John McCain on Fatherhood

John McCain comes from a long line of military leaders tracing back to military officials serving under General George Washington. Both his grandfather and father were four-star admirals in the US Navy. His father was commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet during the Vietnam War.Because of his father's military career, he was often absent. John McCain has said that in naval families, "you are taught to consider their absence not as a deprivation, but as an honor."

But that didn't wash with McCain. "I resented my father's absences, interpreting them as a sign that he loved his work more than his children." (London Times Interview) But as he grew up and began his own family, he felt more empathy with his dad.

McCain also followed the family tradition and was educated at the U.S. Naval Academy and served as a fighter pilot in Vietnam. His father had been a submarine commander, so becoming a pilot was one way of distinguishing himself from his dad's own military track. In October of 1967, McCain's plane was shot down over Hanoi and he was taken as a prisoner of war. Given his father's prominence in the Vietnam era, he was known among his captors as "the Prince."

After graduating from the Academy, he married his first wife Carol. She had two sons, Doug and Andy, from a prior marriage, and McCain legally adopted them as his own. Together, he and Carol also had a daughter, Sidney. The children from this first family grew up largely while McCain was in Vietnam. They related how hard it was for their father to be a P.O.W., and how difficult it was to adjust when he returned. And with his physical limitations as the result of his war injuries and repeated torture in the "Hanoi Hilton," John's career in the military was essentially stopped at the rank of captain.

His marriage to Carol ended in divorce, and he subsequently married his current wife, Cindy in 1980. The divorce caused deep feelings of animosity with his children which took many years to heal. None of the children attended John and Cindy's wedding. But according to media reports, the children now feel close to them and to the children of the second marriage. (International Herald Tribune Article)

John and Cindy McCain have three children together. Son Jack is currently attending the U.S. Naval Academy. Jimmy is in the U.S. Marine Corps and stationed in Iraq. And daughter Meghan is actively involved in the Presidential campaign, and writes a blog about her experiences.

John and Cindy also adopted a daughter, Bridget, from Bangladesh. McCain shares the following about that experience.

"[Cindy] was in Bangladesh and she and some of the medical personnel visited Mother Theresa's orphanage to try and help the children there. There were two little baby girls there. One had a heart problem the other a severe cleft palate. Cindy was very concerned about their ability to survive and their need for medical treatment, so she decided to bring them here for medical treatment. She fell in love with both of them. We decided to adopt Bridget. Two close friends of ours, adopted Mickey, the other child." (DadMag interview)

McCain is a member of the U.S. Senate Task Force on Responsible Fatherhood sponsored by the National Fatherhood Initiative.

John McCain has not publicly taken a position of father's rights issues, feeling that they are best addressed in the states and in the courts. In response to questions in town hall meetings and other settings, McCain has made it clear that he has no particular interest in the father's rights debate.

His campaign website offers this view:

As with most issues vital to the preservation and health of civil society, the basic responsibility for preserving and strengthening the family should reside at the level of government closest to the people. In their wisdom, the Founding Fathers reserved for the States the authority and responsibility to protect and strengthen the vital institutions of our civil society. They did so to ensure that the voices of America's families could not be ignored by an indifferent national government or suffocated through filibusters and clever legislative maneuvering in Congress.

McCain on Family Issues:

John McCain also supported flex-time scheduling, comp-time, and unpaid leave for family emergencies, and has been a big supporter of federal tax incentives to help families save for college. McCain has also been very active on child protection issues like reducing violence in the media, Internet protection, and music and video game labeling.

McCain on Adoption:

From his campaign website: As president, motivated by his personal experience, John McCain will seek ways to promote adoption as a first option for women struggling with a crisis pregnancy. In the past, he cosponsored legislation to prohibit discrimination against families with adopted children, to provide adoption education, and to permit tax deductions for qualified adoption expenses, as well as to remove barriers to interracial and inter-ethnic adoptions.