'Real hero': Crowds brave Arizona heat to honor John McCain

[Machiavelli]

Melissa Daniels and Terry Tang
AP via Yahoo
August 29, 2018

PHOENIX (AP) — Hundreds of people paid their respects to U.S. Sen. John McCain on Wednesday, standing for hours in the broiling Arizona sun before filing past the flag-draped casket that his tearful wife, Cindy, lovingly pressed her face against after a ceremony for the former North Vietnam prisoner of war who represented Arizona for decades.

Former military members in shorts and T-shirts stopped and saluted the closed casket flanked by National Guard members at the Arizona Capitol. Families will small children came by, and several people placed their hand over their heart or bowed, including Vietnamese residents who traveled from Southern California.

The private service held earlier marked the first appearance of McCain's family since the Republican senator died Saturday of brain cancer. It also began two days of official mourning in Arizona before his body is taken to Washington for a viewing at the U.S. Capitol, followed by burial at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

At the emotional private ceremony in Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey remembered McCain as an internationally known figure and "Arizona's favorite adopted son" on what would have been his 82nd birthday. He was born in the Panama Canal Zone while his father, who went on to become an admiral, served in the military.

"Imagining an Arizona without John McCain is like picturing Arizona without the Grand Canyon," Ducey said.

More

[240B]

I'm sure the crowd was 90% Democrats and 10% NeverTrump Republicans. Of course the Democrats are devastated to lose their champion anti-Trump crusader. McCain was certainly not a Republican. But while he was much more Democrat than anything else, he was not a die-hard Democrat. He was an equal opportunity backstabber.

McCain was in it for McCain. Nothing more and nothing less than that. Whatever he felt benefited his petty vendettas or pumped his ego, that is what he was for. Regardless of which political side it fell on.

[Frank Cannon]

Here's a picture of the mourners.....