president,

I wouldn't be running, okay? And that's the point.

That's-- that's the point.

♪ ♪

On September 16th, the entire campaign changed,

and that was the day the economy collapsed.

People were being thrown out of their jobs,

we were going through a global upheaval,

and we were running a presidential campaign right in the middle of it.

Salter: It was a terrible, toxic environment

for anybody that had an "R" next to their name.

Biden: John was carrying an 800-pound rock up a hill.

I mean, talk about "good year, bad year."

It was a bad year.

John: My friends, we have--

we have come to the end of a long journey.

The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.

A little while ago, I had the honor of calling

Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him--

please--

to congratulate him on being elected

the next president of the country that we both love.

Obama: He could not have been more gracious.

He could not have been more generous

about... wishing... my administration well.

John: It's natural tonight to feel some disappointment,

but tomorrow, we must move beyond it

and work together to get our country moving again. We fought--

Biden: It was gracious. It was futuristic.

It was about the country.

He was saying, "Come on now, come on.

"Everybody get in here, man. Help this man.

I'm gonna help him. I'm here. I'm here."

John: And I call on all Americans,

as I have often in this campaign,

to not despair of our present difficulties,

but to believe always in the promise and greatness of America,

because nothing is inevitable here.

Americans never quit. We never surrender.

We never hide from history. We make history.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Thank you all very much.

Sidney: My dad's calling is to make America a better place,

and my father is very conservative. I am not. I'm very liberal.

But we still managed to meet on some issues that--

that are important to both of us, so--

his heart is to make a better country.

His heart is what he believes in.

He's not doing this to be self-serving.

He's doing it because he's a true believer that the country needs him.

A lot of people tried to get me to say bad things about him during that time,

and I was like, "Are you crazy? I would never do that.

You don't know me or you wouldn't ask me."

I mean, I love the man.

I would never do anything to harm him in any way.

I'm very sad that he's going to be leaving us in the next year.

It's heartbreaking. It's not fair.

♪ ♪

Reporter: The office of Senator John McCain has announced tonight

that the Arizona Senator has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Reporter 2: The 80-year-old Republican from Arizona

has the same type of cancer that took the life of Senator Ted Kennedy.

Man: Median survival is somewhere between 14 and 15 months.

That said, people with a fighting attitude,

such as Senator McCain, tend to do better.

♪ ♪

I suspected something,

'cause there were just little things that were telling me things--

something wasn't right with him.

Well at least in the minds of this member,

there's a whole lot of questions remaining.

He was complaining of being very tired.

And he had be-- gotten wrapped around the axle

on a question to FBI-- then FBI Director Comey in a hearing.

I don't-- you're gonna have to help me out here.

In other words, we're complete in the investigation

of anything that former Secretary Clinton had to do

with the campaign is over, and we don't have to worry about it anymore?

With respect to secret-- I'm a little confused, Senator.

With respect to Senator Clinton, we investigated-- John: Yeah.

He had a physical coming up,

and we made sure that the schedule was such that it couldn't be pushed--

it couldn't be, 'cause we thought, "He needs to be looked at."

Davis: I'm in the middle of lunch,

and I get a call from Senator McCain.

He was in a car driving to Sedona...

and in a very nonchalant way, he says, "You know,

I had my checkup today,"

and he said, "They just called me and told me

to turn my car around and come back."

♪ ♪

Reporter: 80-year old Senator John McCain is resting comfortably at home

after surgeons successfully removed a small blood clot

above his left eye yesterday

at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix.

Now Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell says

the Senate will defer a vote on the healthcare bill

until Senator McCain returns.

Davis: He walked out of the hospital

the day after brain surgery, but he felt fine.

Now, did he feel fine or did he convince you that he felt fine?

Here's a guy who's gone through enormous physical challenges early in his life.

His knees are all busted up, but he out-walks everybody

who ever tries to do a campaign event with him.

You know, his shoulders don't function properly,

he can't comb his own hair,

but he gets by through the day looking just fine.

Salter: He called me, and he goes, "Look,

I want to give this speech, you know,

about the healthcare vote that's coming up."

I said, "Okay." I said, "What-- have-- have they got the results back?"

And he-- "Yeah, I got-- yeah, it's not-- not great."

The measure of the man... is...

how he responds under significant adversity.

And look at John. Look at him. I mean...

He's a...

He's a good friend.

Meghan: He said, "I have to go back for the healthcare bill."

And I said, "What could possibly happen if he gets on a plane?"

And the doctor said that he could, like, hemorrhage,

it can be dangerous if he still has air in his brain, and all this crazy stuff,

so I freaked out, and I screamed at everyone

that he couldn't get on the plane and that I didn't agree with it.

And my dad snapped at me and said,

"It's my life, and it's my choice."

John: I stand here today looking

a little worse for wear, I'm sure.

I've been a member of the United States Senate for 30 years.

My service here is the most important job I've had in my life.

Brooks: His public service has been so deeply entwined with friendships,

and a lot of the friendships have been with Democrats--

Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden.

And so out of that sense of friendship

came a belief that party was not everything,

and out of that came a direct experience

with crafting compromised legislation.

Let's trust each other. Let's return to regular order.

We've been spinning our wheels on too many important issues,

because we keep trying to find a way to win

without help from across the aisle.

That's an approach that's been employed by both sides,

mandating legislation from the top down

without any support from the other side

with all the parliamentary maneuvers that it requires.

We're getting nothing done, my friends.

We're getting nothing done.

He decries the partisanship,

the ideological rigidity,

the refusal to work together

and get something done for the people

who were good enough to send members of Congress to Congress.

We tried to do this by coming up with a proposal

behind closed doors

in consultation with the administration,

then springing it on skeptical members,

trying to convince them that it's better than nothing.

"That it's better than nothing"?

I think the vast majority of Republicans and Democrats know better.

They gotta start to stand up and...

as John would say, get back to regular order.

All "regular order" means is you introduce a bill,

you have hearings, you let the public see what's going on,

you show the press, you have witnesses,

you have amendments, and you make up your mind.

That's how democracy is supposed to work.

I will not vote for this bill as it is today.

Lieberman: I think the Republicans felt

that he had marshaled all his physical strength

to come back after the surgery

and that, naturally, he would vote

with the Republican party...

but they totally misread John.

He came back for a different reason.

He came back to do the right thing

and to send a message

to his colleagues and to the country.

John: I'll be here for a few days.

After that I'm going home for a while to treat my illness.

I have every intention of returning here

and giving many of you cause to regret

all the nice things you said about me.

And I hope to impress on you again

that it is an honor to serve the American people in your company.

Thank you, fellow Senators.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

It's hard not to be proud of John McCain, right?

He

he takes chances that nobody else takes,

both with his health-- you know, to get on a plane

and go to Washington to have an impact.

He takes chances with his message,

you know, to tell people what they probably need to hear

but don't ever want to hear.

And-- and he does it all because of his insatiable desire

to have an impact for the positive.

It's hard not to be respectful of that guy.

♪ ♪

John: I saw things that I didn't agree with...

that I thought was wrong.

The American people don't hold Washington

and the people who work there in very high esteem.

We need to make sure that we give the American people

what they deserve, and right now they're not getting it.

I know that this is a very vicious disease.

I greet every day with gratitude...

and I will continue to do everything that I can...

but I'm also very aware

that none of us live forever.

I'm confident and I'm happy

and I'm very grateful for the life

I've been able to lead...

and I greet the future with joy.

My grandfather loved his life

and he loved the fact that he had to leave.

My father, the same way.

I am the same way.

I love life, and I want to stay around forever,

but I also believe that there's a great honor that you can die with.

♪ ♪

And by the way, I reread Hemingway...

and Robert Jordan is still my hero.

And Robert Jordan's last thoughts were,

"It's been a great life

and well worth fighting for."

A hero is somebody who...

who does the right thing no matter what,

and I think John, throughout his life,

has been heroic so many times.

So we shouldn't be surprised

that, as he faces this at the end of his life,

that he's still heroic and that if he showed us how to live,

he's also--

he's also showing us how to die.

♪ ♪

John: I've had the good fortune

to spend 60 years in service to this wondrous land.

Its not been perfect service to be sure,

and there were probably times when the country

might have benefited a little less of my help.

But I've tried to deserve the privilege as best I can.

And I've been repaid a thousand times over with adventures,

with good company, and with the satisfaction

of serving something more important than myself,

of being a bit player in the extraordinary story of America,

and I am so grateful.

To fear the world we have organized

and led for three-quarters of a century,

to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe,

to refuse the obligations of international leadership

and our duty to remain the last best hope of Earth

for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism

cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems...

is as unpatriotic as an attachment

to any other tired dogma of the past

that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.

With all its suffering and danger,

the world still looks to the example

and leadership of America

to become another better place.

What greater cause could anyone ever serve?

♪ ♪